Focke-Wulf Fw 190 (Osprey Production Line to Frontline 5)

Rating:
Summary: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about the Fw 190
Review: Osprey's Production Line to Frontline #5, Focke-Wulf Fw 190 by Malcolm V Lowe, is an exceptionally good volume for military historians and aviation enthusiasts alike. This series is "meatier" than most Osprey products (144 pages) and is probably too technical for most casual readers. Malcolm V Lowe uses the Production Line to Frontline format to good effect and delivers an excellent compact history of how one of Germany's most important fighter programs in the Second World War was brought from the draft table to the battlefield. There is a wealth of information about how the Luftwaffe managed its fighter programs in this volume.

After a short introduction, Focke-Wulf Fw 190 has chapters on the design of the prototypes, initial production batches, improvements to the basic design, fighter-bomber variants, a new engine, other prototypes, the Fw 190D "Dora" variant, the Ta-152 variant, armament of the Fw 190 series, and an overview of Fw 190 production. Final chapters address the aircraft's introduction into frontline service and foreign users. The author provides an excellent bibliography that includes Internet references and three appendices (principal aircraft plants involved in Fw 190 production, Fw 190 production batches by work number, the code system for German aircraft manufacturers, and selected Fw 190 specifications). There are many interesting and unusual photographs complementing the text, many taken by employees of the Focke-Wulf Company. For example, the author provides a rare photo of a Fw 190 equipped as a torpedo bomber. The volume also includes four pages of line drawings of the principal Fw 190 variants.

Lowe discusses at length how the Focke-Wulf Corporation discussed the Fw 190 as a complement to Germany's primary single-engine fighter - the Bf Me-109. In fact, the Fw 190 ended up being far superior to the Bf Me-109 in many respects and turned out to be the Luftwaffe's primary fighter after 1943. The Fw 190 went from initial requirement to first production in about 36 months, with the first aircraft reaching operational squadrons in August 1941. The Fw 190 was built as a radial engine fighter, as opposed to the in-line engine Bf Me-109, and offered enormous growth potential. Lowe discusses the many variants of the main "Anton" version of the fighter, followed by its "F" and "G" fighter-bomber versions and finally the "D" and Ta-152 high-altitude versions. One insight that this volume provides is the tremendous talent resident in the Focke-Wulf design team; many of its members were test pilots as well as aeronautical engineers.

The author provides a wealth of information and insight into the Fw 190 program, including mundane (but often omitted) information like the price of a new-build Fw 190A (about $61,000 in 1940 US). One of the major values of this volume is the section on "building the Anton," which provides 17 photographs of the aircraft in sequential stages of construction, along with detailed captions. Later in the volume, the author also provides information about each of the factories that built Fw 190s (although production was gradually spread all over Germany) and the various production batches. While these sections were very informative, I was disappointed that the author provided no information about the number of man-hours it took to produce an Fw 190 or its key components, or the essential materials required for construction. The author does mention that material shortages later in the war forced the Germans to substitute parts of lower quality but these are not specified; it would have been nice to get some idea if he was talking about something critical like the engine or only the landing gear. The author also provides some interesting information about the foreign users of the Fw-190; few readers will be aware that the French Air Force continued to produce 64 Fw-190s in 1944-5 or that Turkey flew the Fw-190 alongside the Spitfire.

By 1943, the Fw-190 was evolving into a formidable fighter-bomber, which the Luftwaffe was using for "tip and run" raids against England. In particular, the author goes into detail about the daylight raid on Bournemouth on May 23, 1943 by 22 Fw 190s. These aircraft swept in and killed 51 military and 77 civilians for the cost of two aircraft. The success of such tactical raids should be contrasted with the failure of so many RAF strategic raids against German cities in 1943, which killed mostly just handfuls of civilians in exchange for dozens of British aircrew. On the other hand, the author mentions that the US daylight air raid on the Focke-Wulf Marienburg plant in October 1943 was, "one of the finest examples of daylight precision bombing during the whole war�with the bombers placing 83% of their bombs within 610 meters of the aiming point�"

This volume also gives great perspective on how the Luftwaffe managed a premier fighter program. While the basic Fw 190 was churned out in quantity, the Luftwaffe dithered about the need for high-altitude variants to deal with Allied heavy bombers; only a handful of the Ta-152 variant was produced in the final months of 1945. The Focke-Wulf designers also had "a strange love affair with the idea of using the Fw 190 as a torpedo carrier," and wasted considerable time and effort on this tertiary capability. In the end, this volume demonstrates that the Germans had produced a very potent multi-purpose combat aircraft fairly early in the war, but that mismanagement and poor decisions greatly affected the impact of this weapon system.

