"Focke-Wulf" model 189, better known to the domestic reader as "frame", is perhaps the most widely known German aircraft of the Great Patriotic War. Usually it is mentioned right after the Me-109 fighter and the Ju-87 bomber. However, in addition to the memoirs of front-line soldiers, high-quality and publicly available research on the Fw-189 did not appear in the USSR until 1991, and only in the last 15-20 years there were many works about it. Quite a lot has been written about the features of the creation and technical characteristics of this machine, and even on the website "Military Review" there was a similar article. But it is worth saying that the Russian-speaking reader may not be so familiar with some of the features of the combat use and a number of some more points considered in the proposed article.
In Russian literature, the Fw-189 is referred to as a reconnaissance, spotter, artillery gunner, and "battlefield aircraft", but this aircraft was classified by the Germans themselves only as "nahauf klärungs flug zeug" ("tactical reconnaissance aircraft") and belonged to the same class together with such machines as, for example, Henschel Hs-126, Hs-123, Fieseler Fi-156. True, according to its characteristics, it occupied a certain intermediate position between them and the category of "long-range high-altitude reconnaissance and high-speed bombers" (which included such machines as Ju-88, Ju-188, etc.).
Pair of Fw-189s from the Hungarian Air Force and from the Luftwaffe in camouflage of the Eastern Front of the early period of the war
It is also a common misconception that the Fw-189 is some kind of Luftwaffe superplane. In fact, this stereotype was formed due to three factors.
First, the Red Army veterans who survived the war simply did not remember the other, even more primitive tactical scouts used by the Germans in 1941-1942.
Secondly, other types of high-speed reconnaissance aircraft, more effective and practically invulnerable to Soviet fighter aircraft, were mainly used by the Germans in 1943-1945, were hardly noticeable and hardly recognizable even for pilots, let alone for ground forces. As a result, in the memoirs of our veterans, these types of Luftwaffe aircraft are only mentioned as “a German reconnaissance aircraft flew in the sky” or “German aircraft were flying high above us, which were conducting reconnaissance,” and so on. Whereas the very characteristic silhouette of the “frame”, mainly working at low and medium heights, was clearly visible and easily recognizable.
Thirdly, Soviet pilots, especially in 1941-1943, due to their (in the bulk) rather poor training, began to consider the Fw-189 as a kind of honorary trophy and also contributed to the creation of a stereotype that the "frame" was some kind of then by superplane. Of course, this brainchild of the design bureau of the outstanding German aircraft designer Kurt Tank was distinguished by the highest survivability, and Soviet fighters in the first half of the war were mostly weakly armed. However, in favor of the opinion that the "frame" was, in general, a fairly accessible target for a trained pilot, is evidenced by the fact that the Soviet Air Force had 17 aces, on account of which there were 4 each, and two even had 5 shot down Fw -189.
And even despite the fact that since 1943, many Fw-189s were withdrawn by the Germans from the front line or transferred to the Allies, the "frames" that appeared on the Soviet-German front even in 1944-1945.continued to be considered an exemplary trophy (for example, the great Soviet ace Alexander Pokryshkin said that the pilot who shot down the Fw-189 seemed to be passing a kind of flight skills exam). However, starting in the spring-summer of 1943, the Luftwaffe leadership, focusing on the increase in the combat effectiveness of the Soviet Air Force, decided to abandon the use of any low-speed tactical reconnaissance and light attack aircraft in the combat units of the first line, transferring them to the rear and using them as communications aircraft and for anti-partisan actions. At the same time, the basis of Germany's front-line intelligence officers in 1943-45. high-altitude high-speed machines began to be made, the best modifications of which, at great speeds, good climb rates and a large practical ceiling (far exceeding the Fw189 in this), became extremely difficult targets for the Red Army Air Force. Therefore, the Soviet pilots, in fact, even throughout the entire second half of the war, still continued to hunt for the low-altitude and slow-moving "frames" that had become quite rare on the front lines, but remained the same.
By the way, lovers of military equipment during the Second World War will be interested in the little-known fact that currently there is a single copy of the Fw-189 in the world, which carries out real flights. This vehicle, while carrying out a reconnaissance mission in the Soviet Arctic, was attacked on May 4, 1943 by a group of Hurricanes. And, although the plane received many holes, and one crew member was killed, the German pilots were still able to get away from their pursuers. True, it's not very far to go - due to the failure of a number of systems, the crew was forced to make an emergency landing in the tundra, in which another crew member died, and the first pilot was wounded (the damaged plane was going at a low altitude, he could no longer gain altitude, and accordingly, the crew did not have the opportunity to jump with parachutes). The surviving pilot was named Lothar Mothes. He escaped capture by Soviet patrols and after two weeks, eating only berries and mushrooms, he was able to reach the German positions; was admitted to the hospital and a few months later resumed combat missions.
