Fw 190 F-8/R14

[Ferreira]

Hi, people,

Did the 11./KG 200 use in combat the Fw 190 F-8/R14, in Flensburg, Germany, april 1945?

Cheers,

Franklin

[Nick Beale]

None of the losses reported mention anything more than "F-8" and the same is true, so far as I remember, for strength returns. In those teturns you will see "III./KG 200 (BT)", referring to "Bombentorpedo" but there is no evidence at all that I've seen of them ever using it.

Formed out of I./SG 5 in December 1944-January 1945, III./KG 200 (i.e. 9., 10. and 11./KG 200) flew conventional ground attack missions with conventional bomb loads. One Staffel (I don't know which) was supposed to be the "day" Staffel but many (probably most) operations were by night. One daylight op was against the British bridgehead at Stolzenau on early April.

They had no particular need of an "unusual" aircraft but this late in the war, I guess they took what was available.

P.S. if you had the Fw 190 "A3+LV" in mind when you asked your question (photos of it appear in a number of books), I'm not convinced it belonged to 11./KG 200. The Geschwader used a very strange system of codes!

[Ferreira]

Thank's, mr. Beale!

[Kutscha]

Is not the /R14 the torpedo carrying a/c?

[Ferreira]

Yes, Kutscha,

The Fw 190 F-8/R14 carring a LTF5b torpedo on an ETC502 rack.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Ferreira

The Fw 190 F-8/R14 carring a LTF5b torpedo on an ETC502 rack.

The unit intended to convert to torpedo ops with the Fw 190 was I./KG 26 but the project was abandoned in April 1945.

[Kutscha]

"III./KG 200 (BT)"

Nick, was this unit to use the F-8/R15 (BT1400) with the enlarged fin and/or the F-8/R16 (BT700 or 2xBT400 + dt) and normal sized fin?

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Kutscha

"III./KG 200 (BT)"

Nick, was this unit to use the F-8/R15 (BT1400) with the enlarged fin and/or the F-8/R16 (BT700 or 2xBT400 + dt) and normal sized fin?

There is no indication that the Gruppe ever received any specialised aircraft. It never used the Bombentorpedo in action. When the Gruppe transferred to Germany from Norway (where it had been in training) it operated in the land ground attack role. The only 11./KG 200 aircraft that I have seen a photo of was a perfectly normal F-8

[Flitzer]

"III/KG 200 (BT), originally intended to use FW 190s armed with bomb-torpedos, existed ony as so much personnel and had no operational aircraft because the development of this weapon had run into difficulties"

(From KG 200 The True Story, by P.W. Stahl)

[Flitzer]

II/KG 200 had a number of FW 190(BT) in September 1944. It was planned to form three Staffeln with these, but the aircraft were prone to accidents, unable to carry such heavy loads under operational conditions. A few, based at Stavanger flew some individual attacks against British warships in the North Sea.

(KG 200 The True Story, P.W. Stahl)