5 Things You Never Knew About the Focke-Wulf 190

you know the faka wolf 190 the durable and deadly fighter of the luftwaffe that took to the skies in the later part of World War II and dealt a heavy blow to Allied aircraft in the battle over Europe but in this video we will take a look at some of the things you may not know the things that history can often Overlook so without further Ado here are five fascinating facts about the fockovolt 190. foreign to begin our list for today we will take a look at a famous quote by the designer of the 190 that would summarize its role in the luftwaffe but before we get there we must first understand the background behind this famous fighter the fockovolf 190 came to be in the late 1930s when the German Ministry of Aviation sent out a request for a new fighter design although the Messerschmitt bf-109 was currently the most advanced fighter in the world the Germans wanted to ensure that they had additional designs in development so that they would not be outclassed as more improvements in technology were made thus after winning the bid for the job Vacaville presented their first prototype in 1939. this new fighter however would be vastly different than its counterpart the bf-109 the 109 was designed to be as fast and as Nimble as possible with all other factors and trade-offs being pushed away and this goal was achieved but at some cost while it did set the world record for Speed in the late 1930s and was a deadly dogfighter it did have its weaknesses the 109 could not take a great deal of punishment as it was small and lacked significant armor in addition the fuselage was very small and cramped leading not only to an awkward flight for the pilot but also to design shortcomings as well one of the primary being the landing gear the undercarriage of the 109 would have to retract outwards as this lowered weight and thereby increased speed but this made the landing gear weaker and more narrow causing accidents on the runway and failures during Landing in addition the 109 had a liquid-cooled engine which was faster and more aerodynamic but was subject to failure after taking fire Kurt tank the designer of the 190 decided that he was not as interested in speed the two most advanced fighters in the air at this time the 109 and the Spitfire were both extraordinarily fast and agile but tank instead of following this theme saw it as an opportunity to follow a different approach with the 190. instead of creating a fighter specifically designed for dog fighting his aircraft would be more heavily armored and able to carry a large assortment of weapons thus giving it the ability to serve in a large variety of roles so he would try to make a few changes in his design that would set his aircraft apart one of these was the landing gear which would extend outward although this was heavier it made the plane easier to land and taxi next he was set on using a radial engine which was cooled by the airflow instead of liquid this was frowned upon by many in the industry as it was thought that a modern fighter could not use an engine design that was not streamlined and covered but tank had witnessed the U.S Navy's great success with the radial engine and thought otherwise he had the rigors of combat in mind and wanted to ensure that the pilots of the 190 would be able to make it back home this unique and Brilliant approach to design would lead Kurt tank to make an extremely memorable quote on his aircraft as it was being created as he outlined in the reasoning of his design tank would State the Messerschmitt 109 and the British Spitfire the two fastest fighters in the world at the time when we began work on the 190 could both be summed up as a very large engine on the front of the smallest possible airframe in each case Armament had been added almost as an afterthought these designs both of which admittedly proved successful could be likened to racehorses given the right amount of pampering and easy course they could outrun anything but the moment the going began tough they were liable to falter during World War One I served in the Cavalry and in the Infantry I had seen harsh conditions under which military equipment had to work in Wartime I felt sure that a quite different breed of fighter would also have a place in any future conflict one that could operate from ill-prepared Frontline airfields one that could be flown and maintained by men who had received only short training and one that could absorb a reasonable amount of battle damage and still get back this was the background thinking behind the fakov 190 it was not to be a racehorse but a densphed a Calvary horse Tank's design would go on to live up to this Vision being a Cavalry horse indeed up next at number four we will dive into one of the more unknown roles of the 190 in World War II in late 1942 and early 43 as the 190 was starting to see major production and was being introduced into Frontline combat it served in a variety of assignments against many adversaries one of these adversaries that had to be dealt with in this time was the RAF bombers that were hitting targets all over Western Europe these were easy prey for German Fighters as they attempted to raid during the day but when British bomber command shifted to nighttime raids After High losses they became much more elusive targets the luftwaffe's radar system was struggling and nighttime flying was no easy task so losses were high and results were poor when intercepts were sent up in the dark but there was one strategy that involved the fockov 190 during this time that did see some success instead of trying to locate the bombers using radar and coordinated strikes JG 300 which was the organized 190 nightfighter unit was shifted to a strategy that involved free hunting by sight these attacks would see the German pilots fly over many of the Raging fires and searchlights after a British bombing raid and using these light sources they would then hunt for the outlines of the British aircraft once these RAF bombers were cited they could then be attacked this method called The Wild sow or wild boar was an integral part of the defense of that Ike against the Raf in 1943 and this specific unit of night fighter fakovolf 190s would play a major role in its success at number three is the various array of armaments that were used on the fockov 190 specifically in its role as an interceptor shortly after the 190 entered service it became obvious that the rugged fighter was ideal for anti-bomber Missions the large and well-defended bombers of the United States that were increasing in number would wreak havoc on German Fighters like the 109 if they were not attacked in a perfect method but the 190 was different its Armament was heavier and it could take much more punishment from the Gunners on board these heavy bombers especially after the luftwaffe made upgrades such as a strengthened canopy for pilot protection and Armament improvements that increased lethality even still the Innovative German Engineers looked for any way to try and improve the number of heavy bombers that they were taking down as these were becoming more and more of a threat to Germany with each passing day in this process a variety of unique weapons would be outfitted to the 