PART #5 of 7: HOW MANY EXAMPLES OF THE Fw 200 C-5 SAW SERVICE: WHAT SUB-TYPES COMPRISED THE BALANCE OF Fw 200 DELIVERIES IN THE W.Nr. 02XX SEQUENCE?
The challenge then is to reconstruct in detail how the sequence from W.Nr. 0201 to 0268 was made up. We have data for around 30 individual aircraft numbered in this span (so about 45%) but some of it appears to include some particularly inconvenient inconsistencies, and there is no documentation AFAIK that provides an overview for even a part of this sequence.
However, there is a lot of detailed information by sub-type given in the Luftwaffe Bewegungsmeldungen for the Fw 200s assigned to KG 40. Most generously, this report series has been made freely available on Michael Holm's
www.ww2.dk web site. I explored this data set to assess whether it could possibly throw some useful light into this very murky area. As it happens, there did appear to be enough useful insights from this study to allow a reasonable attempt at a full reconstruction of exactly what sub-types applied to the final 65 Fw 200 C produced at the point these were delivered to KG 40. The detailed evidence and explanation of the logic used will be of no interest to most readers so these have been separated into the files of the attached ZIP.
The key findings from this exploration into the Bewegungsmeldungen are:
(a) Of the planned 65 Fw 200 C-5s, at most just 35 entered service with KG 40 as this sub-type. (This 35 includes the singleton C-5/U1, W.Nr. 0221.) The total of 35 comprises 29 x Neufertigung Fw 200 C-5 assigned to III./KG 40 plus another 5 allocated to to 3./KG 40, with one more C-5 being transferred from another unit to 3./KG 40 in Jul-43. As it happens this last can be tracked through the Bewegungsmeldungen for 3./KG 40 and identified as W.Nr. 0204 which was lost 100% by that Staffel in Jan-44. What we do not know at this point is what unit this aircraft was transferred from. Perhaps from an Erprobungskommando allocated this aircraft to assess from an operational point of view the changes necessary to convert the design into a satisfactory guided weapons launcher?
(b) Another 5 Fw 200 C-5s were converted into different sub-types by the Focke-Wulf plant at Cottbus before delivery of the aircraft. These became:
an initial batch of 3 x Fw 200 C-8 (W.Nr. 0223 to 0225, with all three delivered to 3./KG 40 in Aug-43),
and
the initial 2 x Fw 200 C-5/FK that were used for trials with the Hs 293 at Karlshagen (W.Nr. 0226 & 0227, both documented in Nowarra at pp.112 & 116/7, plus there is a well-known full-frontal photograph of W.Nr. 0226 carrying two Hs 293s, with the W.Nr. painted on the front lip of the deepened gondola and readable in a good print).
[There is a twist to this story, however, in that four of the 34 C-5s (35 minus the singleton C-5/U1) were actually plated and delivered with a C-6 designation. Plated means that the aircraft’s manufacturing plate was stamped to identify the aircraft as a Fw 200 C-6. Plus, to add some extra spice, in the Bewegungsmeldungen for III./KG 40 these C-6 examples were tracked and reported as C-5s, whilst in the equivalent 3./KG 40 reports they were always separately distinguished as C-6s. Going forward, I will refer to these aircraft as C-6 (1943 variant). Clearly the distinction between these C-6s and the standard C-5 was a very fine one. So fine that it could often be ignored entirely.]
Based on this study then - but for the present completely ignoring the inconvenience of the C-6-with-KG 40 twist - the next 43 Fw 200 W.Nr. assignments after W.Nr. 0200 can be stated with reasonable assurance to have been:
37 W.Nr. 0201 to 0215, 15 x Fw 200 C-5, first batch. INM RECONSTRUCTION
38 W.Nr. 0216, 1 x Fw 200 C-4/U2, fourth example. Bewaffnetes Führerbegleitflugzeug
39 W.Nr. 0217 to 0220, 4 x Fw 200 C-5, second batch. INM RECONSTRUCTION
40 W.Nr. 0221, 1 x Fw 200 C-5/U1, singleton example.
41 W.Nr. 0222, 1 x Fw 200 C-5, singleton example. (Confirmed by Lw Loss data)
42 W.Nr. 0223 to 0225, 3 x Fw 200 C-8, first FoWu Neufertigung batch. Only W.Nr. 0225 is an INM RECONSTRUCTION
43 W.Nr. 0226 to 0227, 2 x Fw 200 C-5/FK Trials machines FoWu Umbau from FoWu Neufertigung C-5
44 W.Nr. 0228 to 0229, 2 x Fw 200 C-5, third batch. INM RECONSTRUCTION
45 W.Nr. 0230, 1 x Fw 200 C-6/U2 (C-6 1943 variant), singleton C-6/U2 example. Bewaffnetes Führerbegleitflugzeug
46 W.Nr. 0231 to 0239, 9 x Fw 200 C-5, fourth batch. INM RECONSTRUCTION
47 W.Nr. 0240, 1 x Fw 200 C-4/U1, third example. Bewaffnetes Führerflugzeug
48 W.Nr. 0241 to 0243, 3 x Fw 200 C-5, fifth and final batch. INM RECONSTRUCTION
The main complications then are confined to determining the sub-types of the final 25 examples of the Fw 200 (W.Nr. 0244 to 0268) at the point each was first assigned to KG 40.
