Daytime Zerstörer Aces

[Juha]

Hptm. Schaschke was famous for his tactic, he flew over a Soviet airfield with a high flying Bf 109, so for Soviets apparently alone, and when the Soviet fighters invariably took off to engage him, he dived on them just after they had taken off and shot them down and departed. IIRC here in Finland was understanding that for Soviets there was a strict order to engage observed enemy a/c. The order originated from very high, maybe from Stalin itself, so the commander at the airfield had no other option but to send the alarm patrol into the air. But that did not last long, the Russians placed patrols very high above the airfields and when on 4 August 1941 Schaschke arrived over Shongui airfield, the alarm patrol took off as usual and he dived into it, so the Soviet high cover dived into him. The 109 pilot probably acted more as a confirmer of Schaschke's claims than as a protector for him. See Evgeny Velichko's message 31st March 2011, 12:55 at http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/archiv...p?t-24102.html, as Evgeny says the text is very propagandist but the claim list shows that Schaschke's claims were very reliable.