"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.
The Fw 190 F-8 differed from the A-8 model with a slightly modified injector on the compressor which allowed for increased performance at lower altitudes for several minutes. The F-8 was also outfitted with the improved FuG 16 ZS radio unit which provided much better communication with ground combat units. Armament on the Fw 190 F-8 was two 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon in the wing roots and two 13 mm (.51 in) MG 131 machine guns above the engine. According to RLM acceptance reports at least 3,400 F-8s were built, probably several hundreds more in December 1944 and from February to May 1945 (data for these months is missing and probably lost).
Dozens of F-8s served as various testbeds for anti-tank armament, including the WGr.28 280 mm ground-to-ground missile, 88 mm (3.46 in) Panzerschreck 2 rockets, Panzerblitz 1 and R4M rockets.
There were also several Umrüst-Bausätze kits developed for the F-8, which included: The Fw 190 F-8/U1 long range JaBo, outfitted with underwing V.Mtt-Schloß shackles to hold two 300 L (80 US gal) fuel tanks. ETC 503 bomb racks were also fitted, allowing the Fw 190 F-8/U1 to carry one SC 250 bomb under each wing and one SC 250 bomb on the centre-line.
This particular Focke-Wulf FW 190F-8 was flown by I/SG2, then deployed to Hungary during early 1945. One piece left in stock!
Dimensions
Wingspan: 8.5 inches
Length: 7.25 inches
Release Date: October 2009
Historical Account: "Immelmann" - Schlachtgeschwader 2 (SG 2) Immelmann was a Luftwaffe dive bomber-wing of World War II. It was named after Max Immelmann,the first German pilot to earn the Pour le Mérite.
This close-support Stuka unit fought principally in the southern sector of the Eastern Front in places like Stalingrad and the Caucasus. The early two Schlachtgeschwader 1 and 2 were abbreviated SchlG, the reformed Stukageschwader in 1943 were abbreviated SG. The 4 SchlG Gruppen were integrated into the former Stuka- (StG) and Schnellkampfgeschwader (SKG) to form SG 2, 4, 77 and 10. |
