"Guns before butter. Guns will make us powerful; butter will only make us fat."
- Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, Head of the German Luftwaffe
Nicknamed the "Butcher Bird," the Fw 190 was Germany's best air-to-ground fighter. Faster and more agile than the British Spitfire, it dominated the skies over Europe as a fighter and was the Luftwaffe's most important ground-attack aircraft. Controlled by the skilled hands of aces like Oberleutnant Otto Kittel, the FW-190 gained the reputation of being one of the greatest fighters of all time. This fighter-bomber and anti-tank aircraft was almost impossible to defeat until the introduction of the long-range P-51 Mustang.
Nearly a dozen Rüstsätze kits were made available for the A-8, including the famous A-8/R2 and A-8/R8 Sturmbockmodels. The A-8/R2 replaced the outer wing 20 mm cannon with a 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108 cannon, the A-8/R8 was similar but fitted with heavy armour including 30 mm (1.18 in) canopy and windscreen armour and 5 mm ( in) cockpit armour. The A-8 was the most numerous of the Fw 190 A's, with over 6,550 A-8 airframes produced from March 1944 to May 1945. A-8's were produced by at least eight factories during its lifetime.
This particular Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-8/R8 fighter was piloted by Unteroffizier Willi Maximowitz, who was attached to 11 (Sturm)/Jagdgeschwader 3, which was based at Dreux, France, during 1944. One piece left in stock!
Dimensions
Wingspan: 8.5 inches
Length: 7.25 inches
Release Date: February 2010
Historical Account: "Willi" - Willi Maximowitz was born on January 29th, 1920, at Wuppertal-Barnen. At the end of 1943, when Major von Kornatzski (6 victories) was looking for volunteers for Sturmstaffel 1, Maximowitz, by this time an Unteroffizier with JG 1, was one of those who enlisted. He had already achieved his first success when he shot down a USAAF B-24 four-engine bomber on January 30th, 1944. On March 23rd, 1944, he shot down his third four-engine bomber, a USAAF B-17, but his Focke-Wulf 190 A-6 (W.Nr. 551 099) “White 10” was hit by return fire from the bombers and a wounded Maximowitz had to bale out near Wuppertal.
Following recovery from his wounds he returned to Sturmstaffel 1 and added another B-17, shot down over Helmstedt on April 29th, 1944, to his tally. On May 8th, 1944, Sturmstaffel 1 was integrated into IV./JG 3 as its 11. Staffel. In June, Maximowitz undertook combat flights in support of the German army in Normandy. These missions were flown with IV.Gruppe from Dreux airfield in France. Maximowitz shot down a B-17 near Leipzig for his 10th victory on July 20th. On July 28th, IV./JG 3 scrambled against USAAF four-engine bombers. Maximowitz was shot down by the fighter escort and was slightly wounded. On July 30th, he was promoted to the rank of Feldwebel, but was wounded in a landing accident in Fw 190 A-8/R2 (W.Nr. 680 756). After recuperating from his injuries, he returned to his unit (renamed 14./JG 3 on 10 August).
He flew as Kaczmarek to Gruppenkommandeur, IV./JG 3, Hauptmann Wilhelm Moritz (44 victories, 15 of them four-engine bombers, RK). In February 1945, IV./JG 3 moved to the Russian Front. On March 11th, Maximowitz was credited with three Russian Boston twin-engine bombers and a fighter shot down. On April 20th, 1945, Oberfeldwebel Maximowitz of 14./JG 3, failed to return from a combat mission. He was probably killed in aerial combat with Russian fighters around Frankfurt am Oder. He told Feldwebel Oskar Bösch (18 victories, including 8 four-engine bombers) during this mission that he had an MP 40 submachine-gun in his cockpit and he was saving the last round for himself if he got shot down!
Willi Maximowitz was credited with 27 victories. He recorded 12 victories over the Eastern front. All 15 victories recorded over the Western front were four-engine bombers. He claimed one bomber by ramming on March 23rd, 1944, and possibly rammed another bomber, date unknown. Maximowitz was posthumously awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold on January 1st, 1945. |
