Fw 200 C-5, the invisible sub-type? A review of published and documentary sources.

[INM@RLM]

A PS to my 5th August

At the risk of overstating the obvious, to check today the basic facts by obtaining copies of the aircraft and aeroengine manuals & handbooks for most main Luftwaffe types is child's play.

For most it is not even necessary to arrange a pilgrimage to the IWM at Duxford or the Bundesrachiv. For the more difficult cases though, there is a very useful Bundesarchiv online finding aid which lists 632 hits searching 'BArch Flugzeug Handbuch':
https://www.archivportal-d.de/objekt...81939772199699
Not all of these are in the BArch RL 3 Generalluftzeugmeister series, so search also for the individual aircraft type. (For example, L.Dv. 371 Fw 44 J.- Entwurf eines Flugzeug-Handbuches is actually in the RL 1 series.)

For us today, these Luftwaffe manuals can be purchased on DVD (and often in print also) for reasonable amounts and with a fast turnround from Luftfahrt-Archiv Hafner https://www.luftfahrt-archiv-hafner.de/. Usually there is a Hafner-arranged multi-manual compendium for the aircraft type, which frequently also includes the relevant aeroengine manuals. Also available from Archiv-Hafner is extensive material on weapons, other equipments and aircraft painting. (The DVD with catalogue number LAH-388 'Flugzeugmaler / Flugzeuglacke Kompendium' (286 pages) is a particular gem since it includes all of: Der Flugzeug-Maler, Verlag Dr. M. Matthiessen ,1939; Flugzeug-Lacke, LDv 521/1, 1938 & Flugzeug-Lacke, LDv 521/1, 1941. The LDv 521/1 copy of 1938 clearly evidences the location and precise content of each amendment issued in Sep-1939. The necessary pages are reproduced in colour.)

Many of these manuals and related materials are also generously available gratis for download from: http://www.deutscheluftwaffe.com/arc.../Dokumente.htm. (Look under F for Flugzeug Handbücher and M for Motoren, and again there is extensive material here on weapons and other equipments).

In Green's day getting at these documents was inevitably harder, but he had had all of the 1950s and '60's to do this, and his professional background in popularising aircraft recognition through the second world war had also provided him with a plethora of useful contacts in the services and government departments holding the captured documents. Accepted that apart from the work on identifying the corrections and Green's enduring legacy as a brilliant populariser and stylist, all that is water under the bridge now.

However, for us today a good guide is: "The information's out there. All you have to do is let it in." Letting it in though also involves searching it out.