Many people are usually more interested about all the JagdGeschwaders, but a lot of Fw190As served in various ground attack missions, too.
The lives of the SchlachtGeschwader pilots were hardly as glamorous as the famous aces of the various JGs, but the pilots of ths SGs served for lengthy periods under the diabolical conditions of the Eastern Front.
The II./SG1 started converting to Fw190As since January of 1943. Only the 7th Staffel remained in the old Hs123s.
Based at Nikolayev-East from 6th of February, the conversion to Fw 190A-5s was completed by the first week in March. The Gruppe was then transferred to Pavlograd in the east-central part of the Ukraine for a month of training and workups before moving back to the front in mid-April.
Its new home was Anapa in the North Caucasus where it remained until the beginning of July. The ground attack missions from Anapa in support of 17th Army, cut off in the constantly shrinking Kuban bridgehead, were intense and costly. The Soviet Air Force had concentrated vastly superior forces in this sector and out-numbered the Luftwaffe four to one, and, in addition, had heavily reinforced the numbers of AA guns in the area. Anapa was bombed on April 19th for the loss of two of 7. Staffel's Hs 123s. Between 10 and 17 May at least seven Fw 190A-5s were shot down while attacking targets around Abinskaya and Krymskaya, most falling to AA fire. The Russians bombed Anapa again on June 12th, destroying a Fw 190A-6. The month of June also saw the arrival of some of the new Fw 190F-3s which were better designed for the ground-attack role and featured better armor protection. One Fw 190F-3 was shot down on the 17th and two more destroyed in a runway collision at Novorossisk on 1 July when a bomb on one of them accidentally detonated.
The Kursk Offensive took priority over support of the Kuban bridgehead and the Gruppe was ordered north to Varvarovka on July 2-3 to operate against Soviet forces along the Donets River southeast of Kharkov. Operation "Zitadelle" commenced on 5 July, but II./SchG 1 did not get mixed in with the heavy fighting until Russian spearheads began to close around early August. In five days, between August 3 and 7, one Fw 190F-3 and a Hs 123A were shot down by Russian fighters, six more Fw 190s were damaged in action south of Kharkov, and a further four Fw 190s were destroyed or damaged in a Soviet raid on Varvarovka. It was forced back to Rudka and from there flew continuously in the defense of Kharkov, losing at least four Fw 190s, with two more damaged. The Red Army finally took the city on 22 August. By mid-September, II./SchG 1 was again forced to withdraw to the west, this time to Kiev-South, where it flew missions against Soviet armored columns driving rapidly on the Ukranian capital. Losses during September and October were extremely light, averaging only about one aircraft a week. On or about 18 October 1943, II./SchG 1 was renamed II./SG 2, with 5. Staffel becoming 8. Staffel and the others retaining their previous numbers.
Quoted From, SchlachtGeschwader 1, by Henry L. deZeng IVth
Depicting such 'less famous, but important' planes, was the very reason why the old Historic 190s project was started. It seems it's getting back on track now.