190. obviously there were a great deal of modifications made to the guns and cannons that were located in the nose and wings but in addition to that there were also Canon's added externally to the wings of some models these did deal a heavier blow to the bombers but it never really caught on likely due to the decreased performance in the air from the drag of the cannons there were also multiple types of air-to-air rockets that were added for anti-bomber use some of which saw substantial use in major operations the first of these would be the wgr 21 rocket tubes these large weapons would be placed under the wing and only had one shot each essentially they were a mortar tube for anti-aircraft they were much heavier than most other projectiles and because of this they would experience ballistic drop quite a bit after being fired so the tubes would be tilted backward at a 15 degree angle aiding the pilots and aiming the heavy explosive and while these Rockets were not terribly accurate for their purposes in the early parts of service they did not need to be these projectiles were designed to be fired into the large and heavily populated American bomber formations from long distance upon exploding they would damage multiple bombers in the vicinity and break up the formations making them easier targets and decreasing the effectiveness of their gunners and as strange as it sounds these were actually extremely effective in 1943 before the Allies began to regularly use fighter escorts these tactics took down significant numbers of bombers in this time in fact on October 14th of 1943 jg-1 and jg26 were able to use their Rockets to break up an Allied bomber formation allowing the largest single raid losses for the U.S Army Air Force in the entire War but in 1944 and 1945 these weapons became neutralized when the American fighters joined The Fray as the already slower 190s would be at a significant disadvantage with the large tubes slowing them down under their wings they could be jettisoned after use but by the time they were fired at the bombers the German Pilots were likely already easy targets for the American fighters another weapon that was outfitted for the 190 was another kind of bold new rocket this one being the r4m these high explosive projectiles were fixed underneath the wing of the aircraft and were carried in larger numbers as it was much smaller than the wgr 21 these would become noteworthy for their use in anti-bomber operations with the measure Smith me-262 jet fighter but would actually see their primary use with the 190 against ground targets at number two we will look at a luftwaffe Pilot that one might call the heavy bomber killer and how he was one of the most successful 190 pilots in history George Peter Eder and while there may be many German Airmen who were more skilled or racked up more kills than Ada we will specifically look at his record in the war because it is a testament to how deadly the 190 was as a bomber Interceptor in the right hands it is crucial to remember that when one shot down a fighter like the P-51 or P-47 they were always crewed by just one man and if executed properly with the element of surprise you could strike without taking any fire at all but the heavy bombers were a completely different kind of Target not only were they armed with Gunners all over the aircraft but they flew in combat boxes making them deadly to German Pilots and even if one did get close enough to shoot they could take such a heavy beating that it was a great accomplishment to actually bring one down but there were a select few German Aces that were able to make it look easy George Peter Eder was one of them after being assigned to the 190 in late 1942 Adair would take to the Skies over the Western Front with jg2 he along with famed German Ace Egon Meyer would develop the head-on attack that was established as the most successful way to strike the combat box formations of b-24s and b-17s throughout the remainder of the war using this tactic jg2 would do everything they could to defend the Reich against the Allied raids although they would eventually fall short in this goal these Pilots would make the Allies pay a heavy price Ada would go down with one of the highest if not the highest kill tally against American Heavy bombers in the focker wolf 190 from late 1942 to late 1944 he would claim approximately 30 kills against the heavy bombers this included 25 B-17 Flying fortresses and five B-24 liberators with a 10-man crew on board each of these bombers he alone would have been responsible for up to 300 American Airmen being killed or captured it would be the pilots like ader who would show that the fockov 190 win in the hands of the right pilot was a formidable bomber interceptor finally at number one we will cover the find of a lifetime you likely have never heard of the name Paul Rods because this German pilot never achieved Fame due to his kills or skill but his story is just as worthy of being retold a member of jg54 fighting on the Eastern Front rotz was on a mission on July 19th of 1943. this sortie would see him attacking a train near the city of Leningrad after attacking this target however his 190 would suffer a catastrophic engine failure and he would be forced to crash land in a thick marshy area he would end up Surviving and walking West where he was captured by the Soviets and held as a prisoner until the end of the war his fockov 190 however would lay dormant in the uninhabitable Marshland far from the nearest building or City for more than 40 years no one would lay eyes upon this lost German fighter but in 1989 it would finally be relocated here in the middle of what was now a fully grown Forest this fighter was found essentially untouched and fully intact it would be extracted from the Marshland where it was taken to the United States for restoration here as dedicated volunteers set out to repair the warbird the reason that the 190 originally crashed was discovered sabotage as they took the engine apart to reassemble it it was found to have a rag blocking one of the fuel lines this engine which was fitted just a few days prior to the crash was apparently set to fail by one of the workers who originally assembled it this was common in World War II for the Germans as they utilized a great deal of prison labor for their factories the 190 would eventually be fully restored after many years and took to the skies once again in 2011 with the original BMW engine today it can be seen on display in the flying Heritage and combat armor museum in Washington please comment what plane I should cover next and please consider subscribing

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Keywords: Fw-190, Focke Wolf 190, Luftwaffe, German Fighters WWII, Focke-Wulf 190, Fw190, focke-wulf 190 warthunder, Fighters WWII, focke wulf 190, fw-190 documentary, Luftwaffe Fighters, IL-2 Sturmovik, IL2, German Aircraft WWII, Flight Sim, Bf-109, World War II Flight Sim, IL-2 Great Battles, IL2 Game, IL-2 Highlights, IL-2 Flight Sim, Combat Flight Sim, War Thunder, Realistic, History Channel Dogfights, Historic, Documentary, Mark Felton, Yarnhub, Dark Skies, wW2 Air Combat

Id: 84kAeRMvM88

Length: 15min 43sec (943 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 23 2022