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

WALTER SCHUCK The crew o fKapitan A. Z. Velichina infront o f their Douclas A-20B o f 9 GMTAP/VVS SF at Vayenga-I in 1943. This crew perished in the air battle over the German convoy on 13 October 1943. planes in and out of the clouds. Probably due to the bad visibility, Schuck was credited with the destruction of two Airacobras, although 255 IAP recorded no loss in this engagement. Meanwhile, Starshiy Leytenant Ras- sadkin claimed two Me 109s for his 5th and 6th victories. When more Me 109s arrived to engage the Airaco­ bras, Schuck dived against the Il-2s, which now were leaving the AAA zone after completing their attack against the ships. Just above the waves, a fierce dog­ fight was raging between several Me 109s and Hurri­ canes. Disregarding the enemy fighters, Schuck attacked and destroyed an 11-2 at 500 metres altitude. Two more Il-2s were knocked down by Leutnant Franz Dorr. Then Schuck and his mates were attacked by the Soviet fighter escort - Hurricanes and Airacobras. Three minutes after he had shot down the 11-2, Schuck fired at a Soviet fighter - which he identified as an Airacobra - and saw it crash into the sea. After the air battle, the Germans counted no less than thirty aerial victories, while they had lost one own aircraft - with the pilot, 7./JG 5’s Oberfeldwebel Erich Beulich, listed as missing. Actual Soviet losses were severe enough - five Il-2s and four Hurricanes shot down and one 11-2 sustaining severe battledamage. The bad visibility appears to have caused both sides to overclaim quite heavily. The single German loss was multiplied into no less than thirteen victory claims by the Soviet airmen. 18 September saw a case of “underclaiming” when Schuck and two other Me 109 pilots escorted a couple of Me 110s to attack the Soviet airfield at Murmashi. 20 GIAP scrambled two Kittyhawks, but both were vio­ lently sent to the ground. One was destroyed and the other severely damaged. However, Schuck was only granted the confirmation of one victory. On Monday 20 September, Schuck encountered the torpedo-carrying “Bostons” for the first time. At 1400 hours that day, he took off with his Me 109 G-2, “Yel­ low 1”, equipped with a drop tank. Hauptmann Hans Schmidt, 9./JG 5’s Staffelkapitan, led the Schwarm towards the Kongs fiord, almost a hundred miles to the northwest. There they joined six Me 109s of 5./JG 5 and four Me 110s of 13.(Z)/JG 5 to escort a supply convoy. The weather was typical for the season, with a cloud ceiling of around one thousand feet, and a visibility of approximately ten miles. Suddenly a mass of enemy air­ craft emerged from the haze in the east. The Germans counted 12-15 “Bostons” and 20-25 Airacobras and P-40s. In reality, there were six A-20s from 9 GMTAP, and their escort - 255 IAP/VVS SF with six Airacobras, led by Starshiy Leytenant Petr Rassadkin, and 20 IAP/ VVS SF with six Yak-ls and six Yak-9s. This was 9 GMTAP’s first combat mission with the A-20s. Following heavy losses in the past spring, 9 GMTAP had a serious shortage of experienced air­ men. The unit’s most experienced pilot was Kapitan T