Atelier Kecay

FW-190 in Foreign Service - Captured Butcherbirds vol. 2

ISBN 978-83-924914-4-6 for $49.00

Product Article by Sinuhe Hahn on July 7 2011

 

FW-190 in Foreign Service
Captured Butcherbirds vol. 2
by Jacek Jackiewicz, Seweryn Fleischer, Robert Bock

I'm happy to report that Jacek Jackiewicz and colleagues have decided to complete their exposé of the Focke Wulf Fw 190 in foreign or enemy hands, a 100 page A-4 sized soft back book. While the first volume focussed exclusively on the evaluation of the notorious Butcherbird by US and RAF units, the 2nd volume is devoted to Axis forces which used the Fw 190, as well as its impressment by other allied forces. As an indication of the high degree of research that Jacek and colleagues have resorted to in these publication, the first page is devoted to a data listing all known cases of Fw 190's captured by Soviet forces during WW2. This table includes wrecks found in the area surrounding Berlin, as well as those obtained from Sweden. The text describes the Soviet capture and evaluation of a number of different Fw 90 types ranging form an A-3 to a flight of D-9's found in the Marienburg (now Malborg, Poland) area. What is interesting, is that the Soviet pilots, including, Col. NG Seleznev, were not impressed by the flying characteristics of the Butcherbird, preferring their own machines. While this may have been wartime propaganda, or fear of reprisals, it is strong contrast to the overall positive views expressed by Eric Brown or Chuck Yager, or RAF Spitfire Mk V pilots who faced the Butcherbird for the 1st time. Here the anecdote of a young Soviet pilot, who succeeded in escaping form German captivity, pinched a Fieseler Storch in order to the return to USSR forces and who was rewarded with an interment in a Siberian Gulag for his efforts..... makes it rather clear that one should only be impressed by solid Soviet machines, and not those of the invader. In this context, also of interest is the section devoted to those aircraft used by Kommando Seydlitz, which were used to encourage German forces to desist from further engagements against Soviet forces, and to rather join forces with them - and a possible obligatory visit to a Gulag.

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The volume next focuses on other users such as Hungary, Rumania (pre- and post Axis alliance), as well as a detailed analysis of Spanish service with the Escuadrillia Azul in the Russian campaign. This includes aircraft, such as the Fw 190A-3 used by Tte Gonzalo Hevia Alvarez de Quinones, the top scoring ace with 12 victories. As with all other sections, the text is accompanied by a beautiful series of 3-4 view colour schemes, which will be a great boon to any interested modeller. Other Axis associated users covered include Turkey, who were recipients of over 80 Fw 190A-3a's (a for Ausländisch = foreign). Mention is also made of the sole Fw 190A-5 that the Japanese received in 1943, and how this may have influenced the transition from inline to radial engines by the IJAAF. 

The final part of the volume is devoted to those aircraft captured or impressed by other Allied forces, such as Yugoslavia, France, which used large numbers post-war, or those interned by escaping Luftwaffe pilots and crew in Sweden (one has to wonder what it was like to cram 2-3 passengers inside the fuselage of the diminutive Fw 190. For me the cherry on the icing is the documentation of the various Fw 190's captured by South African forces, especially the lovely 4 view rendition of a Fw 190F-8 taken hostage by 1 Sqn SAAF, wearing its mix of SAAF roundels, red wings tips (a feature of all 1 Sqn aircraft) and the SKG 2 emblem on the cowling - time to get some modelling done!

Sinuhe Hahn

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Photos and text © by Sinuhe Hahn