My WGS Project #11 for 2013 is a pair of 1/200 Air 200 Focke Wulf Fw 190A fighters, thanks to Zoe Brain who passed these miniatures to me at Cancon in January. The Air 200 sculpts aren't great, the fuselage it too long for the 'Anton', but the nose is too broad and short for the 'Dora'. One of the aircraft miniatures also had a missing spinner, but I soon replaced it with the ever useful epoxy putty. The nacelles on the fuselage forward of the cockpit indicated they were likely meant to represent Fw 190A-8s armed with twin 13mm MG 131 machine guns. This didn't suit my intentions however as I was keen to finish these 'Würger' as Tunisian Campaign Fw 190A-4s to do battle with my P-40's of the 318th Fighter Squadron USAAF and 3 Squadron RAAF. With disbelief suitably suspended I put paint to brush.
I used a sand base for both aircraft with dark green camouflage on one of the 'Antons'. Both have a white theatre band around the fuselage. Some drawings show yellow rudders and others do not, so I left them as they were. The decals are a mixture of AIM and 144 direct. For the first time I used Tamiya TS-80 flat clear spray to finish the models instead of Testors Dullcote and I have to say I think I like the Tamiya finish better.
The first of the Fw190A's represents the 'Anton 4' of Hauptmann Adolf D ickfeld*, Gruppenkommandeur II./JG2. Assigned to III./JG 52 in 1940, D ickfeld flew missions over France, England, Greece, Crete and Russia scoring 128 confirmed victories over the Eastern Front. In November 1942 Hptm. D ickfeld was appointed commander of Gruppe II, Jagdgeschwader 2 as the unit was sent to Tunisia. In six weeks of combat Adolf D ickfeld was credited with the destruction of five Allied aircraft. In January 1943 however he was badly injured in a take-off accident at Kairouan airfield when his Fw 190A-4 (W.Nr. 0750) struck an obstacle on the airfield. He was sent back to Germany for treatment ending his involvement in the Tunisian Campaign. D ickfeld returned to operational flying and even scored a victory over a USAAF P-47 flying a jet powered Heinkel He 162 'Salamander' in the final weeks of the war. Awarded the Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaud for his 136 confirmed kills, Oberst D ickfeld survived the war and made a living as a pilot in Europe and Africa. Unlike so many of his Jadgflieger Kameraden, Adolf D ickfeld passed away in 2009 at the ripe old age of 99.
The second aircraft is that of Oberleutnant Erich Rudorffer, Staffelkapitän of Staffel 6, II./JG2. Before the war Rudorffer has been a commercial airline pilot with Lufthansa. Like his Gruppenkommandeur, Rudorffer commenced flying combat sorties over France, but by November 1942 had scored all of his 45 confirmed victories on the Western Front. After Hptm. Adolf D ickfeld was injured in his take-off accident Obltn. Rudorffer took over temporary command of II./JG2. On 9th February 1943 Rudorffer shot down 8 allied aircraft in the space of 32 minutes. While based at Kairouan JG 2 received advice of an attack by a USAAF task force. The Germans attacked the B-17 Bombers as a defensive fleet of P-40s and P-38s came to defend them. In the ensuing dogfights Rudorffer shot down six P-40s, then at the end of the engagement a further two P-38s. He followed up with a further seven kills on 15th February. By the time JG2 was withdrawn from Tunisia in April 1943 Rudorffer had scored 27 victories in African skies. Rudorffer ended the war as a Major with 222 confirmed victories (including twelve in the Me 262 jet fighter) and had been awarded Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub und Schwerten. After the war he returned to work as a commercial pilot, flying DC3s in Australia and working for PanAm. In 2013 at the age of 95 Erich Rudorffer is the 7th most successful fighter pilot in the history of air warfare, and currently both the oldest jet fighter ace, and the most successful ace still living.
The Focke Wulf Fw 190A-4 has a top speed of 656 kph at an altitude of 6300 metres, a climb rate averaging 16 m/s and an operational ceiling of 11400 metres. So far we don't have a manouver deck for the 'Anton', however trials conducted by the RAF in 1942 identified at all altitudes from 600 - 8000 metres the Fw 190A was either the same or within 15 kph of the Spitfire Mk.IX - which is one of the 'fast fighters' due for release. The same trials identified the Fw 190 was more manouverable than the Spitfire Mk.IX in all except turning circle. The Fw 190 had one of the best 'roll rates' of any fighter during WW2, so expect to see wide side-slips in the manouver deck. In the meantime I will be using the A deck for the Fw 190, less one each of the 45 degree turns to starboard and port. The climb rate will be 3 and the top altitude 13. It must be noted however that the performance of the Fw 190 started to drop off above 6000 metres (WGS altitude 8), one of the reasons it never truly replaced the Messerschmitt Bf 109.
Firepower is considerable, with two 7.92mm MG 17 machine guns in the nose and and four 20mm MG 151/20 cannon with two in each wing. This gives WGS short range firepower of CCCCA and long range CC. The type was considered a very sturdy aircraft as one expected from the designer Kurt Tank. The BMW radial engine was also much less prone to damage than the inline Daimler Benz of the Bf 109 family of fighters. I will give the aircraft 20 damage points.
My unofficial stats are therefore:
Manouver deck: A (very much an interim measure)
Damage Points: 20
Climb: 3
Top Altitude: 13
Firepower: Short - CCCCA and Long - CC.
* I had to separate the 'D' from the rest of the name or the obscenity filter deletes the name
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