Focke-Wulf Fw.200. Part nine. The Condor during 1944 and 1945.

 

Kampfgeschwader 40 continued using the Hs.239 flying bomb on an irregular basis with a total of 19 Fw.200C-8 which was produced as a special sub-variant able of carrying the Hs.239. This was the last variant of the Condor to see service with the Luftwaffe as by late spring 1944, operations were radically reduced due to lack of fuel, spare parts and Allied aerial superiority. 

The staffeln of KG.40 which were still equipped with Condors were rebased to Norway and northern Germany and by late August 1944 KG.40 existed only on paper. In October it was resurrected for a brief period of time, but it wasn't equipped with Condors and was disbanded definitely in February 1945. From that date until the end of the war, the Condor was employed more as a transport than a patrol aircraft/bomber. 

Transportflieger Staffel Condor was an unit formed in October 1944 in Norway. This unit was, actually, 8./KG.40. Transportflieger Staffel 200, based at Hörsching, Austria, also employed some Condors which were surplus to first-line requirements. Adolf Hitler's personal transport unit, Fliegerstaffel des Führer kept operating the Condor until the end of the war. Anyway, little use was made of them during the last six months of the war. 

Some Fw.200 were found intact by the Allied at Flensburg, northern Germany at the end of the war, among them the personal machine of Heinrich Himmler. This city was the main base of Admiral Karl Dönitz who took over German government after Hitler's death in May 1945. 

Many were used by the Soviets and the British in the post-war period, but that's already been covered in previous posts.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_200_Condor

2. Osprey Publishing - Combat Aircraft 115 - Fw 200 Condor Units of World War II

3. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 13 - Focke-Wulf Fw.200 Condor