The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 'Condor', also known as Kurier to the Allies was a German all-metal four-engined monoplane originally developed by Focke-Wulf as a long-range airliner. The military versions saw service with the Luftwaffe as long-range reconnaissance and anti-shipping/maritime patrol bomber aircraft. The Luftwaffe also made extensive use of the Fw 200 as a transport.
Development
Deutsche Lufthansa issued a specification in June 1936 after discussions between Kurt Tank, Dr. Stüssel and Carl August von Gablenz. The plane was designed by Ludwig Mittelhuber with Wilhelm Bansemir as project director. It was to be an all-metal, four-engined monoplane capable of carrying 25 passengers up to 3,000 km (1,860 mi). The first prototype, the Fw 200 V1, made its first flight after just over one year of development on 27 July 1937 with Kurt Tank at the controls. The Fw 200 had been designed for the Deutsche Lufthansa, which wanted a airliner for a route to South America. Its high aspect ratio, long-span wing was characteristic of long-range aircraft, sail planes, and the Condor bird that the aircraft was named after. Its modern, flush-riveted light alloy construction aimed for maximum efficiency. With four Pratt & Whitney Hornet S1E-G engines, later replaced by BMW 132L engines (licence-built Hornets) and up to 4360 liters of fuel the Condor was intended to fly 26 passengers over long distances. In August 1938, a Deutsche Lufthansa Fw 200 flew from Berlin to New York in 20 hours, non-stop. Later that year another Fw 200 flew to Tokyo, with three stops, via Basra, Karachi and Hanoi in 46 hours. The Imperial Japanese Navy had expressed an interest in a long-range reconnaissance version of the Fw 200. Tank modified a Fw 200B-1 to create the Fw 200V10 prototype, with more fuel, three machine guns, a short ventral gondola with fore-and-aft gunner positions, and a lot of additional equipment. Their extra weight meant that a number of early Fw 200s broke up on landing, a problem that was never entirely fixed. The Fw 200C-3 introduced some more reinforcements, although still insufficient, a gun turret to replace the fairing above the cockpit, two beam guns, an increase in bomb load, and an additional crew member. It also had 1200hp BMW 323-R2 engines to compensate for the weight increase. Soon a number of variations in armament appeared, as the MG FF and MG 15 were replaced by far more powerful 15mm and 20mm MG 151 cannon, or the 13mm MG 131. With these changes, the later Condors were very well armed. Later models were equipped with radar in the form of Rostock or Hohentwiel anti-shipping radars.
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Battle for the Atlantic
The Luftwaffe initially used the aircraft to support the Kriegsmarine, making great loops out across the North Sea and, following the fall of France, the Atlantic Ocean. The aircraft was used for maritime patrols and reconnaissance, searching for Allied convoys and warships that could be reported for targeting by U-boats. The Fw 200 could carry a 900-kilogram (2,000 lb) bomb load or naval mines to use against shipping. The Fw 200s were delivered to Kampfgruppe 40, which from June 1940 operated from Bordeaux-Merignac with systematic anti-shipping operations beginning in August. Flights would lead over the Bay of Biscay, around Ireland, and ending in Norway. The sinking of 90,000 tons of shipping was claimed in the first two months, and 363,000 tons by February 1941. Winston Churchill called the Fw 200 the 'Scourge of the Atlantic'. In August 1941, the first Fw 200 was shot down by a CAM ship-launched Hawker Hurricane, and the arrival of the U.S.-built Grumman Martlet(F4F), operating from the Royal Navy's new escort carriers, posed a serious threat. In August 1942, a Fw 200C-3 was the first German aircraft to be destroyed by USAAF pilots, after it was attacked by a P-40C and a P-38F over Iceland. From mid-1941, Fw 200 crews were now instructed not to attack, and to evade all combat unless unavoidable. The Fw 200's were used to report allied shipping movements. To guide the U-boats to the convoys they shadowed they transmitted direction finding signal, but they did not directly communicate with the submarines.
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Military Operations
When the German Sixth Army found itself fighting for its life at Stalingrad, Hermann Goring's boast that the Luftwaffe transport force could fly in the necessary relief supplies was quickly found to be hollow. That was one reason why part of KG 40 came to be in the hostile surroundings of Pitomnik -the other was that the Luftwaffe had a chronic shortage of transport aircraft. Bombers were initially pressed into a temporary transport role, four-engined types being able to help even if they could not lift substantial loads. In reality, the daily tonnage required to sustain General von Paulus and his men was far beyond even the extra capacity that the Luftwaffe found. Eighteen Fw 200s of 1. and 3./KG 40 used the base at Stalino, the unit flying its first operation on 9 January 1943. Given the temporary designation Kampf Gruppe zur besonderen Verwendung 200, this force under Major Hans-Jurgen Williers, initially flew 36 tons of supplies into the Stalingrad pocket and brought out 156 wounded troops. Russian pressure was such that the unit soon reverted to air drops by parachute, each Fw 200 carrying four containers under the wings. With the loss of Stalingrad, KGr.zb.V 200 was transferred to Zaparozhe to continue doing what it could and in total the Fw 200 flew 41 operations to supply the Sixth Army before the collapse. In addition they flew 35 transport missions over the Crimea before being withdrawn back to Berlin-Staaken in February. After late-1943, the Fw 200 came to be used solely as a transport aircraft. For reconnaissance, it was replaced by the Junkers Ju 290 and, as France was liberated, maritime reconnaissance became impossible. Finally relegated to transport roles, it made a brief re-appearance in an anti-shipping role. For this purpose, the Fw 200C-6 and C-8 were equipped with the Henschel Hs 293A anti-ship missile, however, they proved ineffective and were withdrawn from front line operations.
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High Ranking Transport
The German Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, used a specially outfitted Condor 'Grenzmark', on his two flights to Moscow in 1939, during which he negotiated and signed the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union. At the suggestion of his personal pilot Hans Baur, Adolf Hitler specified a modified and unarmed prototype Condor, the Fw 200 V3, as his personal transport, as a replacement for his Junkers Ju 52. Originally configured as a 26-passenger Lufthansa transport (Works No. 3099), it was reconfigured as a plush two-cabin airliner. It carried the markings "D-2600" and named 'Immelmann III' in honor of World War I flying ace Max Immelmann as per Hitlers specifications.. As the war progressed it changed designation to "WL+2600" and finally "26+00;". The Fw 200 was operated by Deutsche Lufthansa, DDL Danish Airlines and Lufthansa's Brazilian subsidiary Syndicato Condor. Dai Nippon KK of Japan also ordered Fw 200 airliners. These could not be delivered to Japan once the war began, so they were delivered to Deutsche Lufthansa instead.
Several damaged Fw 200 landed in Spain during the war. In the beginning, they were repaired and returned to their bases in France, however after Operation Torch they were to be interned. Also some Fw 200's crashed in Portugal. Their crews were allowed to return to Germany while the British authorities were allowed to inspect the aircraft and accompanying documentation.
On 14 April 1945 an Fw 200 flew Lufthansa's last scheduled service before the end of World War II, from Barcelona to Berlin. Other airlines continued to operate the Fw 200 after the end of World War II. Production ended in 1944 after the Luftwaffe had received 263 out of a total production of 276.
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