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In the autumn of 1937 the German Air
Ministry decided it needed another fighter aircraft to supplement the
Messerschmitt Bf109. The design team was headed by Kurt Tank, the technical
director of Focke Wulf Flugzeugbau. The FW190 flew for the first time
on 1st June, 1939, but technical problems meant that it did not become fully
operational until July, 1941.
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The Focke-Wulf Fw190 Ranks with the Spitfire, Vought
F4U Corsair and North American P-51 Mustang as one of the best fighters
of World War II. The Focke-Wulf 190 was the work of a team of German
designers headed by the famous Kurt Tank. It was evolved basically as a
successor to the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter, although the official
view was that it would never be capable of matching the operational
prowess of the Bf 109. How wrong this proved! |
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The Focke Wulf 190 had a maximum speed of 389 mph (626 km)
and had a range of 497 miles (800 km). It was 29 ft 9 in (8.84 m) long with a
wingspan of 34 ft 5 in (10.50 m). The aircraft was armed with 4 machine-guns and
two 20 mm cannons.
The FW190 was superior to the
Messerschmitt Bf109
and for the rest of the Second World War was the best fighter plane in the
Luftwaffe. A total of 13,367 were built during the war. Even RAF pilots accepted
that because of its speed and ease of handling it outperformed the 'first
generation' Supermarine
Spitfires.
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Douglas Bader wrote about the
Focke-Wulf 190 in his autobiography, Fight for the Sky:
The Focke-Wulf 190 certainly gave the British a
shock. 1941 had ended with the Me 109 with the Spitfire (two cannons and
four machine-guns fighting it out on fairly even terms. Then, without
warning from British intelligence sources, this startling aeroplane
appeared in March 1942. A radial-engineered fighter, it out-climbed and
out-dived the Spitfire. Now for the first time the Germans were
out-flying our pilots. Instantly Rolls and Supermarine retaliated with
the Spitfire IXa which equalled the 190, followed at the spring of 1942
with the IXa which equalled the 190, followed at the end of 1942 with
the IXb which outflew it in all respects. The Spitfire was unchallenged
for the rest of the war, except in the last few months by the
Messerschmitt 262 jet which arrived too late to make a significant
contribution. |
Chief company designer Kurt Tank's Wurger (Butcher Bird)
was Germanys most potent piston-powered World War II fighter When the Fw-190A
entered combat in the summer of 1941. It immediately outclassed the Spitfire V,
which appeared sluggish and outdated by comparison. From that time on, in spite
of some heating problems with the
BMW 801 engine, the 190 kept even or ahead of
Allied fighters through successive versions.
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Winston Churchill, directive to his
military commanders, 6th March, 1941:
We must take the offensive against the U-boat and the
Focke-Wulf wherever we can and whenever we can. The U-boat at sea must
be hunted, the U-boat in the building yard or in the dock must be
bombed. The Focke-Wulf and other bombers employed against our shipping
must be attacked in the air and in their nests.
Hear
more Winston Churchill |
The Focke-Wulf was not only faster but its superior
handling and faster roll rate gave it an edge in the hands of even less
experienced pilots. Such sparkling performance combined with the 190's superior
armament presented Allied pilots with a real challenge until German pilot
training began to drop in quality. The standard Fw-190A was quickly modified to
perform a number of roles, particularly that of fighter-bomber in the F and G
versions. These deleted the outer 20 mm cannon in favor of various combinations
of bomb racks or cannon pods for the MK 103 30 mm cannon. Later versions of the
FW 190A featured up to six 20 mm cannon (FW 190A6R1); the A-6/R-6 had two 210 mm
(8.27 in) unguided rockets with which to attack US heavy bombers.
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After the war the British fighter
pilot Johnnie Johnson wrote about the merits of the Focke-Wulf 190:
The Focke-Wulf 190 was undoubtedly, the best German fighter. We were
puzzled by the unfamiliar silhouette, for these new German fighters
seemed to have squarer wingtips and more tapering fuselages than the
Messerschmitts we usually encountered. We saw that the new aircraft had
radial engines and a mixed armament of cannons and machine-guns, all
firing from wing positions.
Whatever these strange fighters were, they gave us a hard time of it.
They seemed to be faster in a zoom climb than the Me 109, and far more
stable in a vertical dive. They also turned better. The first time we
saw them we all had our work cut out to shake them off, and we lost
several pilots.
Back at our fighter base and encouraged by our enthusiastic Intelligence
Officers, we drew sketches and side views of this strange new aeroplane.
We were all agreed that it was superior to the Me 109f and completely
outclassed our Spitfire Vs. Our sketches disappeared into mysterious
Intelligence channels and we heard no more of the matter,. But from then
on, fighter pilots continually reported increasing numbers of these
outstanding fighters over northern France.
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Meanwhile, the Fw190 was also proving
a good fighter-bomber, carrying a reasonable bomb load or, in some cases, rocket
projectiles. The new war started by Hitler on the Eastern Front resulted in most
of the new production Fw-190s being thrown into the fighting against the
Russians. Others were needed equally urgently by Rommel in North Africa, to
combat the Western Desert Air Force and Allied ground forces who, by the latter
part of 1942, were pressing hard at Alamein.
The wide track landing gear assured ease of handling on
takeoff and landing, unlike the twitchy
Messerschmitt 109.
The
FW190 was also one
of the first fighters to feature a clear rear canopy, allowing pilots to keep an
excellent lookout for enemy fighters. |
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