0:02 It was September 1st, 1941, and a group
0:04 of British Spitfire Mark Fives flew a
0:06 routine mission over France when they
0:08 were attacked by four never-before-seen
0:10 fighters with German markings. They
0:11 surprised the group with such speed,
0:14 shooting down four Spitfires without a
0:16 single loss on the German side. The
0:17 surviving British pilots didn't know it
0:19 at the time, but they had just seen the
0:21 new German fighter for the first time,
0:23 which was about to become their biggest
0:25 fear in the skies.
0:27 The British Royal Air Force was for the
0:29 entire year fighting a heavy war with
0:32 the German Luftvafer. The Mesosmmit BF
0:34 109 had been their biggest enemy up
0:35 until that moment. And although it
0:37 initially caught off guard the Hawker
0:38 Hurricanes and early marks of the
0:40 Spitfire, it was now being put under
0:42 control with the supply of enough
0:45 Spitfire Mark 5s. The Royal Air Force
0:47 was finally catching a breath and had
0:49 begun pushing the Luftvafer back into
0:51 France. However, just as the situation
0:53 finally seemed to begin favoring the
0:55 Allies, out of nowhere emerged a new
0:56 German fighter that simply outmatched
0:58 everything they had. Its performance was
1:01 unseen up until then. Spitfire losses
1:03 quickly began mounting, and anyone
1:04 trying to engage this new fighter
1:07 wouldn't return. To make matters even
1:09 worse, Allied intelligence had no idea
1:11 it even existed. Its early sightings
1:12 were written off, thinking it was some
1:15 kind of modified captured French plane.
1:17 The Allies panicked, but it was only
1:18 going to get worse from here. as this
1:20 new German fighter would appear in
1:22 increasing numbers until something
1:23 completely unexpected happened that
1:25 would give the allies all the answers
1:27 they needed to realize what this was and
1:29 how to counter it. What we're talking
1:31 about here is of course the subject of
1:34 our video, the Faulwolf 190. Before
1:35 going into combat, it would be
1:37 interesting to set the stage first and
1:38 explain why this fighter was developed
1:40 in a completely different way than its
1:44 older famous brother, the BF 109. The
1:46 190 would start as an idea in 1937 when
1:48 the Germans wanted something to fight
1:50 alongside their 109s. And one of those
1:52 ideas would catch their attention. It
1:54 was Kurt Tank's concept of creating a
1:56 fighter with a radial engine, which was
1:58 rare at a time when the focus was on
2:00 making fighters as small and slick as
2:02 possible. The radial engine was
2:04 considered too big for a nimble fighter.
2:06 But Kurt wanted to use an engine so
2:07 powerful that it would compensate for
2:09 the additional drag it created with its
2:12 size. This way, it would be even faster,
2:14 but also able to carry heavier weapons
2:16 while being much harder to kill. Water-
2:18 cooled engines could be taken out with
2:20 just a single machine gun bullet hitting
2:22 the water line, after which the engine
2:24 would quickly overheat. For this radial
2:26 air cooled beast of an engine, that
2:27 wasn't the case. There were pilots
2:29 flying back to base with several
2:31 cylinders shattered by fire. We're
2:35 talking about the BMW 801, a 14cylinder
2:38 41.8 8 L beast of an engine putting out
2:40 around 1,800 horsepower and giving at
2:42 the time unmatched speed. The whole
2:45 FW190 was specifically designed for
2:47 harsh wartime conditions. And that meant
2:49 being easy to maintain in the field,
2:50 able to land on hastily prepared
2:52 runways, much less challenging to fly,
2:54 so the pilots could be trained faster
2:56 and of course able to take massive
2:58 damage and survive to fly back, be
3:00 repaired, and fight another day. So the
3:02 190 was developed, went into production,
3:04 and soon the first units arrived at the
3:07 front lines for combat testing. It was
3:08 received with doubt at first, and some
3:10 German pilots preferred the proven BF-
3:13 109s. They would quickly change their
3:14 minds when they went into combat,
3:16 however. In the new fighter, German top
3:18 aces would score hundreds of air kills,
3:20 like Joseph Priller, for example, who
3:23 shot down at least 68 Spitfires out of
3:26 his 101 confirmed wins. Sadly for the
3:28 Spitfire pilots, they would also
3:29 immediately notice the difference
3:32 between the 109 and this new thing the
3:34 Germans came up with. And when we say
3:35 notice the difference, we mean the
3:37 Spitfire was about to get outclassed.
