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

WALTER SCHUCK killed just minutes afterward. With only five Airaco­ bras against fourteen German fighters, Starshiy Leyt­ enant Rassadkin was unable to protect the A-20s. As it turned out, the Yak pilots of 20 IAP/VVS SF had acted passively, out of fear that their aircraft would run out of fuel on such a long mission. (One of the Yak-ls actually ditched in the sea due to lack of fuel.) Still, one Me 109 was shot down, with Leutnant Manfred Stahlschmidt getting killed, and an Me 110 was badly shot up by 255 IAP’s Mladshiy Leytenant Vladimir Burmatov. At 1558 hours, Schuck and the three other pilots of 9./JG 5 made an intermediary landing at Svartnes aer­ odrome. Slightly more than an hour later, at 1715, they returned to Petsamo. There Schuck was informed that Jockel Norz, who in the meantime had been out on a free hunting mission over Soviet territory, had brought down a Pe-2. The Germans did not know it, but thus the Soviet Northern Fleet lost one of its best airmen. Mayor Semyon Lapshenkov, the commander of 29 BAP’s 1st Eskadrilya, barely survived getting shot down by Norz. He was sent to hospital, but his life could not be saved. This brave airman died early next morning. Credited with the sinking of one German destroyer and three transport ships on 57 combat missions, Lapshenkov was posthumously appointed a Hero of the Soviet Union on 31 May 1944. Following these Soviet offensive operations, the Germans decided to strike back. For two days, heavy rainfalls kept the aircraft grounded. Then, on 23 Sep­ tember, Luftflotte 5 despatched Fw 190 fighter-bomb- ers, Me 110s and Ju 88s against the storehouses in Kola, south of Murmansk. II. and III./JG 5 participated with a large group of Me 109s to ward off any Soviet fighter interceptions. Schuck participated, and the Messerschmitts fanned out over the area around Murmansk. Flying above the fairly low overcast, the Me 109s were able to strike down on several Soviet fighters which came climbing through the clouds singly or in groups of two or three. Oberfeldwebel Norz conducted the first attack, against two Kittyhawks which came out of the clouds in a steep climb. They evaded the first attack, but Norz came back and shot down the leader - 769 IAP’s Mladshiy Leyt­ enant Kalganov. During the next ten minutes, Norz and Oberfeldwebel Rudi Linz played hide and seek with numerous Soviet fighters which dived in and out of the clouds, eventually claiming two shot down each. The largest air combat took place near the hydro powerplant at Tuloma, southwest of Murmansk, where elements of II. and III./JG 5 clashed with ten Kittyhawks of 20 GIAP, led by Mayor Georgiy Gromov, and eight 19 GIAP Airacobras. When the German pilots afterward returned to base, they claimed to have knocked down five Airacobras and four P-40s. Soviet records show that four of 20 GIAP’s Kittyhawks indeed were shot up in this combat, but there are no reports of losses from 19 GIAP on this day. Either there are gaps in 19 GIAP’s files, or the low overcast which prevented the airmen from see­ ing any aircraft crash on the ground could explain possi­ bly exaggerated claims against Airacobras. Schuck was credited with the destruction of three P-40s and an Aira­ cobra. The Soviets reported the shooting down of an Me 109 - which can not be substantiated through German loss records. Since the tactic of massing Me 109s to cover strikes by a few fighter-bombers and Ju 88s proved to be so suc­ cessful, a similar operation was mounted already on the next day, 24 September. This time, the port of Polarnoye was selected as target. Schuck and most of III./JG 5 was in cockpit alert at eight in the morning, and at 0825 hours, when eight Ju 88s flew past Petsamo, the Messerschmitts and Focke Wulfs took off. Over twenty Me 109s of II. and III./JG 5, and Fw 190 fighter-bombers, accompanied the Ju 88s. The aircraft flew towards the southeast, and at around 0835 hours they crossed the frontlines at Litsa, with the fighters at an altitude o f4,500 metres, and the bombers fifteen hun­ dred metres below. Over Lake Vyyl, half-way between Murmansk and River Litsa, the Messerschmitts split from the Ju 88s and Fw 190s. While the bombers turned to the left, towards Polarnoye in the northeast, the Me 109s flew straight to the east. The purpose was to shield off the interception from the Soviet fighter bases in the east. The Soviet radar stations had detected the Germans already when they took off from Petsamo, and several fighter units were alerted. 20 GIAP, which had received fifteen brand new Lend Lease Kittyhawks to compensate for earlier losses, sent fourteen Kittyhawks into the sky from Murmashi. Podpolkovnik М. V. Semyanistyy, the unit commander, directed the aircraft from the ground via radio. Farther to the east, eight 19 GIAP Airacobras took off from Shonguy, and at Arktika aerodrome 122 IAD scrambled four Hurricanes and six Yak-7Bs from 767 IAP and 768 IAP. Just after they had turned east, the German fighter pilots spotted the first Soviet fighters - nine 20 GIAP Kittyhawks, divided into two groups at 2,000 and 2,500 metres altitude. Hauptmann Ehrler led the Mess­ erschmitts into a wide left turn, which placed them between the sun and the Soviets, and then the attack order was radioed. The Me 109s dived straight through the Kittyhawks. Several Soviet planes fell in flames. But Mayor Georgiy Gromov, who led the Soviet formation in the air, was no rookie. He had placed five other 20 GIAP Kittyhawks as top cover farther behind, at 2,800 metres altitude, and these now counter-attacked. Never­ theless, the outcome of the combat was decided by the marked inequality between the Curtiss P-40E and the Me 109 G-2. Ten Kittyhawks were shot down - of which nine were totally destroyed and one crashed with severe damage - and five of 20 GIAP’s pilots were killed. In addition to 20 GIAP’s bloodletting, 122 IAD/PVO lost three fighters during this mission. When the German pilots returned to their bases afterward, they counted T