[INM@RLM]

PART #1 of 7: PUBLISHED SOURCES AND THE Fw 200 C-5.
Published authors are all over the place on the Fw 200 C-5 sub-type. It’s really most confusing. At least six different, erroneous pictures of this sub-type have been presented in published accounts of the Condor. To summarize the variety of positions:
A. There was no Fw 200 C-5 sub-type, but there was both a C-6 & a C-8 sub-type, both of which were used as launch aircraft for the Hs 293. (William Green in his Warplanes of the Third Reich)
B. There was a single example each of the Fw 200 C-5 (W.Nr. 0201) and the C-5/U1 (W.Nr. 0221). (Nowara text p.100)
C. There was a C-5 sub-type but
(i) either, we don’t know anything much about any of these although there were around 21 C-5s, 14 C-6s and 18 C-8s, plus three C-8/U10s. Only these last three along with a couple of C-3/U7 trials aircraft were equipped to launch the Hs 293. (Nowarra Appendices and a sprinkling of six references in the text, exhibiting the normal Nowarra inconsistency when compared with the position he stated on p.100).
(ii) or the C-5 subtype was a transport version which was possibly used for service tests of the Rostock radar over the Atlantic, plus there were C-5/U1, C-5/U2 & C-5/FK versions but we don’t know anything much about any of those. (Scutts)
(iii) or there was no C-5 sub-type but there were some examples of the C-5/U1 and C-5/U2 (see the Table of Condor Basic Military Variants in Goss Classic at p.8 [published 2017] echoing exactly Appendix 6 of Goss Osprey p.90 [2016]. Goss refers to all these variants as Umrüstsätze, but the Focke-Wulf company and the RLM knew the /U* designations as Umbau, the great majority of which could only be implemented in the FoWu plant during aircraft final assembly. No Sätze were involved.)
(iv) or there were all of: “C-5 (transport and trials), C-6 (modified to carry missiles), C-7 (believed to be a transport) and finally the C-8 (as the C-6, ventral gondola lengthened).” (see Goss Air War Archive p.vii [2019]).
(v) and finally there is this from Salgado, p.90-II text: “Some 32 C-5 aircraft with strengthened armament were built in 1943.“
Only the last comes anywhere close to what is shown in the assembled documentary evidence for the Fw 200 C-5.

The aim of this investigation is to see whether it is possible to do better than what has been presented by these authors. The object is to assemble a coherent account of the Fw 200 C-5 and related variants based on surviving evidence in sources now accessible to the general public.
Immediately below are the extracts from William Green, Heinz Nowarra and Jerry Scutts mentioned above. In the three Goss publications on the Condor, apart from the brief mentions noted above, as far as I can find, Goss never actually goes so far as to actually introduce or detail any of the C-5, C-6 or C-8 sub-types. In Goss these types live only in the shadows and remain without explanation.
With the quotations below to hand readers will more easily appreciate the degree of divergence between what has appeared in publications and what can be learned from German documentation, photographic evidence and RAF Intelligence files.


EXTRACTS FROM SELECTED PUBLISHED SOURCES ON THE Fw 200 C-5 & RELATED VARIANTS
1970 William Green’s Warplanes of the Third Reich, pp.228/30
According to William Green in Warplanes of the Third Reich there never was a Fw 200 C-5 version. To write out of the Condor story the sub-type accounting for almost a quarter of all Condors delivered is an impressive feat of historical ‘disappearing’. Probably not the sort of accolade one would wish to be remembered for.
In Green’s account the Condor development story passes directly from the C-4 (p.228) to the Fw 200 C-8 and the C-6 (both on p.230). Further, according to Green it was the Fw 200 C-8 examples that were “built specifically as carriers for the Henschel Hs 293A missile”, whilst in regard to the Fw 200 C-6 he states: “Prior to the delivery of the Fw 200 C-8s late in 1943, a small number of Fw 200C-3/U1 and U2 Condors were adapted to carry the Hs 293A, these being known after modification as Fw 200 C-6s.”
On the last two variants, Green has these detailed comments:
“The Fw 200 C-3/U1 differed in having a large hydraulically-operated HDL 151 forward turret housing a single 15-mm. MG 151 cannon with a 500-round belt and a spare 300-round belt, and a 20-mm. MG 151 cannon with a 300-round belt in the nose of the ventral gondola in place of the old MG-FF. Although the HDL 151 turret provided an appreciably more effective defence than the Fw 19 with its 7.9-mm. weapon, its drag was not inconsiderable, reducing the maximum speed by 16-18 m.p.h., and the Fw 200 C-3/U2 reverted to the Fw 19 forward turret. The primary change in the Fw 200 C-3/U2 was the introduction of the Lotfe 7D bombsight which necessitated the replacement of the 20-mm. MG 151 canon in the nose of the ventral gondola by a 13–mm. MG 131 as the breach of the cannon interfered with the bomb sight’s stowage.” [Green: Warplanes pp.227-II/8-I]
[Note: Suffice to say here that almost every statement in this paragraph is incorrect. Further, for the Focke-Wulf company, the RLM and the Luftwaffe, as documented in Part 2 of these posts, no example of the C-3/U1 was ever completed and only a single example of the C-3/U2 was delivered. Photographs of the latter verify that this was not fitted with a Lotfe bombsight.]
1988 Nowarra: Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor, p.100
“Der C-4 folgte unmitelbar die reine Fernaufklärerausführung C-5 und C-5/U1, von denem aber nur zwei Maschinen, die Werknr. 0201, TA+MC, später F8+DT, und 0221, TA+MW, später F8+?T, gebaut wurden.”
"The C-4 was immediately followed by the dedicated long-range reconnaissance version C-5 and C-5/U1, of which only two machines, the Werknr. 0201, TA + MC, later F8 + DT, and 0221, TA + MW, later F8 +? T, were built. "

2010 Scutts: The "Fw 200 Condor": A Complete History, p.55
“Fw 200 C-5 Condor development continued with the Fw 200C-5 transport, at least fifteen of which were completed and delivered in 1943. These may well have been the aircraft selected for Rostock installation for a thorough operational trial over the Atlantic; the same number of aircraft were involved in the programme, which was designed to prove that ASV radar gave a significant advantage. Few of the results obtained would appear to have survived, although the quality of German airborne radar had gradually matured.
Fw 200C-5/U1 A single C-5/U1 (0201) has been identified as such. It was identified as TA+MB before serving with KG 40 as F8+DT.
Fw 200C-5/U2 An unknown number of Condors were known as C-5/U2s, which probably differed mainly in the type and calibre of armament fitted.
Fw 200C-5/FK No examples of the C-5/FK have been identified by Werk Nummer and the reason (if any) for the FK suffix remains obscure.”