The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 was a revolutionary German fighter aircraft that initially dominated the skies, posing a significant threat to Allied forces, but its eventual capture and subsequent Allied advancements led to its decline.
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It was September 1st, 1941, and a group
of British Spitfire Mark Fives flew a
routine mission over France when they
were attacked by four never-before-seen
fighters with German markings. They
surprised the group with such speed,
shooting down four Spitfires without a
single loss on the German side. The
surviving British pilots didn't know it
at the time, but they had just seen the
new German fighter for the first time,
which was about to become their biggest
fear in the skies.
The British Royal Air Force was for the
entire year fighting a heavy war with
the German Luftvafer. The Mesosmmit BF
109 had been their biggest enemy up
until that moment. And although it
initially caught off guard the Hawker
Hurricanes and early marks of the
Spitfire, it was now being put under
control with the supply of enough
Spitfire Mark 5s. The Royal Air Force
was finally catching a breath and had
begun pushing the Luftvafer back into
France. However, just as the situation
finally seemed to begin favoring the
Allies, out of nowhere emerged a new
German fighter that simply outmatched
everything they had. Its performance was
unseen up until then. Spitfire losses
quickly began mounting, and anyone
trying to engage this new fighter
wouldn't return. To make matters even
worse, Allied intelligence had no idea
it even existed. Its early sightings
were written off, thinking it was some
kind of modified captured French plane.
The Allies panicked, but it was only
going to get worse from here. as this
new German fighter would appear in
increasing numbers until something
completely unexpected happened that
would give the allies all the answers
they needed to realize what this was and
how to counter it. What we're talking
about here is of course the subject of
our video, the Faulwolf 190. Before
going into combat, it would be
interesting to set the stage first and
explain why this fighter was developed
in a completely different way than its
older famous brother, the BF 109. The
190 would start as an idea in 1937 when
the Germans wanted something to fight
alongside their 109s. And one of those
ideas would catch their attention. It
was Kurt Tank's concept of creating a
fighter with a radial engine, which was
rare at a time when the focus was on
making fighters as small and slick as
possible. The radial engine was
considered too big for a nimble fighter.
But Kurt wanted to use an engine so
powerful that it would compensate for
the additional drag it created with its
size. This way, it would be even faster,
but also able to carry heavier weapons
while being much harder to kill. Water-
cooled engines could be taken out with
just a single machine gun bullet hitting
the water line, after which the engine
would quickly overheat. For this radial
air cooled beast of an engine, that
wasn't the case. There were pilots
flying back to base with several
cylinders shattered by fire. We're
talking about the BMW 801, a 14cylinder
41.8 8 L beast of an engine putting out
around 1,800 horsepower and giving at
the time unmatched speed. The whole
FW190 was specifically designed for
harsh wartime conditions. And that meant
being easy to maintain in the field,
able to land on hastily prepared
runways, much less challenging to fly,
so the pilots could be trained faster
and of course able to take massive
damage and survive to fly back, be
repaired, and fight another day. So the
190 was developed, went into production,
and soon the first units arrived at the
front lines for combat testing. It was
received with doubt at first, and some
German pilots preferred the proven BF-
109s. They would quickly change their
minds when they went into combat,
however. In the new fighter, German top
aces would score hundreds of air kills,
like Joseph Priller, for example, who
shot down at least 68 Spitfires out of
his 101 confirmed wins. Sadly for the
Spitfire pilots, they would also
immediately notice the difference
between the 109 and this new thing the
Germans came up with. And when we say
notice the difference, we mean the
Spitfire was about to get outclassed.
The BF 109 and Spitfire Mark1 were
basically on par in terms of performance
with the result of a fight, mostly
depending on the starting position and
the skill of the pilots. But the
Spitfire Mark 5 would introduce two 20mm
cannons in its wings among other
improvements which gave it the upper
hand against the 109s. The 190s,
however, were quick to ruin the RF's
naive expectations that they now had a
better fighter. The Fauler Wolf could
easily outclimb and outdive the Spitfire
Mark 5, and its roll rate was unheard of
at the time. RAF pilots quickly learned
they couldn't turn with it, couldn't
chase it in a dive, and that its
firepower was much more effective.
Typical standard armorament of the
Fauler Wolf included two MG17 machine
guns mounted above the engine and two 20
mm cannons in the wing roots. This
doesn't sound like much, but the catch
was that they were all firing through
the propeller arc using an interrupter
mechanism, while later models even had
two additional 20 mm mounted in the
outer wing positions. Something usually
overlooked is this placement of their
guns. The Spitfire Mark 5, for example,
carried two 20 mm Hispano cannons and
four 303 caliber machine guns. all
mounted out in the wings. That meant
they weren't firing through the
propeller and were spaced more widely
apart. The guns were carefully aligned
to converge at a specific distance,
usually around 250 to 300 yd. But
outside that narrow sweet spot, the
rounds would start to spread out. Now,
when you take a look at the Fauler
Wolf's armament being concentrated more
toward the center of the aircraft and
firing through the propeller arc, that
meant most of its firepower was going
right down the center line in a tighter
grouping and more effective at longer
range, giving it a much deadlier punch.
