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Info Eduard - July 2010
The modifications to the weaponry and armor didn’t
just improve the pilot’s ability to punch and his level
of protection, but also added some 224 kg of extra weight.
The degraded sustained turn rate became a point to
exploit by Mustang pilots. The elimination of the fuselage
guns was an attempt to at least reduce this handicap.
Even so, the Sturmbock became essentially unusable
in classic air combat (although there are examples
of exceptions) and formations of armored Fw 190A-8/R2
needed an escort of Bf 109s.
The road to the Sturmbock and back
The development of this USAAF Flying Fortress and
Liberator specialist was relatively long term. As early
as the fall, 1943, twin 20mm cannon tubs were tried
on the Fw 190A-5, bringing the total of six twenties
(factory modification U-12). As an R6 field modification,
an armament of 21cm BR rockets were test fired in the
summer of 1943.
That which became standard for the Sturmbock, the
use of 30mm cannon and side mounted armor, was at first
applied on an individual basis. Documentation indicates
that in May, 1944, IV./JG 3 there were Fw 190A-8s in
service with four 20mm cannon with the armor plates on
the sides of the cockpit. An interesting point regarding
these is that they also combat tested underfuselage
rocket launchers called ‘Krebs – Gerät’, that fired aft after
the fighter overshot the bomber formation. These aircraft
lacked the 30mm MK 108 cannon.
Conversely, in March, 1944, there were A-7s suffixed
R2 in service with JG 11 that carried wing mounted pairs
of 20mm cannon and two 30mm cannon, but these
aircraft lacked the additional armor plating.
Full standard Sturmbocks, with 30mm cannon and
side armor plating, appeared several months later.
Production of the Fw 190A-8/R2
ran mainly at Gerhard Fiesler’s
factory in Kassel and also at the
AGO-Flugzeugwerke Oschersleben
plant. Although officially a field modi-
fication, Sturmbocks almost certainly
left production facilities with the
modifications applied, and just the
removal of the fuselage guns was
carried out at unit level, and according
to unit preferences. Fw 190A-8/R2s
where the fuselage guns were not
removed cannot be ruled out. Interesting
modifications are reported to have occurred in the
unused sections formerly occupied by the removed guns
in front of the windscreen, the troughs and the muzzle
areas. Photographic evidence points to the provisionary
covering of gun areas and others show the muzzles
being faired over. There is speculation that these could
have been actual gun troughs, dismounted, rotated and
refastened. However, the construction of this portion of
the cover did not make such a modification possible.
The deepened trough was formed into a large piece
of metal where there was nothing to dismount. Most
often, the troughs would have been left alone after the
removal of the fuselage guns.
Back to the end of 1943. The father of the idea of the
Sturmbock attack was thirty-eight year-old fighter pilot
and experienced CO Major Hans-Günter von Kornatzki.
Gerhard Fiesler Werke at Bettenhausen near Kassel after a USAAF
bomber attack on April, 19, 1944, when the factory suffered serious
damage. Here, the majority of Fw 190A-8/R2 Sturmbock fighters were
produced.
(Photo: NARA)
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Uffz. Willi Maximowitz and Gefr. Gerhard Vivroux of
Sturmsaffel 1 with Fw 190A-6 ‘Panzerbock’.
Beginning of 1944.
(Photo: the author’s archives via Hellmut Detjens, JG 4)
HISTORY