The Bewegungsmeldungen clearly show that KG 40 started receiving significant numbers of Fw 200 C-8s, reported as transfers from another unit, in the exact same period of Dec-43 to Mar-44 as the unit also reported being assigned eight 8 new-build C-8s (Neufertigung C-8s). It would appear then that following the earlier, initial trial batch of three C-8s sent to 3./KG 40 in Aug-43, the whole balance of the final 25 x Fw 200s were to be converted from C-5s into C-8s by Focke-Wulf and ‘another unit’ before their delivery to KG 40.
The stress here is on ‘would appear’, because the C-5/FK sub-type is never mentioned in the Bewegungsmeldung. That means that aircraft of this sub-type only appear in that report series in disguise. That C-5/FK aircraft were actually present with KG 40 in Dec-43 is confirmed by the loss record for W.Nr. 0246 reported as a Fw 200 C-8(C-5) 100% lost on 29-Dec-43 with 7./KG 40. (Apparently carrying Hs 293s per Goss Air War Archive p.147 but at Goss Classic pp.200 & 266 the mission was Seenotsuche Atlantik).
What is clear from the Bewegungsmeldungen evidence though is that these conversions, nominally at least into C-8s, were being performed in different places, by at least two different parties, and in a chronological sequence with probably five separate phases discernible. So the reality was considerable more complicated than FoWu now completing the final 25 examples as C-8s rather than C-5s.
The start point for unwrapping this tangle is to determine the W.Nr. range of the 8 later FoWu Cottbus factory conversions of Neufertigung C-8s from newly-built C-5s. For this we have the evidence from Focke-Wulf company photographs. It seems to have been standard company practice to make a particular photo study of the initial example of any new variant. We have at least three such FoWu photographs for Fw 200 C-8 W.Nr. 0256 (Stammkz. TO+XL). [Two of these are on p.203 of Goss Classic (mid+btm) and the third is in Scutts p.185(mid).] This evidence identifies W.Nr. 0256 as the first of the 8 Fw 200 C-8s counted by KG 40 as Neufertigung C-8s. (Neufertigung because they came directly to KG 40 from the FoWu plant at Cottbus.) Supporting that identification is that the FoWu photograph of Fw 200 C-5/FK W.Nr. 0259 (Stammkz. TO+XO) is also within seven places of W.Nr. 0256.
With the limited information surviving there may never be any certainty here, but taking these two pieces of FoWu company photographic evidence together suggests that the final Fw 200s delivered direct to units by Focke-Wulf Cottbus were probably these seven as Fw 200 C-8s: W.Nr. 0256 to 0258 (3) and W.Nr. 0260 to 0263 (4), plus this singleton eighth Fw 200 C-8, W.Nr. 0259 (TO+XO), which had on RLM instruction been further converted by FoWu Cottbus from a C-8 into a Fw 200 C-5/FK. These aircraft had all been delivered by FoWu Cottbus during Dec-43 and Jan-44 but only dribbled through to KG 40 as Neufertigung C-8s in the quarter ending Mar-44.
A reasonable reconstruction then of the final 25 Fw 200 W.Nr. assignments by sub-type
at the point these aircraft were delivered at the FoWu Cottbus works to the RLM looks to be:
1 W.Nr. 0244 to 0255, 12 x Fw 200 C-5.
2 W.Nr. 0256 to 0258, 3 x Fw 200 C-8, second FoWu Neufertigung batch, converted by FoWu from C-5s to C-8s on the Cottbus assembly line before their delivery in Dec-43; plated as Fw 200 C-8s. [a very simple conversion involving only the addition of a second Rumpfwanne 540-lite fuel tank and the associated plumbing]
3. W.Nr. 0259, 1 x Fw 200 C-5/FK, third example Sole FoWu C-5/FK Umbau from a Neufertigung C-8; plated as a Fw 200 C-8.
4 W.Nr. 0260 to 0263, 4 x Fw 200 C-8, third & final FoWu Neufertigung batch, also converted by FoWu from C-5s to C-8s on the Cottbus production line before their delivery in Dec-43 & Jan-44; also plated as Fw 200 C-8s
5 W.Nr. 0264 to 0268, 5 x Fw 200 C-5.
The interventions of the other unit (von andere Verbände) supplying Fw 200 C-8s to KG 40 in parallel during the same period then need to be overlaid onto this scheme. It is a reasonable interpretation that DW F at Schwäbish Hall was the other unit referred to in the KG 40 Bewegungsmeldungen.