In 1991, his plane was found by the Russian-English search community and transferred to the UK for restoration. Over the course of several years, this Fw-189 was reconstructed, and in 1996, Lothar Motyes, who had aged greatly, but survived the war, again sat down at the helm of his own combat vehicle (namely, not of the same type of aircraft, but of his own, on which he flew) - an extremely rare case in the history of technology World War II. Since then, this Fw-189, brought to flight condition, has periodically participated in historic air shows in the UK.
Now let us consider the question of the number of machines of this type produced. Here the situation with the "frame" is very similar to the stories of some veterans and modern journalists, according to which almost any large German tank turns out to be a "Tiger", and any self-propelled guns - a "Ferdinand", because, judging by the memoirs of Soviet front-line soldiers, then the Germans had just thousands of Fw-189s, literally constantly filling the sky and there were no other aerial reconnaissance officers. However, in reality, the situation was completely different: the total number of all built Fw-189s is 864 units, of which 830 are serial units, i.e. The "frame" was quite a mid-series machine (for example, at least 5709 units were built for the same Ju-87 "bastards", and more than 15000 units of all types were built for Ju-88s).
And what, probably, will also seem surprising to the Russian reader, is that the Germans never considered the "frame" an outstanding aircraft, since they had an abundance of really outstanding machines (for example, the same Messerschmidt Me-262 and Arado Ar-234). The fact that the Fw-189 was a kind of "gray workhorse" is evidenced by the fact that the production facilities of the Focke-Wulf factory in Bremen, where the "frames" were originally produced, in the middle of the war, it was decided to free up "really necessary »Other types of aircraft. The assembly of the Fw-189 was continued at two factories, located not even in Germany, but in other countries - "Aero Vodochody" near Prague (still an existing concern known for such machines as, for example, L-39 and L-139) and at the Avions Marcel Bloch enterprise near Bordeaux (the future Dassault Aviation concern, which produced the famous Rafale fighters). Accordingly, in the protectorate of Bohemia in 1940-1944. At least 337 were produced, and in Vichy France - 293 Fw-189, not counting non-serial samples.
Moreover, the Germans themselves believed that it was technically outdated by the early 1940s, despite the fact that its serial production began in 1940. In fact, they produced the Fw-189 in 1940-1942. mostly forcedly, tk. the more advanced types of air reconnaissance aircraft were in the process of being brought to production. And exactly the same opinion was the Soviet delegation that visited Germany as an ally of the USSR in order to purchase new weapons in 1939. Paradoxical as it may seem, the Soviet technical representatives of the Fw-189 were not interested in anything, except for the unusual design, and the Soviet test pilots were "cool" about the "frame" on which they carried out test flights. As a result, thanks to such a serious underestimation of this machine, after World War II, some Soviet military leaders, for example, Marshal Ivan Konev, could only complain that “throughout the war, our army did not have a single aircraft similar to the German Fw- 189 ".
And again we see a paradox: the Fw-189 (like the same Ju-87), a rather modest aircraft in its flight data, but actively interacting with ground forces and easily recognizable by the enemy, becomes a characteristic "military brand", while the more effective ones that appeared later, faster and less vulnerable models remain in its shadow.
Having considered the issue of production, let's move on to the issue of the combat use of the "frame". It is not nearly as commonplace as it seems. Firstly, one of the common misconceptions is that the Fw-189 was used only on the Soviet-German front, and only as a close scout. However, while the combat situation allowed, in 1941-1942. several squadrons of Fw-189 were actively used in parts of the Luftwaffe in the North African theater of operations. For operations in North Africa, even a special "tropical" type Fw-189 Trop was created, equipped with sand filters, a special light protection cabin and a special unit for drinking water. However, after the Western Allies seized air supremacy over North Africa and the defeat of the Axis forces at El Alamein in the fall of 1942, and then the surrender of their armies in Tunisia in the spring of 1943, there was no Fw-189 left in the Mediterranean. At the same time, for operations in the Western European theater of operations, this rather low-speed (maximum speed 350-430 km / h) and low-altitude (maximum practical ceiling 7000 m) was clearly not suitable.
However, their service on the Eastern Front, where initially the Red Army Air Force was not effective enough, was much longer. In general, no matter how strange it may seem to the Russian reader, on June 22, 1941, the German Air Force units involved in Operation Barbarossa did not really have a single “frame”. But in November 1941, the first batch of Fw-189s was deployed for operations against the Red Army, and from December 1941 this aircraft gradually became the main tactical reconnaissance officer of the Eastern Front. In 1941, again relying on wishes from the front, the Kurt Tank design bureau created, and in 1942 introduced into the series of modifications of the "frame" as a light attack aircraft with various types of reinforced weapons (usually in them the center section machine guns were replaced by two 20-mm cannons, but there were other modifications). In addition to changes in the set of weapons, the cockpits and main units of the aircraft in the assault modifications were covered with armor, although this did not improve the already very mediocre flight data of the Fw-189.