Rating:
Summary: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about the Fw 190
Review: Osprey's Production Line to Frontline #5, Focke-Wulf Fw 190 by Malcolm V Lowe, is an exceptionally good volume for military historians and aviation enthusiasts alike. This series is "meatier" than most Osprey products (144 pages) and is probably too technical for most casual readers. Malcolm V Lowe uses the Production Line to Frontline format to good effect and delivers an excellent compact history of how one of Germany's most important fighter programs in the Second World War was brought from the draft table to the battlefield. There is a wealth of information about how the Luftwaffe managed its fighter programs in this volume.

After a short introduction, Focke-Wulf Fw 190 has chapters on the design of the prototypes, initial production batches, improvements to the basic design, fighter-bomber variants, a new engine, other prototypes, the Fw 190D "Dora" variant, the Ta-152 variant, armament of the Fw 190 series, and an overview of Fw 190 production. Final chapters address the aircraft's introduction into frontline service and foreign users. The author provides an excellent bibliography that includes Internet references and three appendices (principal aircraft plants involved in Fw 190 production, Fw 190 production batches by work number, the code system for German aircraft manufacturers, and selected Fw 190 specifications). There are many interesting and unusual photographs complementing the text, many taken by employees of the Focke-Wulf Company. For example, the author provides a rare photo of a Fw 190 equipped as a torpedo bomber. The volume also includes four pages of line drawings of the principal Fw 190 variants.

Lowe discusses at length how the Focke-Wulf Corporation discussed the Fw 190 as a complement to Germany's primary single-engine fighter - the Bf Me-109. In fact, the Fw 190 ended up being far superior to the Bf Me-109 in many respects and turned out to be the Luftwaffe's primary fighter after 1943. The Fw 190 went from initial requirement to first production in about 36 months, with the first aircraft reaching operational squadrons in August 1941. The Fw 190 was built as a radial engine fighter, as opposed to the in-line engine Bf Me-109, and offered enormous growth potential. Lowe discusses the many variants of the main "Anton" version of the fighter, followed by its "F" and "G" fighter-bomber versions and finally the "D" and Ta-152 high-altitude versions. One insight that this volume provides is the tremendous talent resident in the Focke-Wulf design team; many of its members were test pilots as well as aeronautical engineers.

The author provides a wealth of information and insight into the Fw 190 program, including mundane (but often omitted) information like the price of a new-build Fw 190A (about $61,000 in 1940 US). One of the major values of this volume is the section on "building the Anton," which provides 17 photographs of the aircraft in sequential stages of construction, along with detailed captions. Later in the volume, the author also provides information about each of the factories that built Fw 190s (although production was gradually spread all over Germany) and the various production batches. While these sections were very informative, I was disappointed that the author provided no information about the number of man-hours it took to produce an Fw 190 or its key components, or the essential materials required for construction. The author does mention that material shortages later in the war forced the Germans to substitute parts of lower quality but these are not specified; it would have been nice to get some idea if he was talking about something critical like the engine or only the landing gear. The author also provides some interesting information about the foreign users of the Fw-190; few readers will be aware that the French Air Force continued to produce 64 Fw-190s in 1944-5 or that Turkey flew the Fw-190 alongside the Spitfire.

By 1943, the Fw-190 was evolving into a formidable fighter-bomber, which the Luftwaffe was using for "tip and run" raids against England. In particular, the author goes into detail about the daylight raid on Bournemouth on May 23, 1943 by 22 Fw 190s. These aircraft swept in and killed 51 military and 77 civilians for the cost of two aircraft. The success of such tactical raids should be contrasted with the failure of so many RAF strategic raids against German cities in 1943, which killed mostly just handfuls of civilians in exchange for dozens of British aircrew. On the other hand, the author mentions that the US daylight air raid on the Focke-Wulf Marienburg plant in October 1943 was, "one of the finest examples of daylight precision bombing during the whole war'with the bombers placing 83% of their bombs within 610 meters of the aiming point'"

This volume also gives great perspective on how the Luftwaffe managed a premier fighter program. While the basic Fw 190 was churned out in quantity, the Luftwaffe dithered about the need for high-altitude variants to deal with Allied heavy bombers; only a handful of the Ta-152 variant was produced in the final months of 1945. The Focke-Wulf designers also had "a strange love affair with the idea of using the Fw 190 as a torpedo carrier," and wasted considerable time and effort on this tertiary capability. In the end, this volume demonstrates that the Germans had produced a very potent multi-purpose combat aircraft fairly early in the war, but that mismanagement and poor decisions greatly affected the impact of this weapon system.