Focke-Wulf Fw.200 Condor. Part Six. The Fw.200 in 1941

 

The amount of shipping losses attributed to the KG.40 and its Fw.200s was so high that British Intelligence was concerned that the Germans were using Air-to-Surface-Vessel (ASV) radars to find British ships. In order to confirm or not this fact, some pics of Fw.200 taking off were smuggled into Britain by Portuguese fishermen and an Irish WAAF. The results were that, by the time the photos were taken, the Condors had not yet, any on-board radar. However, in November 1941 the Germans managed to fit a captured ASV radar set, taken from a shot-down British airplane, in a Condor, months before the first German-made ASV radar became fully operational. 

The KG.40, however, had problems of their own as they lacked specialized aircraft which could outstand the strains of low-flights over the sea and the one that could, was only available in small numbers. That's why a Geschwader Stab was formed in late 1940 equipped initially with the Junkers Ju.88A-17 and later, in the winter of 1940-1941, with Heinkel He.111H-6 too. The Fw.200 was so precious that it was collected by the crews of the KG.40 as soon as they rolled out the factories. In spite of those problems, the KG.40 scored a total of 147.500 tons sunk between January and February 1941. 

From March 1941, the KG.40 was put under a new command, Fliegerführer Atlantik with base at Lorient, Brittany, France. This force was composed by German aircraft of every type, totalling 115 of them. 

The Allied introduced new counter-measures to defend against the Condor. Their merchant ships were armed with extra anti-air guns. These measures proved to be effective enough as the Condor could not withstand much combat damage or many stress-inducing maneuvers at low-level flight over the sea. By the summer 1941 the Allied had also introduced more threatening measures, like Hawker Hurricane fighters that could be catapulted from merchant ships. In fact, on 3rd August one Condor was shot down by a Hurricane that was launched from a Catapult Aircraft Merchantmen (CAM) ship. These counter-measures rose the amount of lost Condors during the late summer. Therefore, the KG.40 went from actively attacking convoys to radio their positions to the U-Boats. 

During 1941 the Fw.200C-2 and C-3 was developed with many improvements and sub-variants, among them revised engine nacelles, new engines and improvements to the fuselage that allowed the type to carry a bigger payload. It was also equipped with a new dorsal turret placed just aft the cockpit. 

Thanks to the increased output of Focke-Wulf's factory at Cottbus, a second Gruppe of KG.40 could be deployed as a Condor unit in December 1941. This was III./KG.40, as the II./KG.40 was reformed to operate other type of aircraft. Being fully equipped with Condors took until early 1942, but meanwhile, before the end of 1941, the KG.40 enjoyed, and suffered, notably successes and failures.

For instance, on 16th December, some Condors radioed the position of convoy HG-76 bound to Britain from Gibraltar. This convoy was attacked by U-Boats and the Condors were attacked by Grumman Wildcat fighters from the HMS Audacity escort carrier. Several Condors were lost this way, as it posed the biggest threat for future operations of the Fw.200, as the Allied looked upon closing the Atlantic Gap to both U-Boats and Fw.200s.

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

Focke-Wulf Fw.200 Condor. Part Five. The Fw.200 in 1940.

 

In order to adapt the Fw.200 for the Luftwaffe, a series of changes were made to the fuselage. Hardpoints were added to the wings, fuselage was extended and enlarged to create more space, fore and aft dorsal gun positions were added, a 'Bola' ventral gondola was included (which was very typical of the German bombers of the time) and a central bomb bay was incorporated in lieu of the additional long-range fuel tanks that the civilian version had. The extra weight of the military equipment made some Fw.200 to broke up on landing, problem that was never fully solved. 

In service with the Luftwaffe, the Fw.200 was initially used to support the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) under Fernaufklärungstaffel, an unit create for long-range patrols over the North Sea in November 1939. This unit was expanded on 18th April 1940 to form I. Gruppe of Kampfgeschwader 40, in order to undertake patrols over Norway when Germany launched Operation Weserübung Nord, the invasion of Denmark and Norway. 

During this campaign the Condor was used in the transport role too, additional role that would, virtually, perform during the whole war. The I./KG.40 was initially based at Cottbus, then at Aalborg and then Copenhagen from where they attacked Royal Navy ships off the coast of Namsos, in Norway and helped resupply the garrison at Narvik when the British forces counter-attacked. 