It should be said that the increase in the combat effectiveness of the Soviet Air Force in 1942-1943.first of all, it affected the most slow-moving German aircraft, and as already noted, since the summer of 1943, the "frames" are mainly reoriented to fight the partisans (which they rather successfully waged in 1943-1944, not only in the occupied part of the USSR, but also in the territories of Yugoslavia and France). In this functional role, the Fw-189 also proved to be just as successful as before in the role of a day tactical reconnaissance, primarily due to the absence of high-speed Allied fighters in the rear areas and the very weak anti-aircraft equipment of the partisan units.
Fw-189 in autumn camouflage fighting Soviet fighters
In addition, some of the Fw-189 was transferred to the satellite countries of Germany: 14 vehicles were transferred to the Slovak Air Force; 16 vehicles were transferred to the Bulgarian Air Force; at least 30 vehicles entered the Hungarian Air Force; several dozen aircraft entered the Romanian Air Force.
And according to the almost unanimous reviews of the pilots of these countries, the Fw-189 was a fairly stable and very tenacious aircraft, with excellent visibility and excellent navigation devices, the disadvantages of which were low speed and insufficient climb rate. And, surprising as it may seem again, despite the small number of aircraft transferred by the Reich to its satellites, it was on the Eastern Front, as part of the air forces of the above countries, that they were able to quite successfully fight before they left the war (which indirectly confirms that the bulk Soviet fighter pilots, even in 1944-45, still remained fairly average qualifications). And the last sortie of the "frame" was generally carried out on the Eastern Front on May 8, 1945, when, it would seem, there should no longer be any conditions for its use …
We have not yet considered all the options for the combat use of such a rather versatile vehicle as the Fw-189. And although, in the opinion of the Soviet side, the "frame" made the greatest impression as a close scout, the Germans assessed his merits in this capacity rather sparingly, tk. in the second half of the war, the Luftwaffe had more efficient aircraft for these purposes. However, one of the main areas of its combat use, along with anti-partisan actions, in the second half of World War II is its use as an air defense night fighter.
Now let's try to dispel the misconception about the unofficial nicknames of the Fw-189. Of course, Soviet soldiers called it "frame" ("crutch" was the nickname for other tactical scouts such as Hs-1265, Hs-123, Fi-156, which was inherited by Fw-189). In the Wehrmacht, the Fw-189 was usually called the "flying eye" (however, it was the universal nickname for all reconnaissance aircraft). However, from 1942-1943, with the transition of this aircraft to night air defense missions, the nickname "owl" stuck to it. In Russian, the name of this bird does not have any ominous shades, in German its name "uhu" simply imitates the frightening cry of an owl, but, for example, in English, the owl is called "eagle-owl" - "eagle-night owl", which emphasizes the predatory the nature of this bird.
By the way, it should be said that another German air defense aircraft also bore the nickname "owl" - it was the Heinkel He-219, a truly terrifying killer machine in the hands of an experienced pilot, much more effective as a "night hunter" than the Fw-189 (however, fortunately for the allies, they were made 3 times less than even the Fw-189, only 268 units, and the Germans did not use them on the Eastern Front).
It is also worth noting such a little-known fact as the fact that in 1940-1942. The "frame" was used as a "flying headquarters" by a number of Wehrmacht generals for personal reconnaissance of enemy positions. True, since 1943, the senior officers of Germany no longer took such a risk, using more advanced types of aircraft for this. And in the spring of 1944, the Luftwaffe leadership generally issued a special circular explicitly prohibiting the use of the Fw-189 during the day in the front line, even with a strong fighter cover.
Of course, due to its low speed and average altitude, the "frame" turned out to be a mediocre night fighter of the German air defense, but on the Eastern Front, the Fw-189 showed itself to the fullest. The fact is that even before the war, several thousand small U-2 (Po-2) aircraft were built in the USSR, which were used mainly as training aircraft (in total, more than 33,000 of them were produced, it was the second most massive Soviet wartime aircraft after IL-2). After a significant part of them died in the summer of 1941 during attempts to use this aircraft during daytime attacks on enemy columns, from autumn-winter 1941 Po-2 was transferred to the role of a night light bomber, often with female pilots. This is how the famous "night witches" regiments began. And it was precisely as a "night hunter" for light bombers that the Fw-189, according to German estimates, proved to be very good. The first steps in this direction were made in 1942, but the Fw-189 in the form of an air defense night fighter began to be used en masse in the summer-autumn of 1943.