The detailed logic for the listing below is set out in the attachments, but an interpretation that incorporates both of the sources supplying (nominally) Fw 200 C-8s to KG 40, and which aligns with the timings reported in the Bewegungsmeldungen is the sequence below:
• An initial 12 conversions to C-5/FKs from Neufertigung C-5s performed by DW F at Schwäbish Hall - assigned to KG 40 in the period Dec-43 to Feb-44;
• Then the second batch of 8 FoWu Cottbus factory conversions of C-8s from C-5s, described by KG 40 as Neufertigung C-8s (consistently in both the 3. & the III./KG 40 Bewegungsmeldungen report series) - assigned to KG 40 in the period Dec-43 to Mar-44;
• Next, a follow-on block of the final 5 conversions to C-5/FKs from Neufertigung C-5s, once again all performed by DW F - these were likely all assigned to KG 40 in Feb-/Mar-44;
• Followed by a continuation phase in which a further 8 C-5/FK conversions were performed and delivered from DW F - in Feb- to Apr-44, again using C-5s, but now these were examples recycled from aircraft assigned earlier to KG 40.
This made a cumulative total of 25 C-5/FK conversions by 30-Apr-44, all classified by KG 40 as C-8s, delivered from DW F up to this point (12+5+8). Total C-8 assignments to KG 40 at that date, as reported in the unit’s Bewegungsmeldungen was 36, comprising these 25 + the three of the initial C-8 batch (W.Nr. 0223 to 0225) + the eight of the second C-8 batch that actually included one FoWu-built C-5/FK (W.Nr. 0256 to 0263).
• There was also a final additional batch of 18 further new conversions to C-5/FKs in Jul-44. These also could only have been recycled aircraft that had previously seen service with KG 40 as C-4, C-5 or C-8 sub-types.
It is not possible to be sure of the W.Nr. of any of the recycled aircraft converted in these two final steps of the C-8 conversion programme. However, for the earlier examples we do have a few clues.
Putting Werk-Nummern to the newly-built aircraft in these phases – where this is possible - the final picture becomes:
1 W.Nr. 0244 to 0255, 12 x Fw 200 C-8(C-5/FK), first conversion batch of C-5/FKs performed by DW F using neubau C-5s ferried directly from Cottbus to Schwäbish Hall; assigned to KG 40 starting with 8 in Dec-43, last in Feb-44.
2 W.Nr. 0256 to 0258, 3 x Fw 200 C-8, second FoWu Neufertigung batch of genuine, plated C-8s (i.e. not converted to C-5/FKs at the time of their assignment to KG 40); to KG 40 in Dec-43.
3 W.Nr. 0259, 1 x Fw 200 C-5/FK, third example converted by FoWu Sole FoWu C-5/FK Umbau from a Neufertigung C-8 (counted as a Neufertigung C-8 in the KG 40 Bewegungsmeldungen); probably to KG 40 in Mar-44.
4 W.Nr. 0260 to 0263, 4 x Fw 200 C-8, third & final FoWu Neufertigung batch of genuine, plated C-8s (i.e. not converted to C-5/FK at the time of their assignment to KG 40); starting with 2 in Dec-43 (W.Nr. 0260 & 0261), and the last (W.Nr. 0263) in Mar-44.
5 W.Nr. 0264 to 0268, 5 x Fw 200 C-5/FK, second and final conversion batch of C-5/FKs performed by DW F using neubau C-5s ferried directly from Cottbus to Schwäbish Hall.
So the strange phenomenon of Fw 200 C-8s being supplied to KG 40 during Dec-43/Mar-44 simultaneously from two different sources is explained by:
A. All of the Fw 200 C-8 assignments reported in the KG 40 Bewegungsmeldungen as inward transfers from another unit, in reality represented the delivery of recently-built C-5/FK aircraft to KG 40 from DW F at Schwäbish Hall.
B. Aside from the singleton C-8 conversion to a C-5/FK of W.Nr. 0259 by FoWu Cottbus, the other seven Fw 200 C-8s reported in the KG 40 Bewegungsmeldungen as Neufertigung C-8s during Dec-43/Mar-44 were genuine Fw 200 C-8s converted from C-5s into C-8s by FoWu Cottbus and each was received by KG 40 as a functioning Fw 200 C-8 for use in the long-range maritime recce role.
C. The C-8s and the C5/FKs were grouped together in the KG 40 Bewegungsmeldungen because both variants were conversions of recently-completed Fw 200 C-5 sharing the characteristic of a 540-litre self-sealing fuel tank fitted in both the forward and the aft bays of the Rumpfwanne.