Fw 200 Condor vs. Atlantic Convoys - Was it any good?

- Disclaimer: This video is sponsored by War Thunder

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- Museum Acknowledgements -
Thank you to the RAF Museum:

Fw 200 restauration:

- Social Media -

- Sources -
Chris Goss, Fw 200 Condor Units of World War 2, Osprey Publishing, Oxford: 2016.

Chris Goss, Focke Wulf Fw 200 - The Condor at War 1939-1945, Crecy Publication, 2017.

D. (Luft) T. 2661/1 Fw 200 C-1 und C-2, Vorläufiges Flugzeughandbuch, Ausgabe Juni 1940.

Jürgen Rohwer, Critical Convoy Battles of WWII – Crisis in the North Atlantic, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, 2015.

Robert Forczyk, Fw 200 Condor vs Atlantic Convoy 1941-1943, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, 2011.

Sönke Neitzel, Der Einsatz der deutschen Luftwaffe über dem Atlantik und der Nordsee 1939-1945, Bernard & Graefe Verlag: 1996.

Sönke Neitzel, Zum strategischen Misserflog verdammt?, in Bruno Thoß, Erster Weltkrieg, Zweiter Weltkrieg – Ein Vergleich, 2002.

- Timecodes -
00:00 - Disclaimer
00:27 - Intro
01:29 - Bombers vs ships
04:32 - A question of planes [Fw 200]
11:31 - The coming of a scourge (?)
12:06 - War Thunder Sponsor
12:10 - Tactics & simulated attack
12:58 - Early operations
14:59 - Condors & U-Boats = ?
17:46 - Reading recommendations
18:45 - Reasons for success
21:22 - Fliegerführer Atlantik
21:50 - Countermeasures
23:06 - Escalation
27:36 - Condor: The Legacy
30:55 - Naval perspective [Drachinifel]
35:56 - Fw 200 - What is it good for?
37:49 - Recon is hard
40:06 - Fw 200 Restoration
40:52 - War Thunder: Sponsored Segment
41:56 - Outro

- Audio -
Music and Sfx from Epidemic Sound

#Fw200 #condor #militaryaviationhistory

[MilitaryAviationHistory]

*Video topic was voted for by Patreons and Channel Members, y'all be awesome*
Correction: My number curse continous at 29:13. I accidentally wrote 55% for losses by Allied Air. Checking my notes it is in fact ~45%. Thanks viewer Scarecrow Repair who pointed it out

[Drachinifel]

Silly flying things menacing my precious shinys! 😀

[Cardinal]

Chris, I labored for 2 years in a US High School trying to speak and write German. I did not do too well and the remnants of my German education allows me to declare that I enjoy lemonade. Watching you switch from English to German and back in a highly technical discussion of history (which is one reason why I was interested in being able to understand the language) is not only impressive, I have to appreciate your effort and skill to be clear in English. I never would have had access to some of this history if YOU hadn't been better at learning a second language than I was. Thank you, Your Subscriber, John.

[lmc]

my mother saw one of these as a kid, she grew up in South Kerry in the south west of Ireland, one crash landed about 3 or 4 miles from their farm. It must have been quite the scene

[TheChieftainsHatch]

Interesting that they liked a beam approach. By the time of the Falklands, bow or stern was preferred on the basis that lining up on a target was pretty easy, the tricky bit was timing the bomb release. Of course, attack speeds were much faster in the 1980s. I wonder, as anti-shipping technique evolved in WW2 (For all nations), if there was any particular further evolution of the thought. This is, of course, separate to the matter of attempting to limit the amount of air defenses which could be brought to bear which you mention.

[stnylan]

It's just great to see two of my favourite youtubers collaborating. I must say I note that Drach's segment (30:55-35:55) is probably the first time Drach has been kept to five minutes in years now. Well done! I dearly hope that was on purpose. :)

[samyzx]

I lost it when you took the Fw 200 flyer as a comparison for Youtube ads LOL
Another great video Biz!

