Austrian Fw 44 Stieglitzes

[Petrusja]

Hello,

It's strictly speaking not an Axis subject, I know, but I wonder if anyone has information about Austria's Focke-Wulf Fw 44 Stieglitzes.

The easily found information is that 10 were ordered from Germany in 1936, and 40 more were built by Hirtenberger, which I understand is the former Hopfner factory in Wiener Neustadt. And the type served with the Schulstaffel at Graz - Thalerhof.

The Golden Years Register gives, however, 64 Fw 44s with OE-T.. registrations and three or four digit military serials, including some with low construction numbers and 12 with high, apparently Focke Wulf, c/ns. There is also one aircraft registered to Hirtenberger, OE-DHP.

The only two photos I found, in an old Flugzeug Profile by Bernd Vetter, show a few Fw 44s in the snow, including OE-TGS (c/n 1915 /serial 497 according to above source) and OE-THS (1916 / 498).

Vetter mentions ten different construction numbers for the German-built aircraft: 2253 through 2262, and for the Hirtenberger aircraft he mentions serials (although he says construction numbers) 437-445, 460-470, 490-499 and 4001-4012, partially not matching with the register information.

Aviation Safety Network gives two crashes, for OE-TCS and OE-TDI.

That's all I can find. Apart from the confusion over the exact numbers, it seems a large number of trainers for a small air force and the Schulstaffel. Does anyone know more? I take it these aircraft were absorbed by the Luftwaffe in 1938?

Thanks

Peter

[Tom Willis]

The first aircraft to reach Austria were obviously Focke-Wulf built at Bremen. Your Hirtenberger registered a/c OE-DHP was most likely the patent aircraft sent by Focke-Wulf as a construction tool of how the aircraft was put together. This was most likely W/Nr 1343 which was later integrated into the Austrian Air Force as OE-TMI. The 10 other aircraft were 1744 - 1745 & 2253 to 2262
The first of the 20 licence built aircraft were given the Hirtenberger factory construction numbers was from 7 to 26. There is no record of the next 20 possibly because only 50% were complete by the time of the German take-over.
The serial numbers are as follows
451 to 462 = licence built (12 a/c)
491 to 499 = Focke-Wulf built (9 a/c)
4001 to 4002 = Focke-Wulf built (2 a/c)
4003 to 4022 = Focke-Wulf built (20 a/c)
4023 = Focke-Wulf built )1 a/c)
4024 to 4043 = licence built (20 a/c)

which if I count right makes up the 64 a/c

[Simon Schatz]

Hello Peter,

Fred Haubner has published two very good books years ago with Weishaupt Verlag-Graz. Here the info from the book.


DNr. 491-499 and DNr.4001, 4002, 4023 were delivered from Germany = 12 airplanes
DNr. 4003-4022 were built under licence = 20 airplanes

DNr. 4024-4043 and DNr. 451-462 = 32 airplanes were not finished before March 1938

On March 17, Generalmajor Löhr instructed that the national emblems must be changed.

May 18, 1938 following airplanes were deliverd to:

Flugzeugführerschule Zeltweg: DNr. 491-495, 498, 499, 4002-4005, 4009-4013, 4016-4023
Fliegerhorst-Kommandatur Graz I/168: DNr. 496, 497, 4001, 4007
Kampfgruppe I/158: DNr.4006
Aspern, Flugbereitschaft: DNr. 4008
Fliegerhorst-Kommandatur Aigen im Ennstal: DNr. 4014
Zeugamt at Erding in Bavaria (use for spare parts): DNr. 4015

Best regards, Simon

[Tom Willis]

The Serial numbers from 4003 to 4022 should be listed as licence built a/c. My mistake.
By the way what are you researching for?

[Petrusja]

Thanks Tom and Simon, great information.

So it is indeed about 64 aircraft including 12 German-built by Fw (there was also German production at AGO, Bücker and Klemm in Halle by the way), but only 20 localy built aircraft completed before March 1938 (c/n 7 through 26).

I guess the register site contains reserved serials never taken up. Even if the other 32 were eventually completed, they would normally not have got OE registrations. It would have made sense to complete them for the Luftwaffe (or export). If there are no signs of them, perhaps construction of these never started.

Tom, I am an editor for AirHistory.net, doing work on the photo database and also writing some articles. I fixed some wrong data about Fw 44s in the database and thought I'd compile an article.

I was suspicious about the number of Austrian aircraft, since there was so little information about them and the time until the Anschluss was so short. The picture is pretty clear now, thanks Tom, and Simon!

If anybody has photos of the Austrian Fw 44s, or any other decent old Fw 44 photos that I could upload on AirHistory, I'd be interested.

Peter

[Petrusja]

Another question then about Fw 44s that were 'called back' from the customer...

In 1940 Norway bought ten Fw 44s from a final batch that Fw had built in annexed Prague for export (German production had stopped). Bernd Vetter writes that they were 'delivered according to contract in April 1940.' It feels to me that he doesn't feel like mentioning that the invasion of Norway began on 9 April... These aircraft were rather quickly resold to Finland.

My question is of course what exactly happened. The word Vetter uses for 'delivered' is 'überführt', which as a Dutchman I understood as 'ferried,' but it seems it can mean both that and 'handed over'. So did they make it to Norway? Were they handed over to a Norwegian representative without departing? Were Norwegian ferry pilots arrested? It could be a saucy story.

[Stig Jarlevik]

Peter

Norway wanted 20 Fw 44 J but their Government only accepted to buy 10.
Delivery had been set to 20 March 1940.
However the delivery was delayed on purpose and none were ever delivered.

Norwegian pilots were even ready to pick them up and only waiting for a go ahead in late March.

Serial numbers assigned were 101 - 119 (odd numbers only, ie 101, 103, 105 etc.)

Cheers
Stig

[Petrusja]

Thank you very much Stig for the swift answer.
Do you know if they were ready in Bremen?
They must have been painted... No pictures available I suppose.

[Stig Jarlevik]

I'm afraid I don't know how far they had actually reached.

My Norwegian sources does not mention any German sources, so what is listed above come solely from sources published in Norway.

Cheers
Stig

[Petrusja]

Well, Fw headquarters was in Bremen, hence the assumption. Thanks!