FW 190 F - 8 Hungarian Airforce

[Walter Ernhard]

Hello!

I'm searching for the story of the FW 190 F-8, Markings "W-521" (1944) of the Hungarian Airforce.

When and where was the Fighter destroyed?
Can anybody help with the complete story of this fighter?

Best regards

Walter

[Nick Beale]

Moved here from the book reviews section, where it was probably overlooked.

[Dénes Bernád]

The very-very few Hungarian and German documents that survived the war, and relate to the Fw 190s in Hungarian service, refer to the aircraft mostly by their factory construction number. Therefore, only a few scarce documents, recollections and photos help identifying the aircraft by their fuselage number.

W+521 was destroyed on ground, during strafing by Mustangs on Eferding (Austria), on 15 April 1945.

I have seen various black/white and colour profile drawings of W+521, but not a photo (yet).

[Milos Gazdic]

Szia Dénes,

Hogy vagy?

Can you please tell me if there are any photos of Feher 21 / W+521 available in any of the publications?

I have few books about Hungarian aviation (my wife is half Hungarian and I lived for 4-5 years in Budapest, so even if I was not loving the Hungarian aviation I would have to model at least 1-2 of the Hungarian aircraft), but none of the as I can see features this given machine and I would love do 1/48 scale model.

I have decals in 1/48 scale from:
- HAD
- Techmod
and they are just like all the profiles "flying" around (including the detailed one in Hikoki book) quite contradictory when it comes to camo pattern, yellow or non yellow tail, yes or no flag on the rudder etc.

Awaiting for your reply!

Viszlát,
Milos

[Dénes Bernád]

Kedves Miloš!

Personally, I have not seen any photos of W+521, only countless of colour profiles and scale models - one copied from the other. I would not rely on any of them.

As a piece of shameless self-promotion, the most accurate colour profiles of Fw 190s in Hungarian colours (all backed by photos) published so far are included in the book I co-authored with György Punka, 'Hungarian Fighter Colours', vol. 2, published by MMP in 2014.

Szia,

[Csaba B. Stenge]

There are no known photos of the W-521. I even have a fine set of unpublished Hungarian Fw 190 photos from 1945 (I own the original negatives), but none of them from that particular plane. Due to the lack of detailed sources, it is generally impossible to follow the detailed fate of individual Hungarian aircraft in WWII. W-521 was either written off in January, 1945 or was destroyed by strafing Mustangs in April, 1945 (not on the 15th, but on the 16th).

The pilot, who mostly flew the W-521, Sándor Horváth was an old friend of mine. He passed away in 2014, I published his biography to count it as an obituary as well in the 1/2016 issue of the Vasi Szemle, it is available here:
http://www.vasiszemle.hu/2016/01/stenge.htm

I have a long time postponed Fw 190 project, sooner or later it will be available in English with many unpublished details (I went after every single Hungarian Fw 190 pilots).

[Milos Gazdic]

Kedves Dénes és Csaba,

Köszönöm szépen for all the info shared. Seems I still have to back up from doing historically precise Fw 190 of Hungarian Airforce.

I have photos showing:
- Feher 5
- Feher 20
- Feher 24
- Feher 64 and maybe 1-2 machines more (talking off my head) although I own few books about Hungarian aviation that are readily available: Hikoki one (group of authors), Squadron one from Punka... and I think 1-2 more. None of them shows many Fw 190 photos and all of them are basically reprinting already seen ones.
I also just ordered your Hungarian Fighter Colours Dénes about 5-10 days ago from Abe Books Expecting them to arrive in next 1-2 weeks if I am lucky.
Also all the photos that I have show machines only partially and very rarely from various angles discovering enough details that one can discuss things, or so I could try and make my own assumption on how the machines were painted.

I am wondering where the "complete yellow tail" idea comes when it comes to W-521...? Anyhow, I will patiently wait for the books (I guess Vol 2 contains Fw 190s) to arrive and we can discuss further the camo scheme if you don't mind Dénes?

May we know which machines exist on your negatives Csaba? Is there enough material to reconstruct at least one of the machines with Hungarian crosses completely from "tip to toe"? Considering that I was "Out of Business" for 8 years or so when it comes to aviation - I can sit and patiently wait for your publication about Hungarian Fw 190s no matter how long it takes as long as we get something really cool to look at. Even if it is available in Hungarian, my father in law or some of my ex-colleagues from Budapest will fall as victims of translating it!

Also please - if you know of any Hungarian publication that might have more photos of any of the machines (W-520, W-505 and W-510 come to mind first as machines that were most often portrayed in the profiles) please let me know... maybe there is something out there so HAD guys (and others) could have based their decals on?

Szia,
Milos

[Dénes Bernád]

Kedves Miloš!

I suggest you waiting for vol. 2 of 'Hungarian Fighter Colours' to arrive, then we can discuss the details.
Although 'perfect' photos of Fw 190Fs in Hungarian colours are lacking, the few photos included in the book are good enough to reconstruct the camo scheme of several aircraft, which are shown in quality colour profiles. There will be no need to wait any longer.
Spoiler alert: none of the depicted machines display the unit symbol, as most (all?) profiles published so far and scale models made by now show.

[Csaba B. Stenge]

Milos,

I have a beautiful photo of W-528, which shows it from tip to toe (it is very sharp, so despite of the distance, the W.Nr. is clearly readable), and many photos, which shows parts of other aircraft. But of course, that tip to toe photo shows just one side of the aircraft. Since there are no dozens of detail photos of a single aircraft from both sides, after a certain level, it is pointless to debate on the paintings of certain aircraft, since you cannot be sure of every details (I mean repair overpaintings, small individual motifs, which appear just on one side, etc).
Recently I published a formerly unknown and unpublised photo of a successful Hungarian Fw 190 pilot in my aces book, on page 48 (attached here).
You can find some info on this book here: http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=45222
It will be available in English around 2018. It contains the story of an Fw 190 ace too.
Incidentally on the Hungarian Fw 190 topic, still my study is the most detailed one, which was released in two parts in the Magyar Szárnyak (Hungarian Wings) Yearbook, in 2000 and 2001. Very significant percent of the circulating Hungarian Fw 190 info comes from it (generally without mentioning the original source, or course...)

[Dénes Bernád]

Miloš, just a quick question to inquire if you've received the 'Hungarian Fighter Colours' books and if yes, what's your opinion? Did it answer your query about Hungarian Fw 190Fs?