Gerhard Kurt Erwin Schaschke (1911 - 1941). German air ace during WWII. He was born in Dresden.
His favorite tactic was to have a few Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters flying over a Soviet airbase as bait. When the enemy scrambled their planes, he slipped in behind them at treetop level and shot them down on takeoff. In just six weeks, his score rose to about 20 kills (the sources differ on the final number, but a photo of the tail fin shows 20 kill marks prior to his last fight), earning him the Iron Cross, 1st class. He also sunk three ships. Schaschke’s luck ran out on 4 August 1941. He got into a fight with LaGG-3s of the 145th Fighter Aviation Regiment southeast of Murmansk, reportedly shooting down two enemy aircraft before himself being shot down by captain Aleksandr Zaytsev.
In 1937 he had married Isolde Lucia Wilhelmine Riedel.
- "SCHASCHKE, Gerhard (“Ryzhyy”, i.e.“carrots”, a reference to his red hair)." https://www.ww2.dk/Lw%20Offz%20-%20S-Z%20Apr%202021.pdf
- "Hauptmann Schaschke soon became well known and earned a special hatred among his adversaries. They even gave him a nickname, “Ryzhyy” (“Red-Hair,” or more correctly, “Carrots”)." https://ourairports.biz/?p=6124
No comments:
Post a Comment