Strange as it may seem, but when describing the combat activities of the Po-2 by Russian authors, they usually do not say anything about the adequate response of the Luftwaffe to massive night raids of light bombers. The fact is that since 1942, the Germans have formed special "Stor kamf staffel" ("Battle squadrons of pursuers") from the existing obsolete types of aircraft (mainly biplanes), which became ineffective in day operations and the main purpose of which was "night hunting for flying witches ". This squadron originally included part of the Fw-189. Later, from 1943, the "night hunters" Fw-189 were merged into their own special units - "Nahauf klarungs gruppe" and "Nacht jagd gruppe", in which they were used until the end of the war.
As it turned out, the disadvantages of the "frame" in this role turned out to be advantages: excellent maneuverability and excellent visibility were successfully complemented by good stability in flight at all altitude ranges, including ultra-low, and the ability to fly at low speeds. On the modification of the Fw-189 in the version of the "night hunter" they installed a radar, a high-precision radio altimeter, added weapons, and the "frames" converted in this way not only turned out to be an enemy of the Soviet infantry, but also the main killer of Soviet "night witches" (as you know, battles on midget altitude - this is the lack of altitude for a parachute jump, and therefore our female pilots often did not even take a parachute with them in order to facilitate the plane).
Fw-189 of the Bulgarian Air Force on the Eastern Front
The combat use of the "frame" as a night fighter on the Eastern Front was carried out as follows.
1. When the Wehrmacht became aware that regiments of Soviet night light bombers were operating in this sector, a "squadron of night pursuers" were called in, which would fly out in advance at night to hunt. At the same time, the Wehrmacht and air defense units were instructed not to use anti-aircraft guns and a searchlight, so as not to blind their aircraft and accidentally shoot down their own.
2. The ground air defense systems of the Germans detected and transmitted the direction of passage through the front line of the Po-2 group. Having received this information, the Fw-189 already on duty in the air, a kind of quiet "night eagles", began to sneak up on Soviet pilots who usually did not see anything (who were blinded by sparks of their engine in the darkness of the night, and the sound of other people's engines drowned out the sound of their own "coffee mill ").
3. It is possible that the Po-2 pilots, not seeing the searchlights and the work of anti-aircraft guns, even calmed down, assuming that they were not noticed, and they successfully passed the front line. But the whole horror of the situation was that they were just noticed and night fighters opened the hunt for them. At the beginning, the Fw-189 spotted the Po-2 group with a radar (sometimes even 2 radars operating in different ranges were placed on the "frame"), then visually and then attacked, and often this happened almost silently, during planning. And of course, one can imagine what two 20-mm cannons or four machine guns did to the poor Po-2. Indeed, we can say that this method of attack has caused an absolutely clear association with the night owl hunting.
By the way, the fact that the Fw-189's crew consisted of three people, while working in the cockpit as a single team, in clear interaction with ground units, and having excellent equipment, played a very important role in target detection. At the same time, both the pilot and the observer on the Po-2 sometimes simply did not even hear each other, having the most primitive navigation equipment (and our pilots of light night bombers simply could not even dream of airborne radars).
And, probably, it is worth noting a very important point: in the memoirs of the Soviet "bat" survivors of the war, the author never once came across references to the attacks of the Fw-189. This is simply an amazing fact, which testifies to the fact that, perhaps, our "light bombers" did not actually "know by sight" the whole war, their most dangerous enemy! Although this is easy to explain: apparently, those who had already seen the "owl" attacking them in the darkness of the night could no longer tell anything more about it, and their partners thought that, apparently, their friends were shot down by anti-aircraft guns. Some, apparently, thought that they were being attacked by night Me-109es or described some other types of Luftwaffe aircraft … In general, one way or another, it was in the role of a "night hunter" that the Fw-189 turned out to be very effective when it was he was almost unable to function as a day scout.
Light bomber Po-2 (U-2) in battle
Now let's move on to the question of the losses of the Fw-189. The fact is that only Soviet pilots, and only pilots of fighter aircraft, declared 795 victories over Fw-189. Theoretically, it would seem that it was possible, but then the share of the losses of the air defense of the Reich, North Africa, "night hunters" of the Eastern Front, and most importantly, losses from anti-aircraft fire from the ground and non-combat operational losses (which often amounted to 40% and even more from the produced aircraft), only 60 aircraft remain, which is absolutely unrealistic, and therefore the issue requires further study.
At the end of our article, we will explain another myth about the "frame": it is sometimes said that the Soviet pilot who knocked down the "frame" was allegedly given an order. In fact, this was not the case (perhaps with some rare exception), but almost always in the air regiment, where the successful fighter served, after the battle, a delegate from the infantry formations came, over which the shot down "frame" hung, and always presented the pilot with sincere gratitude (mostly liquid) for taking care of ground forces.