[grizwoldphantasia]

TILT: I had thought the Condors were almost entirely used for patrol, to find convoys for the U-boats. I did not realize they were expected to attack them also. I did not know their position reports were so far off, and it would be interesting to compare to British and American position reports, which I bet were just as bad. I know American USAAF reports in the South Pacific were awful, misclassifying ship types, wrong positions, wrong numbers, etc, and that communications between USAAF, USN, and Australians were pretty flaky, sometimes taking a day to be forwarded just a few hundred miles. Heck, one USN scout even messed up his message back to his own carrier, misleading them into attacking a small force as if it were the main force (Coral Sea? Do not remember)

[maxneild]

I know my Dad's uncle flew Martlets(Wildcats) off the Audacity and had several run-ins with Condors. He was credited with shooting one down after it had shot down his Commander. He survived the destruction of Audacity only to die later off Gibraltar on the Avenger. I met Eric Brown at Duxford and he remembered David and talked at length about the Condors...very dangerous adversaries.

[robinmacfarlane]

great video. thanks. as a slight aside, my dad was in the merchant navy during the war, never saw a condor, but when boarding a new ship one of the first things he noticed after getting on board was the anti aircraft armament. A construction of angle iron with a sign on it saying: Not to be fired under any circumstance! It was some sort of rocket projector which hit everything above deck level on the ship on the one occasion it was used, including the bridge. there was no record of what effect it had on the enemy. they probably crashed from laughing. after all the ship was still there. sadly never got the name of the ship off him. pity. still miss my dad. all the best keep up the good work.

[robinsonsstudios]

For completions sake, there was another heavy maritime patrol aircraft that was way more capable than the 200 but gets generally overlooked : the Ju 290 A5 Seeadler. It had tremendous range, heavy defensive armament and there were versions that could carry guided anti shipping missiles like the hs 293( I am not sure if these were ever employed tho). They were introduced on 1943 if memory serves me correctly but like with the 200 there were only few available since it was a big and expensive machine

[drosera]

Love your vids (and Drachinifel). Takes me back to a time where the 'History Channel' was actually a history channel and not the 'Ancient Aliens, baseless speculation, and reality show channel.' You seriously put out more history in 42 minutes than the History Channel puts out in a week these days.

[RaptorRed]

Interesting! In all the conversations i have had with my Grandfather he never once mentioned this plane. I know he sailed with the Canadian Navy and did convoy escort duty for almost the whole war. He always said the Stuka was more feared. I guess they where more common in the air attacks that happened on his trips. However so I know Grandpa did not like speaking about the war. So I can understand in a way.

[flask]

This cooperation between Chris and Drach really is the perfect match. Both are very similar in there thorough and sober-minded way to approach a subject. This should be happening more often.

[jayklink]

Brilliant video, and one hell of an interesting topic! Physically reading documents, and translating, from the archives must take both time and energy; thank you for creating this content!

[jamiekamihachi]

Now I want to see pictures of Condors and Sunderlands in broadside shootouts.

[lotharhensel]

My old flight instructor told me that he messed up a navigation exam. From his point of view, that saved his life. All those who passed the exam joined the Conder squadrons and were killed. He also told me that the Condor's structure was too weak.

[HeliophobicRiverman]

Mentions FW200 ads, compares them to YT ads...
YT: "Hey that's me!"
*slaps viewers with ads*

[kahoki]

Great detail on the Fw-200 and its role in the Battle of the Atlantic and co-ordinating with Drachinfel, as is has been an interesting second act of WW II history to have been reading Ballentine Books as a kid and to have so much more media available to learn and appreciate as a middle-aged adult. Neat to see that the Fw-200 had bomb bays on the outer engine nacelles! Nice touch with the Operation Bodenplatte reference ;)

[jiks]

Seems that directly it was ineffective but indirectly was a great success. The sheer amount of resources expended on the allied side to counter the handful of planes operational at any one time is quite staggering when you think about.

Especially good episode IMO, good to see the colab with Drach and the cameo appearance by Bo near the end!