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

WALTER SCHUCK as top cover. As Ikhayev’s Hurricane emerged above the cloud, Major Gunther Scholz’s Messerschmitt 109 dived down on him, shooting his Hurricane to pieces. When Schuck dived down for the third time, he could see no trace of any enemy aircraft. In fact, Ikhayev’s two wingmen had disappeared into the clouds, and the four-plane formation from 78 IAP was completely oblit­ erated. Oberleutnant Horst Berger and Leutnant Hans- Bodo Diepen shot down the last two 78 IAP Hurricanes. On 26 August, 9./JG 5 dealt another heavy strike against their enemy when the Staffel’s Leutnant Frie­ drich Schumann shot down and killed Mayor Pavel Panin, the 13-victory ace who commanded 255 IAP/ VVS SF. Panin was posthumously appointed a Hero of the Soviet Union. Hurricane equipped 78 IAP/VVS SF again suffered at the hands of Walter Schuck in the evening of 3 Sep­ tember 1943, when five of its pilots made a surprising strafing attack against Petsamo’s airfield. They caused no harm and left just as quickly as they had appeared. Schuck and five other pilots scrambled to pursue the insolent enemy. Near Lake Koshka they caught up with the Hurricanes and attacked. Schuck claimed his first victim at 1911 hours. Next he pursued a Hurricane which had become separated from the remainder. As 78 IAP’s Kapitan Vasiliy Prontshenko crashed his Hurricane onto the ground, Walter Schuck could file his 43rd aerial vic­ tory. Although the encounters with the old Lend Lease fighters always were one-sided, it was clear that the Soviets were seizing more and more of the initiative in the air, and Luftflotte 5 was pushed from the offensive over to the defensive. Since the past winter, the Soviet aviation in the Far North had gained an increasingly offensive character. The share of “offensive” aircraft (bombers, torpedo planes and attack aircraft) in the Soviet Northern Fleet increased from less than 20% in January 1943 to around 40% in September. The attack by 78 IAP’s Hurricanes against Petsamo’s airfield on 3 September was only a diversion. The main Soviet air operation meanwhile was carried out by eight Il-2s of 46 ShAP/VVS SF, escorted by twelve Yak-ls and Airacobras, against a German tanker in the Sylte fiord father northwest. The heavily armoured Ilyushin 11-2 Shturmovik ground-attack plane had been introduced in the Far North by the Soviet Army Aviation’s 17 GShAP, which had been the main unit in 258 SAD’s offensive against Petsamo’s airfield the past spring. From the summer of 1943, the Northern Fleet Aviation also deployed Il-2s, with 46 ShAP. This was a veteran unit which previously had served with the Black Sea Fleet. Armed with bombs or RS-82 rocket-projectiles, the 46 ShAP Shturmoviks were sent against German ships off Norway’s northern coast. The German supply convoys along the coastline now started to become systematically attacked by the Northern Fleet’s aircraft. The Il-4s, Hampdens and Pe-2s which previously had carried out such attacks with shifting success were supplemented by not only the 11-2, but also the Lend Lease Douglas A-20, modi­ fied to carry a torpedo. Known to the Germans as the “Boston” - deriving from the British designation to the earlier Douglas DB-7 models - this aircraft would become the German sailors’ nightmare in the Far North. The A-20 torpedo version was brought into battle in the Far North by 9 GMTAP, which was known to be one of Soviet Fleet’s the toughest air units. One of its pilots was posthumously elevated to a Hero of the Soviet Union for deliberately ramming a German ship. The whole air war in the Far North changed char­ acter. Earlier, the German convoys had been regularly protected only by antisubmarine seaplane patrols, and, on occasion, a few Me 110s. However, from the sum­ mer of 1943, direct fighter protection became necessary. Since this became the more important requirement, the long-range fighter bomber operations by the Me 110s suffered. The number of German air attacks against the Soviet Kirov railway - which ran from Murmansk to the south - dropped from twelve in July to only two in August 1943. But the Me 110s were no longer able to fend off the Soviet air attacks alone. This was due to the improved Soviet fighter escort. During the German offensive oper­ ations in the early summer of 1943, the airmen of Luft­ flotte 5 encountered Yak fighters (Yak-1 and Yak-7В, and soon also the latest Yak-9) with increasing fre­ quency. This was a cause of concern to the Germans, since these fighter types were more or less on pair with at least the Me 109 F, and signified a considerable leap forward compared with the older Lend Lease planes. As Schuck later recalled, the entrance of the Yak fighters in the air war in the Far North marked the end of JG 5’s superiority. On 14 September 1943, Schuck participated in a quite dramatic clash with 46 ShAP’s Shturmovik pilots. On that day the Germans attempted to use adverse weather conditions - a cloud ceiling of about 150 feet and thick fog in the coastal area - to bring a supply convoy into Varanger fiord. But the ships were detected by Soviet submarine ShCh-404, and 46 ShAP was instructed to attack. At six o’clock in the evening, Schuck and other Me 109 pilots of III./JG 5 were airborne to escort the convoy. Even though visibility had improved somewhat, and the cloud ceiling had risen to about 3,000 feet, the twelve Il-2s managed to sneak in for their attack before the German fighters were able to intervene. While the Shturmoviks flew straight into the AAA barrage from the German ships, the German fighters turned their attention towards the Soviet fighter escort, which was divided into three groups. Spotting three Airacobras to the right, just below the clouds, Schuck brought his wingman along to attack. The Airacobra formation’s leader, 255 IAP’s Starshiy Leytenant Petr Rassadkin, skilfully parried the attack, and a turning combat followed which brought the fighter T