Günther Schack (12 November 1917 – 14 June 2003) is usually credited with 174 victories in 780 combat missions, all claimed in the East.
Born in Bartenstein in Eastern Prussia, Schack joined the Luftwaffe in 1939. He had previously applied to join the Luftwaffe in 1937 but was declared 'unfit' following an earlier sports injury that had left one leg 3 cm shorter than the other. He reapplied on the invasion of Poland as " I did not feel that I was a cripple.." This time he was accepted and following flight training, he was posted to 7./JG 51 in March 1941, based in St. Omer (northern France) flying the Bf 109 F.
".. my training lasted until February 1941. When I arrived at Jagdgeschwader Mölders on the Kanalfront I had never taken off from a concrete runway and only ever got airborne directly into the wind. With just a little side (cross) wind I veered sharply off the runway to the left. As I cut the throttle, the port gear left broke off and I spun around onto the port wing ..my first ground-loop..('Ringelpietz'). I was a 'young buck' and Gefreiter and this happened twice. My career as a fighter pilot was almost over before it had begun. Instead of 'washing me out' they sent me back home - 'um starten zu lernen..' - to learn how to take off... of course 'das Ausbrechen' was not just down to 'cross winds' but the prop torque which we had not been told how to manage with the rudder. ..[..] As a 'Bruchpilot' I was tasked with lots of ferry flights and only occasionally flew sorties during the period when it was relatively easy to rack up victories. Then I flew around 200 sorties as a Rottenflieger and had very little chance to shoot down enemy aircraft..."
Schack claimed his first victory the day after the launch of Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. On 23 July 1941 his Gruppe was at Orsha, approximately 100 kilometres southwest of Smolensk, and flew combat air patrols along the Dnieper in the area between Mogilev and Zhlobin. That day he shot down a Tupolev SB bomber northeast of Babruysk and received the Iron Cross 2nd Class (Eisernes Kreuz zweiter Klasse) on 10 August 1941.
In October 1941, German forces launched the strategic offensive named Operation Typhoon which resulted in the Battle of Moscow. Schack claimed his second victory during this offensive when he shot down a Petlyakov Pe-2 bomber northeast of Yukhnov. On 23 October, he bailed out of his burning Bf 109 F-2 (WNr. 9189) following aerial combat in the vicinity of Kaluga. He achieved his third victory after 100 combat missions, on 10 November 1941. On 30 July 1942, he flew his 250th combat mission. That day, he also damaged Bf 109 F-2 (WNr. 8117) in a ground collision during a 'sharp start' (emergency takeoff) at Dugino in the Novoduginsky District. In October, III Gruppe predominantly flew combat air patrols in the vicinity of Rzhev where the German 9th Army was deployed.Schack claimed his 18th aerial victory on 15 October, an Ilyushin Il-2 ground attack aircraft shot down west of Bely.
" ..I preferred to go after the bombers since they were 'easier' to shoot down than fighters which rarely flew straight and level - and I wasn't a particularly good shot. This was the 'problem' I had with the Me 109 - the onboard armament was mounted centrally along the flight axis so to hit anything you had to be a decent shot. '...Ich war mit der 109 kein besonders guter Schutze..' Things changed decisively for me with the arrival of the Fw 190 at the front - you didn't necessarily have to have the enemy in the gun sight to hit them..."
During November 1942, III. Gruppe converted to the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 at Jesau, present-day Juschny, located southeast of Königsberg. Because Luftwaffe units were already stretched in the combat area of Army Group Center, fighting in the Battles of Rzhev, conversion was done in rotation, one Staffel at a time. The first units converted were the Gruppenstab (headquarters unit) and 7. Staffel while 8. and 9. Staffel were still engaged over the left flank of Army Group Center. In total, III. Gruppe received a complement of 41 Fw 190 A-2s and Fw 190 A-3s. On 16 December, the first elements of 7. Staffel arrived at Dugino. The next day, on his first mission on the Fw 190, Schack shot down five Soviet Pe-2 bombers in the vicinity of Sychyovka. Six weeks later, on 29 January 1943, Schack almost repeated this on a Junkers Ju 87 escort mission, when his Schwarm encountered eight Soviet Pe-2 crossing the German lines at Novosil. Within five minutes all eight were shot down including four by Schack.
" .. I'm not really what you would consider a typical Me 109 pilot as I scored most of my victories flying the Fw 190. I flew over 700 combat sorties, some 600 of these in the Me 109, so my 'kill' ratio in the Fw 190 was much better, 90 kills in around 100 sorties.. by the time the Fw 190 arrived in the East I had acquired a lot of experience, I knew the trade craft of war better...on two occasions I downed four bombers in one sortie with the Fw 190..."
(to be continued..)
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