based in North Africa. On 26 September, II. Gruppe flew its first combat missions in North Africa, a combat air patrol to Sollum. On 6 October 1941, 30 October and 28 November, he recorded three victories on each day. On 6 October Lieutenants Miller or Neville McGarr from 2 Squadron SAAF were one other those claims—Rödel downed one of them. On the latter date he downed Lieutenant Palm, Pilot Officer Muhart and Flying Officer Vos. Muhart was hospitalised with burns but the other pilots failed to return. Schulz's score-sheet is slightly unusual in that many of his victories can be positively identified with specific Allied pilots: On 30 November 1941, his 23rd and 24th victims were aces Sergeant Alan Cameron (6.5 victories) and Pilot Officer Neville Duke (27 victories). Cameron was rescued by Wing Commander Peter Jeffrey and flown to base. Schulz claimed his 30th victory on 15 December, when he shot down and killed Pilot Officer Geoffrey Ranger (5 victories) of No. 250 Squadron. This was followed by downing the Australian ace Nicky Barr on 11 January 1942. On 25 January 1942, Schulz claimed two Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters for his 34th and 35th victories. This put him two aerial victories ahead of Rödel and made him the top scorer in II./JG 27 at the time. On 8 February 1942, Schulz engaged 1 SAAF Hurricanes. He shot down Lieutenants Finney and Biden and then damaged Lieutenant Powell's aircraft in the tail. Each time Schulz descended to strafe and destroy the crash landed fighters from combat altitude of . On 15 February 1942, he took off on his own and chased after 20 aircraft of No. 94 and No. 112 Squadron that had just strafed his airfield at Martuba. He shot down five P-40 Kittyhawks in ten minutes, including the top 17-victory RAF ace Ernest "Imshi" Mason, making him an "ace-in-a-day". Schulz was credited with five, the last was Sergeant McQueen's P-40. McQueen was wounded but limped back to base—an Italian 6°Gruppo pilot also claimed a P-40 and may have attacked McQueen. The remaining pilots, Pilot Officer John Robert Vernall Marshall, Sergeant Charles Belcher, and Edward Weightman were killed. Schulz was given credit in part due to the witness report of a German tank commander. This put him on 44 victories, just behind the 48 of the then top-scorer in the Desert, Hans-Joachim Marseille. In recognition of this success, they