General Background

In 1937 the Me-109 was an excellent aircraft but the Reich Air Ministry wanted a new advanced fighter that could out perform any future foreign designs. Kurt Tank’s Focke-Wulf Fw-190 Würger (Butcher Bird) won the design competition by using an air-cooled radial engine. When the Fw-190 entered combat in the summer of 1941 it already was Germany’s premiere piston-powered WWII fighter. Over 20,000 of all variants of the Fw-190 were built with 13,291 of these being of the 9 different “A” variants.

The Aircraft

Adolf “Dolfie” Galland became a fighter pilot in 1940 and achieved Ace status during the Battle of France. In late 1941 at age 29 he had a score of 96 victories and was appointed General der Jagdfliereg and forbidden to fly combat missions. In 1944 Galland made several unauthorized combat sorties to see how effective his new tactics were. His Fw-190A-6 didn’t have a lot of markings other than a yellow lower cowling, a white double chevron and white 2. Galland’s final victory total was 104 aircraft.