Rybin, Y. Luftwaffe ace Walter Schuck researched / Christer Bergstrom, Yuriy Rybin. - Sweden : [s. l.], 2019. - 190 p. : ill.

WALTER SCHUCK Four Fw 190s had been sent out against a Soviet tugboat which, escorted by two motor torpedo boats, attempted to reach the harbour of Ozerko from the Eina Bay. While the Focke Wulfs dived against their targets, the Me 109s fell down upon the Soviet fighter cover. Four Soviet fight­ ers - Hurricanes of 78 IAP/VVS SF - had been detected patrolling below the clouds over the ships. Schuck saw the four Soviet fighters split into two pairs, with the leading couple turning to face the Me 109s. While Kap­ itan Pronchenko, the leader of this pair of Hurricanes, attempted to get into position for a frontal attack against the Messerschmitts, Schuck bypassed him. By turning sharply, Schuck came into position behind Pronchenko’s wingman, Mladshiy Leytenant Petrenko, who lagged behind Pronchenko. Seconds later, Petrenko’s Hurricane fell like a blazing torch. More Soviet fighters appeared on the scene, and a wild dogfight raged, during which the aircraft dived in and out of the clouds. When the melee was over, the Germans had claimed three Soviet fighters shot down - two of them by Schuck. However, the fighter-bombers had missed their target, and a new attack immediately was prepared. An hour after the first mission, Schuck took off again to escort Fw 190s against the same vessels. Coming in from the Titovka area, the German aircraft - in total ten Me 109s and four Fw 190s - approached the ships. The Fw 190s flew at an altitude of 800 metres, with four Me 109s slightly higher and Schuck’s Rotte as the top cover. Above the Rybachiy Peninsula, six Hurricanes were seen patrolling to cover the ships. In reality, there were eight Hurricanes, all from the same 78 IAP/VVS SF which Schuck had encountered previously. While Schuck and Oberfeldwebel Heinz Beyer remained above as top cover, the two lower fighter Schwarme attacked. In that moment, four Airacobras of 2 GIAP/VVS SF appeared from below the clouds, attempting to attack the Messerschmitts. Crying out a warning over the radio, Schuck brought Beyer along to engage the new menace. In the first violent attack, Schuck and Beyer bagged one Airacobra each. 78 IAP’s Mladshiy Leytenant Pilipenko found him­ self attacked from above by two Me 109s. In panic, Pilipenko banked sharply to the left, almost colliding with his wingman, Mladshiy Leytenant Korolyov. This forced Korolyov to break off to the right, losing con­ tact with his leader. In the next moment, Korolyov had a Messerschmitt on his tail. The shells from the MG 151/20 tore into the Soviet plane, which caught fire and descended until it crashed into a hill near the Bay of Eina. Korolyov probably fell prey to Jockel Norz. It was Korolyov’s fifteenth combat mission. Meanwhile, the Airacobras were trying to reform after their first clash with Schuck and Beyer. They went into a turning climb, but one of the Airacobra pilots apparently missed this manoeuvre, for he continued to pursue the Messerschmitts below. Mladshiy Leytenant Daniil Budnik, of the 1st Eskadrilya of 2 GIAP/VVS SF, was quite experienced. This was his 81st operational flights, and he had previously fought seven air battles, and was credited with two victories. But on this occa­ sion, his luck had come to an end. As his burning Aira­ cobra crashed into the waves below, Walter Schuck had attained his 39th kill. Despite some successes in the German air attacks against the Soviet supply boats, the life line o f supplies to the Soviet forward positions could not be severed. The conditions would remain unfavourable for a German breakthrough attempt, and General Dietl - commanding German 20th Mountain Army - accordingly rejected the idea of an offensive. But all of this was far beyond the horizon of the young pilots at the airfield outside of Pet­ samo. The youthful joi de vivre of JG 5’s pilots would even not be brought down by the intense combat activity. The losses were not yet either particularly severe, at least they had not reached a level where the young men would start seriously counting their chances of surviving. Between the flight missions it was still often high life as usual. By this time, all of Schuck’s Jazz records had been played until nothing could be heard on them anymore. But that did not bother the young men much. The old and worn Jazz records were used as very early Frisbees, making the air at Petsamo’s aerodrome quite unsafe as they came buzzing in low-level flight. Each night Schuck would tune in on BBC London - not to hear forbidden enemy propaganda, but simply to listen to the great modern Jazz music which the BBC had started playing with such frequency since the arrival of the American troops in England. He also listened to Radio Stockholm - Mot- ala, where he discovered a fantastic female Jazz singer, Alice Babs. Her song “Swing it magistern” (“Swing it, teacher”), captured Schuck’s heart. On occasion the expressions ofmale youth went a bit too far. There was not exactly a surplus of women in the Far North, although some men had affairs with the Finn­ ish female auxiliary soldiers, Lottas, in Petsamo. How­ ever, the few women affairs in Petsamo often resulted in various disturbances. One evening when the Staffelkapitan was absent from Petsamo, the man who occupied the room next to Schuck’s in the barrack had a female visitor. It had been a day filled with combat activity, and Schuck badly needed some sleep. Unfortunately, loud noice from the action between man and woman in the next room kept the increasingly annoyed Schuck awake. Suddenly a shout was heard from next room: “Abschuss!” In the next moment, a sharp banging sound was heard. As something slammed into the wall just above Schuck’s head, he instinctively knew that it was a gun­ shot. His crazy neighbour was firing his pistol! While Schuck hurled himself onto the floor to take cover, more pistol shots slammed into the wall above his bed. Schuck T