Given the small amount of Fw.200 available, it was decided to concentrate them almost entirely in the KG.40, and, despite Focke-Wulf's production efforts, only two Gruppen (Squadrons) of the KG.40 could be fully equipped with the type.

In June 1940, with the introduction of the new Fw.200C variant, the Fw.200 came into its own as an attack on the British Isles was highly possible. That month, however, the KG.40 was withdrawn from the frontlines to upgrade to the Fw.200C of which, only 10 examples were completed. 

Resuming operations, the KG.40 was assigned to Luftflotte.2 for operations against England. It was based at Lorient, France, for U-Boat support operations, which became the Condor's main role. Flying from Bordeaux-Merignac air base, it could sweep the whole Bay of Biscay and an arc ranging from the west of Ireland to Norway where they could be rebased to the air bases of Stavangar-Sola or Trondheim-Vaernes. 

During the Battle of Britain in August 1940 the Fw.200s of KG.40 were used as a conventional bomber, the only time during its career. They were employed, together with other Heinkel He.111 and Dornier Do.17s against night raids on Liverpool-Birkenhead area during 28th to 31st August. 

It was, however in the anti-shipping role where the Fw.200 shined. During the early war, the Fw.200 was responsible for the sink of thousand of tons of Allied shipping. In August 1940, the I./KG.40 alone, sank 90.000 tons. The Fw.200 did usually work in conjunction with the U-Boats. An example of this is the sinking of the Empress of Britain ship, which was lost off the north-eastern cost of Ireland after two bombs made impact on the ship disabling her and the U-38 sinking the ship with torpedoes. 

By November the Condor scored 18 ships making a total of 66.438 tons sunk, being the  British freighter MV Apapa the first to be sunk on 15th November entirely by Condors while on Convoy. 

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

Focke-Wulf Fw.200 Condor. Part Four. Pre-war and early-war German users.

 

The Focke-Wulf Fw.200 came from a proposal made by Kurt Tank, of Focke-Wulf to Dr. Rudolf Stüssel of Deutsche Lufthansa to design a completely land-based passenger plane capable of flying from Europe to the United States across the Atlantic Ocean. This was quite a revolutionary concept at the time as airlines employed seaplanes to cover long-range sea distances. In order to cover long distances in an economic fashion, the Fw.200 was designed to cruise at an altitude of over 3.000 m (9,800 ft), which was the highest possible attainable altitude without a pressurized cabin. Back then, airliners cruised at an altitude of 1.500 m (4,900 ft). When it was completed, the Fw.200 was, for a brief period of time, the most advanced airliner of the world, until more modern passenger planes appeared on the scene like the Boeing 307 Stratoliner in 1940 or the Douglas DC-4 in 1942. It received the denomination of "Condor" because, due to its large wingspan, it resembled a condor bird.

Deutsche Lufthansa issued a specification in June 1936 and, later, the aircraft was designed by Ludwig Mittlehuber and Wilhelm Bansemir. The first prototype, labelled as Fw.200 V-1 flew for the first time on 27th July 1937 and was flown by Kurt Tank himself. This first prototype was entirely made out of metal and was powered by four American Pratt & Whitney Hornet engines rated at 875 hp each. It could carry up to 26 passengers divided in two cabins and had a range of up to 3.000 km (1.900 milles). Two additional prototypes, V-2 and V-3 were powered by four BMW 132G-1 radial engines. 

In civilian service it was used mainly by Deutsche Lufthansa and some other airlines around the world. On 14th April 1945, Lufthansa flew the last scheduled flight before the of the World War 2, from Barcelona, in Spain to Berlin. 

The first prototype was upgraded with extra fuel tanks and had its engines replaced. It was redesignated as Fw.200 S-1 and made several record flights. The V-1 became the first heavier-than-air aircraft to fly nonstop from Berlin to New York, covering a distance of around 6.400 km (4.000 milles) on 10th to 11th August 1938 in 24 hours and 56 minutes. The return trip was shorter and took 19 hours and 47 minutes. Later, on 28th November, it flew from Berlin to Tokyo via Basra (Iraq), Karachi (British Raj - nowadays Pakistan) and Hanoi (French Indochina - nowadays Vietnam).

Outside Lufthansa, the Luftwaffe operated the type too (more on that in the next posts), with one unit, Fliegerstaffel des Führers, having the type as its major aircraft during pre-war and the whole world war 2. It was used to fly high-ranking political and military figures of Germany, from Hitler downwards. 