3:40 The BF 109 and Spitfire Mark1 were
3:42 basically on par in terms of performance
3:44 with the result of a fight, mostly
3:46 depending on the starting position and
3:47 the skill of the pilots. But the
3:50 Spitfire Mark 5 would introduce two 20mm
3:52 cannons in its wings among other
3:54 improvements which gave it the upper
3:56 hand against the 109s. The 190s,
3:58 however, were quick to ruin the RF's
4:00 naive expectations that they now had a
4:02 better fighter. The Fauler Wolf could
4:04 easily outclimb and outdive the Spitfire
4:07 Mark 5, and its roll rate was unheard of
4:09 at the time. RAF pilots quickly learned
4:11 they couldn't turn with it, couldn't
4:12 chase it in a dive, and that its
4:14 firepower was much more effective.
4:16 Typical standard armorament of the
4:18 Fauler Wolf included two MG17 machine
4:21 guns mounted above the engine and two 20
4:23 mm cannons in the wing roots. This
4:25 doesn't sound like much, but the catch
4:26 was that they were all firing through
4:28 the propeller arc using an interrupter
4:30 mechanism, while later models even had
4:32 two additional 20 mm mounted in the
4:35 outer wing positions. Something usually
4:36 overlooked is this placement of their
4:39 guns. The Spitfire Mark 5, for example,
4:42 carried two 20 mm Hispano cannons and
4:44 four 303 caliber machine guns. all
4:46 mounted out in the wings. That meant
4:47 they weren't firing through the
4:49 propeller and were spaced more widely
4:51 apart. The guns were carefully aligned
4:53 to converge at a specific distance,
4:56 usually around 250 to 300 yd. But
4:58 outside that narrow sweet spot, the
5:00 rounds would start to spread out. Now,
5:02 when you take a look at the Fauler
5:04 Wolf's armament being concentrated more
5:06 toward the center of the aircraft and
5:08 firing through the propeller arc, that
5:10 meant most of its firepower was going
5:12 right down the center line in a tighter
5:14 grouping and more effective at longer
5:16 range, giving it a much deadlier punch.
5:18 The Faulwolf had every aspect in mind
5:20 for dog fighting. It had a bubble
5:22 canopy, improving visibility drastically
5:25 compared to the 109. Controls were well
5:27 organized and easier to use in the chaos
5:29 of combat. The engine was tuned to
5:31 perform best at low to mid altitudes
5:32 because that's where most dog fights
5:35 take place. High altitude performance
5:36 wasn't great, but it was never thought
5:38 to be important for a dog fighter.
5:40 Although this issue would cost them
5:42 dearly later, but we'll come to that.
5:44 One unique feature in the 190 was an
5:45 automatic engine management system,
5:47 which relieved the pilot of having to
5:48 manually adjust the fuel mixture
5:50 depending on the altitude like in
5:52 previous fighters. He could just focus
5:54 on flying and fighting. Now, it was June
5:57 of 1942, and the Allies had only heard
5:58 about the Fauler Wolf through some
6:00 reports, but they still didn't have a
6:03 single piece of solid information. Then,
6:06 something outright bizarre happened. A
6:08 young German pilot, Armen Faber, had
6:10 just gotten out of a dog fight with a
6:13 Spitfire in his 190, which he won. When
6:15 he turned around, he realized there was
6:17 no one around from his group. He had
6:19 gotten disoriented during the dives and
6:20 turns and was now flying in the
6:22 completely opposite direction from where
6:24 he thought he was going. Thinking he was
6:26 over France, he was actually over
6:28 England. He was flying deep inland when
6:30 he soon saw a training airfield, which
6:32 he mistook for a German airfield in
6:34 France. Luckily for him, the airfield
6:36 didn't have anti-aircraft guns, and he
6:38 casually landed his Fuckerwolf while the
6:40 ground crew, completely in disbelief,
6:43 guided him to the hanger. Then, as he
6:44 took a better look around, he could see
6:46 a soldier on his wing with a pistol
6:48 pointed at him. He realized what a
6:50 horrible mistake he had made and that he
6:52 had just landed an intact, secretive new
6:55 fighter right onto an enemy airfield. To
6:57 make matters worse for him, 190 pilots
6:59 were at first specifically ordered not
7:01 to fly across the English Channel,
7:03 exactly because of the risk of capture.
