FW200 Bombing England in 1940/41

[Chris Goss]

Guenther Ott and myself have been in correspondance over this and I am afraid to say that apart from 2 or 3 isolated attacks in Scotland, there is no evidence to support regular attacks by FW 200s, including 1 April 41

[Alex Smart]

Hello,

I do not think it beyond possibilities that the Condor would at some time in late 1940 early 1941 to have at some time, over flown the Cornish peninsular.

Alex

[Chris Goss]

Flown yes; attacked......possibly but there is no evidence from the German side to support this

[Franek Grabowski]

I have a note of Fw 200 being attacked without result by a 501 Sqn Hurricane on 21.02.1941. They were based at Filton at the time. I would be very glad to learn one day about the Focke Wulf.

[robert_schulte]

Originally Posted by bill norman

Just to put the cat decidedly among the pigeons re. the FW200s shown in a painting attacking mainland Britain with a force of HE111's. The artist Edmund Miller assures me that he was given this information by fighter pilot Bob Doe, who was one of those who engaged the attackers.

Just found this in the book "The most dangereous enemy" by S. Bungay:
"The Luftwaffe opened the new month of October [1940] by sending 48 Bf 109s of JG2 and JG53 and the remaining 32 BF 110s of ZG26 on a sweep over Portsmouth. ... Bob Doe led down the six Hurricanes of 238 Squadron in a bounce from 5000 feet above them, and got the Messerschmitt from below as he pulled up from the dive. He reported seeing some four-engined Focke-Wulf 200 bombers - usually used for maritime reconnaissance - in the formation, which the fighters may have joined as they set out for the western approaches."
No mentioning of any other forces like He 111s.
In the appendix of the book, following explanation is given:
"This aircraft, called the Condor, was flown by KG40, which was attached to Airfleet 3 at this time. German records contain no mention of any mission flown by the unit on 1 October, but they were used for nuisance raids on distant targets as well as reconnaissance, usually in small numbers. One of them carried out a nuisance raid on Liverpool during the night."

[Chris Goss]

Irrespective, a clear case of mistaken identity I am afraid. For example, the crash of a He 111 in Kent during the Battle was stated as being a 4-engined aircraft when cxlearly it was not

[Stig Jarlevik]

Hi Guys

Don't forget that there are some reports of Junkers 90 over Britain during the Battle as well. Pilots and ground observers alike states that they operated over Britain on at least two occasions.

Cheers
Stig

[Tony Kearns]

Dublin was bombed on 2 Jan 1941. An A.I.I.(k) report of the interrogation of a Fw200 crew brought down on 10 Jan 1941 states ,qoute " It was one of the more inexperienced K.G.40 crews which bombed Dublin. Apparently they flew over the town, which was brightly lighted, and thought it was Liverpool " end of quote.
Tony K

[Chris Goss]

Tony: Thanks for the date-we have been trying to confirm this for some time. The crew bombed in error as opposed to were tasked to bomb Liverpool

[Günther Ott]

DublinCity Archives: Records of the Donore Area Bombing 1941:

“On the first three days of January 1941, German bombs were dropped at a number of locations along the east coast of Ireland, including counties Carlow, Kildare, Louth, Meath, Wexford and Wicklow, but without any loss of life. On successive nights, 2 and 3 January 1941, German bombs were dropped for the first time on Dublin City in the Donore area, around the South Circular Road and in Terenure, districts where many Jewish families resided. The excuse offered by Hitler’s government for the January bombings, as for the Campile bombing, was that German aircraft had mistaken the Irish east coast for the west coast of Britain. The view most commonly held in Ireland was that the German bombings resulted from aircraft off-loading supplies to ensure a safe return to base.”

Luftflotte 3 records for the period in question are quite extensive and detailed but do not show any involvement of I./K.G.40 or Fw 200 in night bombing activities on 2nd or 3rd January 1941.

Taking the statements from Oblt. Burmeister’s POW interrogation, it also needs to be reflected that peculiar situation. Notably a previous statement regarding the bombing of London by aircraft of K.G.40 had to be adjusted in this report A.I.1.(K) No.20/1941 in a way that it would be theoretically possible with a bomb-load of 5,000 kilos if the aircraft were, in fact, to attack London.

But they never did so, and obviously interpreters might have had problems in this interrogation. We do not know how questions and answers were put forward (and translated) and how they were understood. Might that theoretical approach also apply for the statement on the Dublin bombing by K.G.40?

As already mentioned by Chris Goss in an earlier message, German documents do not give any hint of the Fw 200 being involved in bombing attacks on mainland Britain except for only a few isolated and pinpointed attacks on targets in Scotland between October and December 1940. Those dates do not match with any bombings of Dublin. After Hitler’s decision on 6th January 1941 to have K.G.40 to be subordinated under B.d.U. in support of U-Boat attacks, any excursions of that kind had come to an end with immediate effect.

Regards, Günther