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

Focke-Wulf Fw.200 Condor. Part Two. More foreign Users

 

The Focke-Wulf Fw.200 Condor was a German all-metal four-engined monoplane, originally conceived as a long-range airliner. It was mainly used by Germany, but some countries employed the type too, among them, the following ones:

• United Kingdom: A single Danish Fw.200A, registered as OY-DAM, flew to Shoreham, Sussex, on 8th April 1940. That night, Germany launched the Operation Weserübung - Süd, the invasion of Denmark and Norway. The morning of 9th April the crew was not allowed to return to the airplane as it was seized by British officials. In May it received a new registration, new colours and it was flown to Whitchurch, Shropshire, as it was allocated to the BOAC (British Overseas Aircraft Corporation). Turn out that the BOAC didn't use the aircraft very much and it crashed in July 1941.
  There were two more Fw.200 which served with the Royal Air Force (RAF), the first one, registered as F8+FS, surrendered to the British forces in Wuppertal on 8th May 1945. With the RAF it was flown to Belgium and from there, possibly to the other side of the British Channel, however, its ultimate fate is unknown. It was just possibly scrapped. 
  The other Fw.200 was captured intact at Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, when the war ended and it's thought it was used by Heinrich Himmler, as Flensburg was the base of the Great Admiral Dönitz who took over the German government after Hitler's death on 30th April 1945. This machine, coded as GC+AE, was flown to Roya Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Farnborough, Hampshire, for evaluation. 
• Finland: The Finnish national airway, AeroO/Y ordered two Fw.200A airliners. These machines were eventually built, but once the war started, they were taken over by the Reichluftfahrtministerium (RLM) and pushed into Luftwaffe's service. 
• Japan: Japanese authorities were impressed by the flight around the globe performed by the Fw.200A D-ACON (even if it was lost off the Philippine capital, Manila) and they ordered five Fw.200B airliners (the Fw.200B was equipped with better BMW 132Dc engines) in 1939 for use with the Dai Nippon KK (Japanese national airline back then) plus a single Fw.200 to be used by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) for a possible reconnaissance role. 
  Focke-Wulf proposed the Fw.200V10, which was an armed long-range reconnaissance variant fitted with a dorsal turret, armed with a 7,5 mm MG-15 machine gun and an elongated ventral gondola offset to starboard armed with smaller caliber machine guns to fire from fore and aft. Gondola's central section was taken up by a weapons bay. A total of five airframes were converted to this new standard and they were temporarily designated as Fw.200KC-1, to be allocated to Dai Nippon KK. 
  Eventually they were not delivered to Japan and the five KC-1 were completed as Fw.200C-2s and D-2s and were assigned to the Luftwaffe.

Sources:

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

2. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235070268-boac-fw-200-condor/

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

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

Focke-Wulf Fw.200 Condor. Part One. Foreign Users

 

The Focke-Wulf Fw.200 Condor was a German four-engined monoplane designed by Focke-Wulf as an airliner, which saw service with various countries, among them, the following ones:

• Brazil: In early 1939 the Brazilian airline Syndicato Condor, which was a subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa, bought two Focke-Wulf Fw.200A airliners which, as sophisticated as they were, were employed in the Rio de Janeiro-Buenos Aires international route. When the company was re-organized and renamed to Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul in 1943, the Condors operated together with the American-supplied Douglas DC-3 airliners until 1948 (though some sources claim it was only until 1947) when the Condors were retired and replaced with Douglas DC-3s.
• Denmark: In 1938 the Danish National Airline, Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/B (Danish Air Lines or, abbreviated, DDL) acquired two Focke-Wulf Fw.200A Condor airliners. These were named as Dania and Jutlandia. Dania was seized by the British in April 1940 as, at that time, it was in British territory. It was pushed into service for a brief period of time with the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and with the Royal Air Force, before being damaged beyond repair one year later, in 1941.
  The second one, Jutlandia, survived the whole war and continued serving as an airliner until 4th September 1946, when it had to crash-land in Northolt, London, after landing in crosswinds. Fortunately there were no casualties but the aircraft was damaged beyond repair and was written off.

Sources:

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

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Air_Lines

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serviços_Aéreos_Cruzeiro_do_Sul

4. https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serviços_Aéreos_Cruzeiro_do_Sul (translated)

5. https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_200

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