FW200 Bombing England in 1940/41

[Jon]

A month or so back a thread was posted about a FW200 shown in a painting attacking mainland Britain with a force of HE111's, they were being attacked by 238 Squadron during the Battle of Britain, almost every response said this did not happen and the FW200 never acted as heavy bomber of English land targets in WW2...i also agree with this but...
on page 97 of Alfred Prices "The Luftwaffe in Camera 1939-1942" it shows the tail of a FW200 with 10 attacks on shipping indicated and 13 attacks under "England"
Can anyone give some indication as to what these England attacks could be?
The FW200 looks to be from1/KG 40 flown by LT Buchholz

[Larry]

I seem to remember reading some years ago that Fw 200 aircraft were active over the Irish Sea and that they may have attacked Liverpool. But the route to the area was said to be over the sea and not over southern England as depicted in the painting I saw at Middle Wallop.

[Chris Goss]

England in this case usually means missions around the British Isles as opposed to over England

[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.

[brewerjerry]

Hi
my notes are still packed, due to my emigration , but from memory , during my pro/na research...

in the diary of the GRU detachment ( 02?) at exeter, devon, 11-12 may 41, recorded that eight aircraft attacked the airfield, one of the attacking bombers was a FW 200.

devonport dockyard , plymouth devon, was attacked in daylight by a four engined bomber in late 40/ early 41.

I seem to recall an incident with 247sq over cornwall with a fw 200, april 41, I think.
cheers
jerry

[Jon]

Hello Jerry

Very interesting, can you please make sure you dig the notes out when you get a chance.
I have always suspected or, at least wanted to belive the FW200 crossed the coast on occasions...it would have had a better chance of survival than a DO17 or HE111 in daylight.
Looking forward to your response, and good luck with the emigration.

Jon

[Chris Goss]

I would be interested as using the FW 200 in daylight would have been one hell of a risk! The losses in and around Narvik proved that. All the logbooks I have show coastal as opposed to inland targets. As to survivability, I would question this!

[Larry]

I was thinking along the same lines as Chris and was thinking that if the Fw 200 was regularly bombing Britain in the same way as He111, Ju 88 and Do17 then at least one or two would have been brought down on land. Did any Fw 200 aircraft come down on land in the UK?

[Jon]

Hi Larry i do not think for a second they were regular trips, maybe only a dozen or so..hence the fact we have limited knowledge. Remember the later HE177 operated at night over Britain and had few losses against probably the best nightfighter ever to fly (Mosquito) even though they flew a good number of missions so maybe no FW200 were lost over Britain due to the low number of raids ? however i do agree with both Chris and Larry regards the chances of survival but, operating any bomber in daylight over Britain was a risk, the FW200 was better armed for defense though less able to evade when engaged.
I dont expext any long trips over land but, ports and coastal areas would have been possible, hit it, and away to sea!
All interesting stuff though and well worth more research
Jon

[brewerjerry]

Originally Posted by Jon

Hello Jerry

Very interesting, can you please make sure you dig the notes out when you get a chance.
I have always suspected or, at least wanted to belive the FW200 crossed the coast on occasions...it would have had a better chance of survival than a DO17 or HE111 in daylight.
Looking forward to your response, and good luck with the emigration.

Jon

Hi Jon,
I will dig out the notes at the first chance, but it maybe a few weeks .... Emigration to Vancouver is going fine, fingers crossed it will keep doing so....

To add to my post found a mis-filed ( by me card ),

01-04-41, 20:05hrs 2 x He-III and 1 X FW200 attacked St Eval, FW200 claimed hit by Sgt Renvoize, with a 5 sec burst, flying hurricane W9153 of 247Sq whilst over St Eval.

think this is from pro/na and/or police war diary

Of interest but slightly O/T, maybe due to the majority of devon and cornwall being coastal, a few different a/c, it seems used to fly over it.
a twin engined floatplane was spotted by an A/A post in the march/april 41 night blitz of plymouth, but was flying to low for the crew to react and fire, presumably a HE-115,

Cheers
Jerry