Please help with info about German BT (bomb-torpedoes) and TZA-2 (A&D)

[gorizont]

Hello!
Please help me with info. I can't find info about using German BT-400, -700 and others from Bomb- Torpedoes mods and aiming devices TZA - 2 & D for them. Did Germans use such weapon in real actions and if so where I can find info about actions?
How did TZA-2 work (I mean design and principles of work of the device)? Was it used only with BT or with common bombs too?

Best regards, Gorizont

[edwest]

Trials were done with the Me 410B-5 with BT 200 and BT 400, SB 800RS Kurt rolling bomb, SB1000/410 with stabilizer parachute and the LT 950/L10 glide torpedo. None of these bombs entered field use.

Source: History of German Aviation: Bombers and Reconnaissance Aircraft by Roderich Cescotti. Published by Schiffer.


Hope this helps,
Ed

[Nick Beale]

I've never seen any evidence that the BT weapons were used in action. There are organisation tables that refer to III./KG 200 as "III./KG 200 (BT)" but no evidence at all that they ever operated against ships but a lot of information about them making conventional attacks on land targets.

It was planned that III./200 would use BT from Norway against British Naval units at Scapa Flow but the operation never took place (perhaps because the Fw 190 F did not have the range for the trip there and back if it carried a bomb instead of a drop tank).

[Heuser]

I´ve got the following from Mr. Gebhard Aders
"Einsatzbereitschaftsmeldungen der fliegenden Verbände des Luftflottenkds. Reich, 14.04.1945:
...
III/KG 200: soll 42 Fw 190 BT, ist 38, Besatzungen einsatzbereit 32
..."


Regards, Heuser

[gorizont]

Thanks to all answered to me.
I met notes that BT were planed for using from FW-190F (special mods) and in plans were mods of Fw-190D for the same purposes. So as I see from your answers hte weapon haven't seen real actions.
Is there any info about tactics for using this weapon (angle of dive for an aircraft, level, speed etc) and about aiming devices TZA-2 in inet?

Best regards, Gorizont

[George Hopp]

Actually the bomb sight designation is TSA (Tief- und Sturzfluganlage) rather than TZA.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Heuser

I´ve got the following from Mr. Gebhard Aders
"Einsatzbereitschaftsmeldungen der fliegenden Verbände des Luftflottenkds. Reich, 14.04.1945:
...
III/KG 200: soll 42 Fw 190 BT, ist 38, Besatzungen einsatzbereit 32
..." Regards, Heuser

Exactly the point of my earlier post: Aders is quoting a document form the Bundesarchiv which was perpetuating an obsolete designation. The III./KG 200 was engaged in day and night ground attack operations over North Germany at this time, mostly against the British Army, not anti-shipping missions. (The evidence is in numerous decrypted Luftwaffe signals in the DEFE3/ series at the UK National Archives).

[Heuser]

I´ve got the same informations from various sources: no anti-shipping missions, only ground attacks in northern Germany.
But the most interesting thing for me: Einsatzbereit mentions the crews, but nothing about the Fw 190 "BT´s"... How much of them were fitted with the TZA or any other modification for BT-using? Possibly none?

Regards Heuser

[Nick Beale]

What makes you think that III./KG 200 had any special Fw 190s?

Such loss records as there are mention F-8s. I don't know a single piece of evidence that the Gruppe ever even saw a BT weapon. True, they were assigned to the Scapa Flow operation (and at one time a suggested mission against a lock at Antwerp) and they were listed as "in training" at Stavanger but there is no detail of what they actually did in this (brief) period. They may never have received the planned equipment and it is even possible that they trained for the night ground attack role that they would carry out from late March/early April 1945.

Fw 190 F-8 WNr. 588043 was destroyed at Stavanger-Sola when a flare (Leuchtbombe) exploded during loading on to the aircraft (6 March 1945).

Without new evidence, I don't think we can rely on the "(BT)" suffix any more than the KG 200 organisation table at Freiburg that says Einhorn's role in Italy was "Schiffsbekämpfung" (anti-shipping).

[Heuser]

Sorry, my poor English again! This is exactly my point of view; I won´t believe any story about any torpedo or bomb torpedo in action with Fw 190 until a refutation by photos or documents. And the first document I´ve heard about Fw 190 BT was the mentioned one from Mr. Aders.

Regards, Heuser