7:05 Armen had just given his enemies
7:07 everything they needed to know on how to
7:09 defeat the Fauler Wolf. And they needed
7:10 that information desperately because the
7:12 fuckerwolf would soon begin appearing in
7:14 raids over England and also on the
7:16 Eastern Front and in North Africa where
7:18 they had enormous success against all
7:21 Allied fighters. The data the allies got
7:22 from thoroughly testing the captured
7:24 Fauler Wolf directly influenced the
7:26 accelerated development and deployment
7:28 of the Spitfire Mark 9, but also the
7:31 Hawker Tempest and the Hawker Sea Fury.
7:33 Powered by the new two-stage
7:35 supercharged Merlin 61 engine, the Mark
7:38 9 finally gave RAF pilots a fighting
7:41 chance. It could now match the FW190 in
7:43 speed and climb, and it performed much
7:45 better at higher altitudes. Rather than
7:47 going into turning contests with the
7:49 Fauler Wolf, RAF pilots started using
7:51 energy fighting, high-speed slashing
7:52 attacks, and greater coordination
7:55 between squadrons. Still, the 190
7:57 remained a serious threat. In skilled
7:59 hands, it could dive away and escape or
8:01 use its superior roll rate to
8:05 outmaneuver even a Mark 9. As 1943 was
8:06 approaching and the Allied bombing
8:08 campaign intensified, the 190s would get
8:10 a new job and one for which they were
8:13 never designed. Although they initially
8:15 had great success in causing tremendous
8:16 bomber losses to the Allies, everything
8:19 would soon change for the worse for the
8:21 190s. At first, bombers flew without
8:23 fighter escorts, and the main concern
8:25 for German interceptors was the bombers
8:28 machine guns. Like the famous B17 Flying
8:31 Fortress, which had up to 1350 caliber
8:32 machine guns in turrets and flew in
8:34 tight box formations, it still wasn't
8:36 enough to protect them from fighters.
8:39 The 190s were up armed with heavier 30
8:41 mm cannons and even unguided rockets for
8:44 downing huge bomber formations. But very
8:46 soon this would work completely against
8:48 them as the Allies introduced longrange
8:50 fighter escort, finally solving the
8:53 problem of the fighter short range.
8:55 Among the P-47 Thunderbolts and improved
8:57 Spitfires were now also the new and
8:59 lethal American P-51 Mustangs. The
9:01 Fauler Wolf, which never had great
9:03 performance at high altitudes to begin
9:04 with, was now burdened with heavier
9:07 weapons meant for fighting bombers. It
9:09 was easily outturned and decimated by
9:11 Allied fighters, which favored higher
9:13 altitudes. To make matters worse, most
9:15 of the aces and experienced German
9:17 pilots were long dead, and their hastily
9:19 trained young replacements were
9:20 decimated over the skies of their
9:22 homeland as they desperately tried to
9:24 defend it from bombing raids. The
9:26 Germans tried to solve this problem with
9:28 the D model with a newer engine tuned
9:30 for high altitude, and it was actually
9:32 on par with the American Mustang. They
9:33 would prove quite effective and would
9:35 down a lot of bombers, but they were
9:37 still strangled by the deteriorating
9:39 situation in the German army with
9:41 constant shortages in everything. The
9:43 final and most advanced version, the
9:46 Faulerwolf TA 152, would enter service
9:48 with some 70 units, but it would arrive
9:51 simply too little, too late. The war was
9:54 already lost. If you enjoy videos like
9:56 this, feel free to check out our channel
