Oxford AC012 German Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-4 Fighter - Unteroffizier Helmut Brandt, Jagdgeschwader 54 "Grunherz", Lake Ladoga, Eastern Front, 1943 (1:72 Scale)
"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.
Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of a German Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-4 fighter that was piloted by Unteroffizier Helmut Brandt, who was attached to Jagdgeschwader 54, then deployed to the Eastern Front during 1943.
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Dimensions:
Wingspan: 5-1/4-inches
Length: 5-inches
Release Date: June 2011
Historical Account: "Grunherz" - Jagdgeschwader 54 (JG 54) "Grunherz" (Green Hearts) was a Luftwaffe fighter wing during the Second World War. It was known as the Green Hearts Wing, and it was the second highest scoring wing of all time, JG 52 being the highest. JG 54 flew on the Eastern Front, racking up over 9,600 kills, with aces such as Walter Nowotny, Otto Kittel, Freiherr Peter Grunhertz, Hans "Phips" Philipp, Gunther Lutzow, Emil "Bully" Lang (Lang holds the record for most kills in a day,18), Max-Hellmuth Ostermann, Dietrich Hrabak, Werner Schroer and Hannes Trautloft being the most famous Experten.
Having enjoyed initial success over the Channel and South-east England during the summer of 1940, the unit was transferred to the Eastern Front in the spring of 1941 for Operation Barbarossa - the German invasion of the Soviet Union. JG 54 would remain a Jagdwaffe stalwart in the east, flying firstly Bf 109Fs and then the Fw 190.
JG 54 was known for its non-standard camouflage schemes. For example, Bf-109F-4's on the Leningrad front 1941-42 were painted in black-green/dark-green splinter finish with yellow under cowling and under the wing tips.