View Single Post
  #3  
Old 25th July 2019, 16:00
INM@RLM INM@RLM is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 125
INM@RLM will become famous soon enough
Re: Fw 200 C-5, the invisible sub-type? A review of published and documentary sources.

PART #3 of 7: WAS THERE A Fw 200 C-5 SUB-TYPE?
Each of the Focke-Wulf company, the Luftwaffe and the RLM certainly thought so. There is conclusive evidence for the C-5 production series in FoWu company documentation, RLM Delivery Plans and 1944 C-Amt Monthly Reports of New-build Aircraft Delivered.
1. The FoWu evidence is the mention of an issued Ladeplan for the Fw 200 C-5. This was numbered 8 – 200000 – 7049, and is mentioned on Blatt 8 of the Focke-Wulf company proposal document: 'Focke Wulf Fw 200 F Fernaufklärer mit erhöhter Reichweite, 11 Mai 1943'. Unfortunately no copy of this Ladeplan seems to have survived but we do know that this was in issue by May 1943 (whilst at that point we also know from the same source that there was as yet no Ladeplan for the projected Fw 200 C-6 sub-type).
2. For the Luftwaffe, the monthly Bewegungsmeldungen returns submitted by I. and III./KG 40 evidence quantities of the Fw 200 C-5 being assigned to and on the strength of both these units in the period from Apr-43 to July-44. That data is analysed below in this post.
3. There is definitive evidence that the RLM planned production in the final phase of the Fw 200 programme as 65 examples of the Fw 200 C-5 sub-type, and that final deliveries of Fw 200s reported in the C-Amt Monatsmeldungen for Jan-/Feb-/Mar-44 are all identified as being of the Fw 200 C-5 sub-type. This RLM evidence is detailed in at least three places:

GL/C-B Lieferplan 225, Flugzeug-Programm, Blatt 13 of g.Kdos.-Nr. 18382/43, Datum 1.12.1943 (archive reference BA-MA RL 3/1035)
Fw 200 C-3 Total delivered = 71, all completed by 30-Nov-43
Fw 200 C-4 Total delivered = 103, all completed by 30-Nov-43
Fw 200 C-5 Total ordered = 65; 50 delivered by 30-Nov-43; Balance of 15 to be delivered: 4 in Dec-43, 6 in Jan-44 and 5 in Feb-44.

GL/C-PrI Lieferplan 226, Flugzeug-Programm, Blatt 13 of g.Kdos.-Nr. 1486/44, Datum 15.5.1944 (archive reference BA-MA RL 3/1040)
Fw 200 C-3 Total delivered = 71, all completed by 30-Apr-44
Fw 200 C-4 Total delivered = 103, all completed by 30-Apr-44
Fw 200 C-5 Total delivered = 65, all completed by 30-Apr-44

RLM C-Amt Monatsmeldungen – Neubauflugzeuge section (from US NARA Microfilm T-177. Bundesarchiv reference not yet traced.)
Month Accepted in: Total Delivery now - Actual & Planned
Jan-44 Fw 200 C 5: 6 übernommen im Januar: Gesamt-Lieferung Ist= 64: Gesamt-Lieferung Soll = 60
Feb-44 Fw 200 C 5: Nil übernommen im Februar: Gesamt-Lieferung Ist= 64: Gesamt-Lieferung Soll = 65:
Mar-44 Fw 200 C 5: 1 übernommen im März: Gesamt-Lieferung Ist= 65: Gesamt-Lieferung Soll = 65:
Apr-44 NO MENTION

Putting this data together with what else we know of late-production Fw 200s, a reasonable conclusion is that the 65 Fw 200 C-5s were PLANNED as four different sequences within the last sixty-eight Fw 200 Werk-Nummern. The result would have looked something very close to this:
37 W.Nr. 0201 to 0215, 15 x Fw 200 C-5, first batch.
38 W.Nr. 0216, 1 x Fw 200 C-4/U2, fourth example of a Bewaffnetes Führerbegleitflugzeug
39 W.Nr. 0217 to 0229, 13 x Fw 200 C-5, second batch. (to include at least one C-5/U1 as W.Nr. 0221)
40 W.Nr. 0230, 1 x Fw 200 C-4/U2, intended fifth example of a Bewaffnetes Führerbegleitflugzeug
41 W.Nr. 0231 to 0239, 9 x Fw 200 C-5, third batch.
42 W.Nr. 0240, 1 x Fw 200 C-4/U1, third example of a Bewaffnetes Führerflugzeug
43 W.Nr. 0241 to 0268, 28 x Fw 200 C-5, fourth and final batch.

However, what is very clear from the Luftwaffe Bewegungsmeldungen for KG 40 is that in reality a lot fewer than 65 Fw 200 C-5s entered unit service, and that unit deliveries by sub-type of late-production Fw 200s involved much more than just the C-5. These points are developed further in Part 5 of this thread.

So we can conclude there definitely was a Fw 200 C-5 series-production sub-type, and that aircraft built to this baseline standard comprised a quarter (24.7%, 65 out of 263) of all Fw 200 C-Serie built. That’s quite a sizeable proportion for some authors to have written out of the Condor story.
Reply With Quote