The Faulwolf had every aspect in mind
for dog fighting. It had a bubble
canopy, improving visibility drastically
compared to the 109. Controls were well
organized and easier to use in the chaos
of combat. The engine was tuned to
perform best at low to mid altitudes
because that's where most dog fights
take place. High altitude performance
wasn't great, but it was never thought
to be important for a dog fighter.
Although this issue would cost them
dearly later, but we'll come to that.
One unique feature in the 190 was an
automatic engine management system,
which relieved the pilot of having to
manually adjust the fuel mixture
depending on the altitude like in
previous fighters. He could just focus
on flying and fighting. Now, it was June
of 1942, and the Allies had only heard
about the Fauler Wolf through some
reports, but they still didn't have a
single piece of solid information. Then,
something outright bizarre happened. A
young German pilot, Armen Faber, had
just gotten out of a dog fight with a
Spitfire in his 190, which he won. When
he turned around, he realized there was
no one around from his group. He had
gotten disoriented during the dives and
turns and was now flying in the
completely opposite direction from where
he thought he was going. Thinking he was
over France, he was actually over
England. He was flying deep inland when
he soon saw a training airfield, which
he mistook for a German airfield in
France. Luckily for him, the airfield
didn't have anti-aircraft guns, and he
casually landed his Fuckerwolf while the
ground crew, completely in disbelief,
guided him to the hanger. Then, as he
took a better look around, he could see
a soldier on his wing with a pistol
pointed at him. He realized what a
horrible mistake he had made and that he
had just landed an intact, secretive new
fighter right onto an enemy airfield. To
make matters worse for him, 190 pilots
were at first specifically ordered not
to fly across the English Channel,
exactly because of the risk of capture.
Armen had just given his enemies
everything they needed to know on how to
defeat the Fauler Wolf. And they needed
that information desperately because the
fuckerwolf would soon begin appearing in
raids over England and also on the
Eastern Front and in North Africa where
they had enormous success against all
Allied fighters. The data the allies got
from thoroughly testing the captured
Fauler Wolf directly influenced the
accelerated development and deployment
of the Spitfire Mark 9, but also the
Hawker Tempest and the Hawker Sea Fury.
Powered by the new two-stage
supercharged Merlin 61 engine, the Mark
9 finally gave RAF pilots a fighting
chance. It could now match the FW190 in
speed and climb, and it performed much
better at higher altitudes. Rather than
going into turning contests with the
Fauler Wolf, RAF pilots started using
energy fighting, high-speed slashing
attacks, and greater coordination
between squadrons. Still, the 190
remained a serious threat. In skilled
hands, it could dive away and escape or
use its superior roll rate to
outmaneuver even a Mark 9. As 1943 was
approaching and the Allied bombing
campaign intensified, the 190s would get
a new job and one for which they were
never designed. Although they initially
had great success in causing tremendous
bomber losses to the Allies, everything
would soon change for the worse for the
190s. At first, bombers flew without
fighter escorts, and the main concern
for German interceptors was the bombers
machine guns. Like the famous B17 Flying
Fortress, which had up to 1350 caliber
machine guns in turrets and flew in
tight box formations, it still wasn't
enough to protect them from fighters.
The 190s were up armed with heavier 30
mm cannons and even unguided rockets for
downing huge bomber formations. But very
soon this would work completely against
them as the Allies introduced longrange
fighter escort, finally solving the
problem of the fighter short range.
Among the P-47 Thunderbolts and improved
Spitfires were now also the new and
lethal American P-51 Mustangs. The
Fauler Wolf, which never had great
performance at high altitudes to begin
with, was now burdened with heavier
weapons meant for fighting bombers. It
was easily outturned and decimated by
Allied fighters, which favored higher
altitudes. To make matters worse, most
of the aces and experienced German
pilots were long dead, and their hastily
trained young replacements were
decimated over the skies of their
homeland as they desperately tried to
defend it from bombing raids. The
Germans tried to solve this problem with
the D model with a newer engine tuned
for high altitude, and it was actually
on par with the American Mustang. They
would prove quite effective and would
down a lot of bombers, but they were
still strangled by the deteriorating
situation in the German army with
constant shortages in everything. The
final and most advanced version, the
Faulerwolf TA 152, would enter service
with some 70 units, but it would arrive
simply too little, too late. The war was
already lost. If you enjoy videos like
this, feel free to check out our channel
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