View Single Post
  #5  
Old 18th September 2011, 08:28
F19Gladiator F19Gladiator is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 466
F19Gladiator is on a distinguished road
Re: FW 200 C-2 - What month did it enter service in 1940 ?

To answer your question Martin if the Fw 200C-2 variant participated in the Norwegian campaign, I assume you are interested in the period within Unternemen Weserübung as from 9 April 1940 until the Norwegian surrender 10 June 1940. There is a very interesting two part article on the Fw 200 in Norway written by Ulf Larsstuvold and published in the Norwegian magazine Flyhistorie Nr.19 and 20 2011(only Norwegian language). Part I: ‘Condor Over Norge i 1940’ and Part II: ‘Focke Wulf Fw 200 Condor i Norge 1941-1946’ – all in all 25 pages of article illustrated with b/w photos and five colour side view profiles. At the end there is a useful list of references which reinforces my impression that it is well researched. From the article I extract some information linked to the Weserübung period.

I leave the versions earlier than Fw 200C-1 mostly aside here. The user to be of the new Fw 200C-versions, 1./KG 40 was set up with only six older He 111s 1.11.1939, received their first two Fw 200A in November as training aircraft, while the first three Fw 200C-1 arrived in the second week of April 1940 but as the unit was not operational yet they did not take part in the assault on Denmark and Norway on 9. April. However, right after the first naval battle at Narvik 10th of April the unit was ordered to relocate to Ålborg in the now occupied Denmark to fly reconnaissance missions over the Narvik area. Normally one or two of the three Fw 200C-1 were operational at a time and during April 22 operations are believed to have been flown by the three aircraft. During the period of April one aircraft was lost while two new were delivered why the unit had six Fw 200s on 4.May whereof two were ready for operations. May 6 1./KG 40 moved to Copenhagen. On May 11 the unit counted six ‘Condor’ while still only two operational. The number of operations flown in May is uncertain as the surviving material is not fully covering the period but the author has identified 20 operational flights in May with four new Fw 200 delivered and two lost. 2./KG 40 possibly being set up on May 1.
On May 30 the unit now being named I./KG 40 (1./KG 40 and 2./KG 40) moved from Copenhagen to Gardermoen in Norway. By June 1, KG 40 counted 6 Fw 200 C whereof three operational and the unit flew missions from their new base for two weeks until the Norwegian capitulation where after the unit flew back to their home base at Oldenburg on June 12. The author has counted to 52 missions flown by Fw 200C during the Norwegian campaign, nine Fw 200s delivered, three lost and two damaged in landing accidents.
Did the Fw 200C-2 fly operations during the Weserübung in 1940? According to the article Fw 200 WNr.008, F8+FH was probably the last ‘Condor’ delivered during the Norwegian campaign and seen on a photo from Gardermoen in the shift May to June. According to Juan-Carlos Salgado in the book ‘Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor the Airliner that went to War’, page 116, WNr.008 was a Fw 200C-1. I can not through the article by Ulf Larsstuvold verify any operations with Fw 200C-2 during Weserübung.
In part 2 of the article the deliveries to I./KG 40 during 1940 is summarized: 36 Fw 200 delivered in 1940; 10 C-1; 6 C-2 and 12 of the C-3 variant. 7 were allegedly transport D-2 variants. During 1940 eleven ‘Condor’ aircraft were lost, whereof four transport aircraft. Despite the number of aircraft at most three could fly missions in one day and that “high” number of missions was not common. The first recorded loss of a Fw 200C-2 according to Peter’s listing above seems to be well after the fighting in Norway had ceased as it was in late August 1940 (29.08.40)
The ‘Condor’ flown by 2./KGr.zbV.108 in Norway as VB+UA was WNr.0010 and a D variant, in the article by Larsstuvold named as a D-2 while in the loss listing in the book by Juan-Carlos Salgado it is named as a Fw 200D-1. The aircraft was lost in a landing accident at Gardermoen 14.12.1940.
Despite not being conclusive I hope the above can still be of interest.
Br
Goran

References:
Article Part I: ‘Condor Over Norge i 1940’, Ulf Larsstuvold. Norwegian magazine Flyhistorie Nr.19, 2011.
Article Part II: ‘Focke Wulf Fw 200 Condor i Norge 1941-1946’, Ulf Larsstuvold, Norwegian magazine Flyhistorie Nr.20, 2011.
Juan-Carlos Salgado, ‘Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor the Airliner that went to War’, Classic, 2008.
Reply With Quote