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

WALTER SCHUCK Pilots o f III./JG 5 at Petsamo in the autumn o f 1943: From left: Unteroffizier Alfred Stolle, Leutnant Fritz Konig, Leutnant Werner Gayko, Hauptmann Hans Hermann Schmidt, Walter Schuck, Leutnant Horst Stephan, Feldwebel Oskar Timm, and Unteroffizier Hermann Amend. Anatoliy Ostrovskiy, who had performed eight torpedo attacks. But the unit commander, Mayor Filipp Kostkin, had made only one torpedo attack previously, and the remainder of the unit’s pilots were out on their very first torpedo operation. The A-20s split into two groups of three planes each. While three A-20s departed to the right - for an attack against the convoy from the north - three planes, led by Mayor Filipp Kostkin, went straight against the ships, flying just above the waves. But before these “Bostons” had time to attack the ships, Schuck had swooped down in position behind them. Schuck aimed at the torpedo bomber which flew on the right hand side and opened fire with his cannon and both machine guns at a dis­ tance of 250 metres. Hits could be seen in the torpedo bomber’s right engine, right wing and fuselage. Schuck had closed in to a distance of only 50 metres, when the A-20’s right wing suddenly tipped down, touched the water and violently was torn off. In the next second, the whole plane plunged into the water. Kapitan Kon­ stantin Yakovlev, deputy commander of 9 GMTAP’s 1st Eskadrilya, perished with his crew. Schuck broke off, and then returned for another attack against the two remaining “Bostons”, who by this time had jettisoned their torpedoes. He attacked one of them obliquely from the right. This was piloted by Leyt­ enant Boris Vasilyev, who was out on his very first tor­ pedo mission. Shooting from a distance of 150 metres, Schuck set the right engine of Vasilyev’s A-20 burning. Then he had closed in to a distance of only 30 metres, and had to break off. Coming in for a second attack obliquely from the left, Schuck opened up against the A-20’s left engine, which emitted thick, black smoke. The torpedo bomber descended and splashed into the water. Vasilyev and his crew - navigator Stepan Timofeyev and radio operator Serzhant V. N. Andrennko - had no chance to survive. There was no time to attack the last remaining bomber, flown by the regimental commander, Mayor Filipp Kostkin. Looking back, Schuck saw how an Aira­ cobra dived against his wingman, Unteroffizier Huber- tus Schubert. Leytenant Vasiliy Prostakov of 255 IAP’s 1st Eskadrilya apparently was so certain of his victory that he failed to notice how the leading Me 109 gave full speed and looped into position behind himself. Starshiy Leytenant Rassadkin saw the Me 109 open fire against Prostakov’s Airacobra, which started to smoke and then banked to the left. Schuck pursued the Airacobra as it tried to evade in a dive towards the northwest. His sec­ ond burst of fire hit the Soviet fighter at a distance of between 80 and 20 metres. Prostakov plunged to his grave in the Arctic Ocean. Meanwhile, the other German fighter pilots hacked 9 GMTAP’s formation to pieces. All but one of the six A-20s were shot down. Altough Mayor Kostkin was saved from Schuck’s attack, he was shot down and T

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUzNzYz