Wolf-Dietrich Huy served with III./JG 77 from the outbreak of the war, and would remain with this unit. In 1941, he became one of the top scorers of this Gruppe. Nevertheless, on January 23, 1942, he was shot down by one of the best aces in Soviet 32 IAP/VVS-ChF, Starshiy Leytenant Mikhail Avdeyev. "Everything happened very quickly", recalls Huy. "Before I had time to place myself in a firing position, another Russian took a shot at me and hit my engine, which stopped abruptly and then started to emit smoke." On March 11, 1942, Huy achieved his thirty-eight victory, but was mistakenly shot down by German ground fire. He returned to his unit after recovering from his sustained wounds in August 1942, and shortly afterward, this unit was transferred to North Africa. During most of the air war over North Africa, the German fighter pilots took advantage of the inferior equipment in the fighter units of their enemy. The three most successful "desert aces, JG 27's Marseille, Schroer and Stahlschmidt scored 151, 61 and 59 victories respectively in 1942--most of them against Curtiss P-40s or Hurricanes. Things started to change when the Spitfires arrived in Egypt. From August 1942, the Spitfires of Nos. 145 and 601 Squadron were in regular activity over North Africa. On September 1, 1942, when Marseille scored 17 victories against Hurricanes and P-40s, the Spitfires of RAF 601 Squadron brought down Oberfeldwebel Herbert Krenz, an ace in JG 27 with 11 victories. One week later, Oberleutnant Hans-Arnold Stahlschmidt was killed in combat with the same Spitfires. On October 29, 601 Squadron's Pilot Officer Nicholls brought down yet another German ace, Hauptmann Wolf-Dietrich Huy of III./JG 77. Huy had recently arrived from the Eastern Front. In service with III./JG 77 since the outbreak of the war, he had amassed 40 aerial victories. He would spend the remainder of the war in British captivity.