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Old 17th September 2011, 01:22
Martin Gleeson Martin Gleeson is offline
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FW 200 C-2 - What month did it enter service in 1940 ?

Hallo,

Can anyone please tell me what month in 1940 did the C-2 variant of the FW 200 Condor enter service with KG 40 ?
Did it see service during the Norwegian campaign ?

There has been some confusion in the past over the number of C-2s built; 7 (Juan-Carlos Salgado) or 8 (Heinz Nowarra). Werk Nummer 0014 is stated to be either the last C-1 or the first C-2 depending on which source one consults.

Unfortunately there is no indication that we will see Teil 2 of Gunther Ott's 'FW 200' in the near future. That should resolve the issue - but we may be a long time waiting !

Regards,

Martin Gleeson.
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Old 17th September 2011, 12:01
Seaplanes Seaplanes is offline
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Re: FW 200 C-2 - What month did it enter service in 1940 ?

According to RLM Lieferplan No. 18 of 11.01.1941, a total of 11 FW 200C-1 and 7 FW 200C-2 were delivered. Up to 01.12.1940, a total of 13 FW 200C-3 had been delivered. Unfortunately, I can not give you the precise entry into service of the C-2 model.
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Old 17th September 2011, 17:28
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Re: FW 200 C-2 - What month did it enter service in 1940 ?

Perhaps some more pieces of the jigsaw, but in his recently published "The Fw200 Condor, A Complete History" [Crecy, 2008] the late Jerry Scutts makes mention that only 8 Fw200C-2's were built. However, when looking in the books "Appendix IV, Fw200 Losses", there are 10 unique examples of Fw200C-2's listed:

29/08/40 - Fw200C-2, WNr.0014 coded BS+AQ of I./KG40
21/09/40 - Fw200C-2, WNr.0023 coded F8+EH of 1./KG40
08/10/40 - Fw200C-2, WNr.0022 coded F8+AK of I./KG40
22/10/40 - Fw200C-2, WNr.0024 coded BS+AX/F8+OK of 2./KG40
25/09/41 - Fw200C-2, WNr.0018 coded ??+?? of IV./KG40
21/10/41 - Fw200C-2, WNr.0023 coded F8+EH of IV./KG40
18/08/42 - Fw200C-2, WNr.0018 coded ??+?? of IV./KG40 (15%, hence another entry below)
08/09/42 - Fw200C-2, WNr.0081 coded KE+IF/F8+CK of 2./KG40
02/01/43 - Fw200C-2, WNr.0017 coded ??+?? of 11./KG40
10/01/43 - Fw200C-2, WNr.0018 coded ??+?? of KGrzbV200
21/05/44 - Fw200C-2, WNr.0016 coded ??+?? of ?

No doubt some of the experts here will be able to pick through this and make comment/amendment, but it may prove interesting nonetheless

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Peter D Evans
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Old 18th September 2011, 04:03
Martin Gleeson Martin Gleeson is offline
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Re: FW 200 C-2 - What month did it enter service in 1940 ?

Seaplanes and Peter,

Thank you very much for that helpful information. I suspect from the numbers quoted that the C-2 must have entered service before July 1940 ?

Regards,

Martin Gleeson.
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Old 18th September 2011, 09:28
F19Gladiator F19Gladiator is offline
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Re: FW 200 C-2 - What month did it enter service in 1940 ?

To answer your question Martin if the Fw 200C-2 variant participated in the Norwegian campaign, I assume you are interested in the period within Unternemen Weserübung as from 9 April 1940 until the Norwegian surrender 10 June 1940. There is a very interesting two part article on the Fw 200 in Norway written by Ulf Larsstuvold and published in the Norwegian magazine Flyhistorie Nr.19 and 20 2011(only Norwegian language). Part I: ‘Condor Over Norge i 1940’ and Part II: ‘Focke Wulf Fw 200 Condor i Norge 1941-1946’ – all in all 25 pages of article illustrated with b/w photos and five colour side view profiles. At the end there is a useful list of references which reinforces my impression that it is well researched. From the article I extract some information linked to the Weserübung period.

