About the Book
The book is based on the venerable, Focke-Wulf, Fw-200 Condor, the four engine, long range maritime reconnaissance bomber of the Luftwaffe that begun life as a civilian airliner, in 1937. It explores Germany's desire in nineteen thirty-five, to possess a long range airliner, in competition to other nations, and traces the initial discussions about its acquisition by the Reich Air Ministry (RLM) and Deutsche Luft Hansa (DHL), with the planning that went into its performance parameters and efforts of the DHL in scouring a suitable manufacturer, for building the aircraft. The narrative highlights the Bremen railway station meeting between Dr. Rudolf Stuessel, Technical Head of DHL, and the gifted Kurt Tank, chief designer of Focke Wulf Flugzeugbau, who was able to ink the deal for its development. The design and production process of the first prototype of the Focke Wulf Fw-200 called Versuchs.1 [Experimental.1] depicts the prevalent technology of the era and outlines the sequence of the Fw-200 test flights, culminating in the much publicized maiden flight with Kurt Tank on July 27,1937 at Neuenlander airfield, Bremen. The peculiar circumstances of how the airliner was adapted and altered to a long range maritime reconnaissance bomber for the Luftwaffe is highlighted, along with the Fw-200 C1's, initial successes against merchant shipping in the North Atlantic. Germany's changing fortunes after Operation Barbarossa, coerced the Luftwaffe to transfer elements of several Fw-200 Staffeln directly from France, Italy and the Mediterranean, to Russia to bolster the Stalingrad airlift and relieve the beleaguered Wehrmacht troops trapped inside the pocket. The converted airliner however proved ineffective, in the harsh and unforgiving conditions of the Russian front, in and around the airfields of the pocket. Failing to make a difference to the airlift along with other aircraft types, in forming a continuous air bridge supplying fuel, rations and munitions to the trapped formations, the Fw-200's ignominious exit from the theatre, culminated in the defeat of the German Army at Stalingrad. By late 1943, the Luftwaffe acknowledged that the Fw-200 was obsolete and its subsequent combat engagements, in face of overwhelming Allied air power lead to the withdrawal of the Fw-200 Condor from operations around the French Atlantic coast. A severe shortage of aviation gasoline also gripped Germany by 1944, leading to the last Fw-200 unit, [KG.40] being officially disbanded in August 1944, with the mothballing of the few remaining Condors. However, the Luftwaffe, still had use of the long range endurance capabilities of the Fw-200 as a 'civilian airliner', with limited direct, night courier services, to nearby European capitals of Denmark, Norway and Spain, ferrying covert civilians and cargo. The collapse of Germany, ended the career of the venerable Fw-200 Condor, with the exception of a few civilian examples flying abroad, until the unavailability of spares parts, lack of servicing and increasing damage from wear and tear, consigned them to the scrap heap. The crash of a Fw-200 [F8]BR], in a Norwegian fjord, near Trondheim in April 1942, on returning from a 10 hour maritime patrol over the North Sea, is outlined. The discovery of the wreck in Hommelvik bay in 1981, was to inspire a dramatic recovery effort of the airframe from the bay in May 1999 and a historic joint rebuilding effort coordinated by Germany for the next 20 years, that transformed the debris, and several new parts and wing sections, fabricated from the dimensions of the salvaged remains, into a fully restored, semi-working, scale replica of the Condor, in Sept, 2021. Today the 'Trondheim' Condor is the only example of a surviving Focke-Wulf Fw-200 anywhere in the world. The exhibit is on display beginning July 2022 in a hangar at Berlin's Tempelhof airport., for the viewing pleasure of aviation enthusiast and 'Condorians' around the glo
