Fw-190 Info/stuff

[AKSWulfe]

For the 190 nutjobs out there: http://home.earthlink.net/~poole124/

Just ran across it, not sure if you all have seen the site before/think it sucks/whatever..
-SW

[mrfish]

cool - and this page has some killer photos:
 http://www.geocities.com/bookie190/Index.htm

[Pongo]

hmmmm
"The Fw190D-9/D-12s were used with earlier production Fw190s and Bf109s in Operation Bodenplatte, the mass attack by the Luftwaffe on Allied airfields in support of the so-called "Battle of the Bulge." They were extremely successful, but losses were high due to friendly fire from Luftwaffe flak gunners.
"

[StSanta]

There exists a photograph of an A-5 fighter from a II./JG 54 unit deployed to the Eastern Front temporary adopted to bomber missions by four (2x2) under-fuselage mounted ETC 50 bomb racks

Yes please  

[funkedup]

Sounds kind of like an ER-4 adapter.  I have seen photos of several types of 190s (as early as 1941) with that adapter.  It would be nice to have 8 x 50 kg bombs on the F-8 for plinking acks.    

[ 07-26-2001: Message edited by: funkedup ]

[Erlkonig]

It would be nice to have 8 x 50 kg bombs on the F-8 for plinking acks.

In addition to that, I would also like to see some kind of air to ground rocket loadout for the F8. If you read the section on the F-series in the first link, it appears that there was limited success in adapting such a weapon system, though it came towards the end of the war. I suppose the under-fuselage bombrack would allow the F8 to carry a loadout with both kinds of weapons?

[funkedup]

There were several rocket configurations, but they were all wing-mounted.  One of them used the standard ETC50 pylons that were on the wings of most 190F's.  Other ones required new pylons.

[DingHao2]

If one was to be added to AH, i'd be for a d-12...but He-177 first!

[mrfish]

here is another site i found recently with some good stories and various lw type stuff:
 http://members.aol.com/tgenth/

[hazed-]

Originally posted by Pongo:
hmmmm
"The Fw190D-9/D-12s were used with earlier production Fw190s and Bf109s in Operation Bodenplatte, the mass attack by the Luftwaffe on Allied airfields in support of the so-called "Battle of the Bulge." They were extremely successful, but losses were high due to friendly fire from Luftwaffe flak gunners.
"

sorry pongo whilst you are essentially correct on a few points you obviously havent read enough about bodenplatte if you came to this conclusion.
Boddenplatte was a daring and bold attack that acheived TOTAL surprise.It was only slightly successfull at damaging the airbases and aircraft of the allies BUT the pilots used were the cream of hitlers hi alt defence pilots and many 'aces' were killed performing jabo which they were not expert at.this was the famous 1000 plane reserve built up to meet the Allied bombers called for by Adolf Galland who was leader of the fighter arm at the time.Galland was adament this attack was madness as the majority of his pilots were not jabo trained(some units were)
They lost some to german flak batteries as even the german army was not informed of their surprise raid! but unlike how you state it, the majority were killed by allies airbase AA/small arms fire, some gun crews claimed up to 8 kills!.There were allied squadrons caught on the ground and many aircraft were destroyed but the pilots were mostly spared so in time the planes could be replaced UNLIKE the Luftwaffe seasoned pilots and aces of which there were very few left! they(LW) lost almost as many aircraft as they destroyed but disasterously for Germany they lost most of their best pilots.
All in all...a fantastic surprise(allies had no idea there were so many LW fighters even left flying)..a bold move yes but ultimately a desperate move just as the battle of the bulge was.It was hitlers last roll of the dice and thankfully it failed.
190d9s were used, as were me262s and ju88s as pathfinders to lead the fighters who were not experienced in low level attacks /flying /navigation etc.
if you read your history books correctly you will realise this was a military blunder of the greatest magnitude.It sounds fantastic true but it was still madness born from a madman  
sorry for going on but it worries me when i see statements like that.you make it sound like the allies didnt stop them which i can assure you they did.there were many allies already in the air as well as those caught on the ground.(a typhoon flight was hit on takeoff and there are some terrific stories of brave pilots taking off under fire.one even shot down a plane as he rose off the ground only to be killed seconds later as he lost control and crashed)
a battle that definately warrents more reading  

start with this...

battle of the airfields,'operation bodenplatte 1 jan 1945' by Norman Franks
isbn 1-902304-42-x