New article - the world's only Fw 190 flying with its original engine and its loss in 1943

[Dan History]

Gentlemen,

A few months ago, I chanced upon a mention of the world's only Focke-Wulf 190 still flying with its original BMW 801 engine. I noted that the aircraft had been lost on the Eastern front and decided to search Soviet online documents and attempt to find information about the Soviet side of this story. The results far exceeded my initial expectations and led to an article entitled 'Germany’s Air War on the Eastern Front: a Flying Reminder', which has been published in the Spring issue of Air Power History Magazine. I was able to determine the specific Soviet unit which shot down the Focke-Wulf and the location of the crash site, from which the aircraft was eventually recovered.

The article is available as a free download at the following link:
http://www.afhistory.org/wp-content/...-Issue_All.pdf

The text is on pages number 45 through 49 of the issue.

I am pleased that my works appears in the magazine alongside an article by Professor Richard R. Muller. The Professor has co-authored The Luftwaffe's Way of War: German Air Force Doctrine, 1911-1945 and Luftwaffe Over Germany: Defense of the Reich , among many other works. His article in this issue is 'A Tale of Two Bomb Groups: The Luftwaffe’s II.Gruppe, KG 4 and the USAAF’s 452nd Bomb Group (Heavy)', which will also be of interest to forum members.

For those interested in understanding what Soviet documents are available online and how they can be used, I suggest a blog post by the independent researcher H. G. W. Davie:

'Digital History - Research Guide to ПАМЯТЬ НАРОДА "Memory of the People"

https://www.hgwdavie.com/blog/2018/3...people-website

Kind regards,

Dan

[Larry deZeng]

Once again, Dan H., a tremendous historical contribution here! For me, the Pamyat-Narodna details on Prof. Davie's blog were especially beneficial, but the other members will really, really like the Fw 190 story. THANKS!

L.

[harrison987]

cool!

Not the original engine though. They had to combine 3 engines to make one functional one. It has parts from the original, however.

Mike

[Alfred.MONZAT]

Thank you, I didn't know this mag. I'm going to read some issues.

[Dan History]

Originally Posted by Larry deZeng

Once again, Dan H., a tremendous historical contribution here! For me, the Pamyat-Narodna details on Prof. Davie's blog were especially beneficial, but the other members will really, really like the Fw 190 story. THANKS!

Thank you for your warm words, Larry! You are mentioned in my acknowledgments and Professor Muller used one of the books that you and Doug wrote, so your influence on the field is there for all to see

Fellow members of this forum Andy Mitchell and Steve Coates are also formally acknowledged for their help. A member of the Luftwaffe Research Group forum, Adam Thompson, provided a photo from his collection which was used to illustrate the article. Paweł Przymusiała made me aware that images from the Finnish SA-kuva archive could be used for free, and three such photos appear alongside the text. I must also thank the staff of the Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum in Everett, who provided useful information and the picture of the restored Focke-Wulf in flight.

It is a pleasure to be a part of a wider circle of historians, researchers and enthusiasts I certainly hope that members here will enjoy the story!

A clarification concerning H. G. W. Davie. He is not an academic, but rather an independent researcher, somewhat like me On his blog, he writes "Most of my career has been spent working in academic publishing on both the books and journals side, for a number of publishing houses concerned with history, international studies and military studies." His articles in the Journal of Slavic Military Studies are mentioned at the same link.
https://www.hgwdavie.com/about

Larry, you and others will be interested in a cautionary note included in a different blog post written by Davie at much the same time as the one that I linked to above:

'The Fourth Blow: A Revolution in Soviet Historiography', published on 20 April 2018
https://www.swwresearch.com/post/the...historiography

"the size of the TsAMO archive is enormous, and even 5 million documents are but a tiny fraction of the whole so that there are significant gaps in the record. ... So, the chances are that if you want to study a particular unit for a specific period, then you are likely to be disappointed. In part, this represents the natural archival weeding process that discards over 90% of any cache of documents and only keeps representative samples, yet it also represents a specific agenda by the TsAMO authorities to focus attention on specific periods, locations, and operations."

Warm regards,

Dan

[Dan History]

Originally Posted by harrison987

Not the original engine though. They had to combine 3 engines to make one functional one. It has parts from the original, however.

Mike, thank you for telling me something that I did not know!

Kind regards,

Dan

[Dan History]

Originally Posted by Alfred.MONZAT

Thank you, I didn't know this mag. I'm going to read some issues.

You are welcome, Alfred. Air Power History should become more widely known in Europe than it is right now, it publishes some excellent articles by official historians of the US Air Force, quite apart from my own work

Kind regards,

Dan

[Alfred.MONZAT]

Interesting to see a 2015-article quote the correct number of confirmed victories of Pierre Clostermann, confirmed in 2018/2019 to be 14.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by harrison987

cool!

Not the original engine though. They had to combine 3 engines to make one functional one. It has parts from the original, however.

Mike

They probably did similar recycling during the war!

[Dan History]

Originally Posted by Alfred.MONZAT

Interesting to see a 2015-article quote the correct number of confirmed victories of Pierre Clostermann, confirmed in 2018/2019 to be 14.

May I ask you to name the title of that specific article, Alfred? I and others here will be grateful if you note down some interesting articles that you have found and post the titles here. I think Air Power History needs an index.

Kind regards,

Dan