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

Focke-Wulf Fw.200. Part eight. Radar-equipped Condors over the Atlantic.

 

In autumn 1943 the Condors of KG.40 were supported by aircraft of 1./FAGr.5 with base in Mont-de-Marsan. These airplanes consisted on various Junkers Ju.290A which had a range of 6.148 km (3.820 miles). The Ju.290 was initially conceived as a replacement of the Condor, however, just a handful of aircraft were completed and given to the FAGr.5, which helped KG.40 at shadowing their targets. 

The Henschel Hs.293 was world's first air-to-surface missile, and it was designed to be launched from a large aircraft like the Condor. One of the first unit which tested the missile was II./KG.40 in the Mediterranean using Dornier Do.217. Condors employed the Hs.293 for the first time on 28th December 1942 when four Condors, one of them equipped with missiles, attacked Royal Navy's ships in the Atlantic. The attack was unsuccessful as the missile-equipped Condor was forced to ditch after running across a Short Sunderland of the Coastal Command. As a matter of fact, very few ships were sunk during the war from a direct impact of a Hs.293 fired from a Condor. 

The Condor was kept in production with the Fw.200C-5, of which there were a total of 19 machines plus two C-5/U1 and one C-5/U2 before production was switched to the C-6. 

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. Part Seven. The Fw.200 in the Eastern Front.

 

When the Wehrmacht's 6. Armee was surrounded in Stalingrad, Hermann Göring boasted Luftwaffe's transport force hoping to carry the necessary supplies to break the perimeter. This idea, however, was soon proved to be erroneous. 

That was on of the two reasons why part of the KG.40 was sent to Pitomnik airfield, in the USSR, the other one was the shortage of small - and large- transport aircraft. Bombers were pressed into transports, albeit temporarily, with the four-engined ones having to make their part, even if they were not designed to lift significative loads. It is known that the airlift of the whole 6. Armee was impossible. 

A total of 18 Fw.200 belonging to 1. and 3./KG.40 operated from the airfield at Stalino, with the unit flying its first operation on 9th January 1943, although there were already some previous flights in the area during 1942. Under the temporal designation of Kampfgruppe zur besonderen Verwendung 200 (KGr.zb V.200), this force flew 36 tons of supplies into Stalingrad pocket and evacuated 156 wounded soldiers. However, as the Soviet encirclement advanced, the unit quickly switched to aerial supply drops by parachute, with each Condor carrying four containers under the wings. 

After the surrender of Stalingrad, KGr.zb V.200 was rebased to Zaparozhe airfield to keep doing whatever they could and, eventually a total of 41 supply drop missions were carried out to try and resupply the 6. Armee before the collapse. They also flew 35 additional sorties over the Crimea before being sent back to Berlin-Staaken in February 1943. 

When KGr.zb V.200 returned to Berlin, they had lost 9 Fw.200s and the unit was disbanded to be merged into a new one, 8./KG.40 which was sent to Bordeaux-Merignac under the command of Luftflotte 3. 

In the anti-shipping role, KG.40 was greatly helped by reports from Spain which alerted Fliegerführer Atlantik about sailing dates and times of Allied convoys out of Gibraltar. 

By December 1943 KG.40's crews were busy testing operationally the Heinkel He.177 with the Condors being assigned to Stab and all Staffeln of III. Gruppe, which was based at Cognac with approximately 26 aircraft. Additionally, 3. Staffel, attached to III./KG.40 operated their Condors off the Trondheim-Vaernes area, in Norway. Losses during the second half of 1943 were moderated, although new instructions were given to the crews to not execute attacks lower than 2.750 m (9.000 ft) due to the anti-aircraft fire that Allied ships could put up. 

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. Part Seven. The Fw.200 in 1942.

 

The Fw.200 was also employed in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations (MTO) since summer 1941 when Kommando Petersen (an ad-hoc unit formed from I./KG.40) was formed to fly anti-shipping missions over the Gulf of Suez, Suez Canal and the Northern part of the Red Sea. This Kommando was assigned to X. Fliegerkorps and was composed of just six Condors which operated from Greece since August 1941, attached to KG.26. 