I leave the versions earlier than Fw 200C-1 mostly aside here. The user to be of the new Fw 200C-versions, 1./KG 40 was set up with only six older He 111s 1.11.1939, received their first two Fw 200A in November as training aircraft, while the first three Fw 200C-1 arrived in the second week of April 1940 but as the unit was not operational yet they did not take part in the assault on Denmark and Norway on 9. April. However, right after the first naval battle at Narvik 10th of April the unit was ordered to relocate to Ålborg in the now occupied Denmark to fly reconnaissance missions over the Narvik area. Normally one or two of the three Fw 200C-1 were operational at a time and during April 22 operations are believed to have been flown by the three aircraft. During the period of April one aircraft was lost while two new were delivered why the unit had six Fw 200s on 4.May whereof two were ready for operations. May 6 1./KG 40 moved to Copenhagen. On May 11 the unit counted six ‘Condor’ while still only two operational. The number of operations flown in May is uncertain as the surviving material is not fully covering the period but the author has identified 20 operational flights in May with four new Fw 200 delivered and two lost. 2./KG 40 possibly being set up on May 1.
On May 30 the unit now being named I./KG 40 (1./KG 40 and 2./KG 40) moved from Copenhagen to Gardermoen in Norway. By June 1, KG 40 counted 6 Fw 200 C whereof three operational and the unit flew missions from their new base for two weeks until the Norwegian capitulation where after the unit flew back to their home base at Oldenburg on June 12. The author has counted to 52 missions flown by Fw 200C during the Norwegian campaign, nine Fw 200s delivered, three lost and two damaged in landing accidents.
Did the Fw 200C-2 fly operations during the Weserübung in 1940? According to the article Fw 200 WNr.008, F8+FH was probably the last ‘Condor’ delivered during the Norwegian campaign and seen on a photo from Gardermoen in the shift May to June. According to Juan-Carlos Salgado in the book ‘Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor the Airliner that went to War’, page 116, WNr.008 was a Fw 200C-1. I can not through the article by Ulf Larsstuvold verify any operations with Fw 200C-2 during Weserübung.
In part 2 of the article the deliveries to I./KG 40 during 1940 is summarized: 36 Fw 200 delivered in 1940; 10 C-1; 6 C-2 and 12 of the C-3 variant. 7 were allegedly transport D-2 variants. During 1940 eleven ‘Condor’ aircraft were lost, whereof four transport aircraft. Despite the number of aircraft at most three could fly missions in one day and that “high” number of missions was not common. The first recorded loss of a Fw 200C-2 according to Peter’s listing above seems to be well after the fighting in Norway had ceased as it was in late August 1940 (29.08.40)
The ‘Condor’ flown by 2./KGr.zbV.108 in Norway as VB+UA was WNr.0010 and a D variant, in the article by Larsstuvold named as a D-2 while in the loss listing in the book by Juan-Carlos Salgado it is named as a Fw 200D-1. The aircraft was lost in a landing accident at Gardermoen 14.12.1940.
Despite not being conclusive I hope the above can still be of interest.
Br
Goran

References:
Article Part I: ‘Condor Over Norge i 1940’, Ulf Larsstuvold. Norwegian magazine Flyhistorie Nr.19, 2011.
Article Part II: ‘Focke Wulf Fw 200 Condor i Norge 1941-1946’, Ulf Larsstuvold, Norwegian magazine Flyhistorie Nr.20, 2011.
Juan-Carlos Salgado, ‘Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor the Airliner that went to War’, Classic, 2008.
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Old 18th September 2011, 20:02
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Re: FW 200 C-2 - What month did it enter service in 1940 ?

AFAIK, C-2 production included WNr. 0016-0018 and 0022-0024.
In all six machines, but what about 0019-0021?
However, in the rest of the production of this a/c many gaps appear (for instance, there were no 0099 nor 0130-131 in the C-4 series).

When you add up the annual production, you get 263 Fw 200s, but if you add up all known WNrs, you only get 253!

@ Peter, WNr. 0014 was a C-1. Maybe a typo?
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Old 18th September 2011, 20:58
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Re: FW 200 C-2 - What month did it enter service in 1940 ?

Just double checked Chris and WNr.0014 is definitely recorded as a Fw200C-2, but whether that is correct is another thing. Incidentally, the same listing has WNr.0019, 0020 and 0021 as Fw200D-2b's, but once again, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the entries either...

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Old 18th September 2011, 21:02
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Re: FW 200 C-2 - What month did it enter service in 1940 ?

The Fw 200 looks like an another elusive LW type.
Well, that's fun!
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Old 19th September 2011, 03:34
Martin Gleeson Martin Gleeson is offline
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Re: FW 200 C-2 - What month did it enter service in 1940 ?

Sincere thanks to CJE, Peter and especially Goran for your assistance.

That Norwegian article is new to me and greatly helps. Thanks for taking the time to extract so much valuable information from it. Because of this I hope to make some observations on the fates of certain early Condors in the next day or two.

Regards for now,

Martin.
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