Kommando Petersen flew approximately six sorties a night to the Suez and the Red Sea area for a very limited period of time, probably during 2 to 10th September, after which, the Fw.200s returned to France. 

During that short period of time, the unit didn't see any success and even suffered a loss due to a landing accident.

The year 1942 saw successes for the Condors as they were responsible for calling a combined aerial and submarine attack on four convoys between March and April. Later, on 27th June, the convoy PQ-17 suffered greater losses when they were ordered to scatter. The Condors were direct responsible for the sinking of 23 out of 34 ships that composed PQ-17. Given that the Condor could remain airborne for up to 14 hours, the Luftwaffe could shadow the individual ships for destruction. However, for the PQ-18 convoy, as it was better protected, they managed to sink only 13 out of 40 ships. During the last months of 1942 KG.40 was dispersed and expanded with one unit, 9. Staffel, being sent to Lecce, south-eastern Italy, to perform transport duties, while a new group, V. Gruppe, was formed for long-range fighter duties. 

The Condor was, however, intended to be replaced by the Heinkel He.177. In fact, I.KG.40 was already testing the He.177 operationally, however, due to the increasing problems in the type, they soon reverted back to the Condor. 

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 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 Three. Even more foreign Users

 

The Focke-Wulf Fw.200 Condor was a German four-engined monoplane designed and manufactured by Focke-Wulf which was initially conceived as an airliner. Luftwaffe and Lufthansa were its main users, however, there were many other non German users of the Fw.200:

• USSR: During World War 2, many Fw.200s were captured by the Soviets and push into service with the VVS (Soviet Air Force). The first machine depicted below was captured at Gumrak, Stalingrad, in January 1943. Repainted with Soviet markings, it was evaluated by the NII-VSS (Soviet Air Force's Scientific Test Institute) and it was displayed in Moscow for a brief period of time. Its fate is unknown.
  Many more were captured by the Soviets during the late period of the war. Some of these machines were reconverted Fw.200C bombers turned into airliners during 1944 to serve with Lufthansa in order to evacuate high-ranking officers and personalities from Germany. Due to the constant bombing of Germany, very few machines were reconverted.
  When the Soviet Army conquered Germany, at least three of those repurposed machines were captured and, eventually sent to serve with Aeroflot (Soviet airlines), at the Arctic Sea division. Those three planes were registered as H-400, H-401 and H-500, though it's believed that there could've been a fourth one. 
  Due to the harsh conditions of the Arctic Sea, these machines suffered many breakdowns and failures due to their temperature-sensitive Bramo engines. In fact, H-400 crash-landed on the Polar Circle in April 1946. The other machine, H-401, depicted below, served in the Polar reconnaissance role until 1950, when it was written off. Its fate is unknown, but it was most probably scrapped.
  However, H-500 was assigned to Polar Aviation in as late as 1948. It was under reparation at Factory No. 23 in Moscow and had its original Bramo engines replaced by Russian Shvetsov ASh-62 engines. It's not clear though if the engines were fitted at Factory No.23 or they were replaced in 1950 after a maintenance accident in which an oil cooler was destroyed. Anyway it received the unofficial denomination of Focke-Wulf Mk.200 and it was used to supply remote Arctic scientific outpost until April 1950 when it crash-landed and was damaged beyond reparation at Yakutsk airport, putting an end to the Fw.200 in the USSR.
• Spain: A single unarmed Fw.200C-4 served with the Spanish Air Force, at the Escuela Superior de Vuelo (Superior Air School) in Salamanca, Old Castile. This airplane, serialled T-4.2, based at Bordeaux-Merignac, landed in Seville on 1st January 1943 after having been attacked over Casablanca. It was interned and later bought by the Spanish Air Force.
  Four additional Fw.200s crash-landed in Spain during the war. They were bought by the Spanish authorities, but they were not pushed into service for political reasons and they were used as a source for spare parts. 
  The machine labeled as T-4.2 served until 1950 when it was grounded due to a lack of spare parts.

Sources:

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

2. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_200 (translated)

3. https://www.luftfahrtmuseum-hannover.de/index.php/en/neuigkeiten-2/aircraft-of-the-month/629-modell-des-monats-januar-2022

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

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