FOCKE-WULF Fw-380
(1944-1945)
Fictional Text and Model by Adam Rehorn
A cornerstone of the Luftwaffe’s early success was, to hear Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring tell it, the Zerstörer (destroyer) class of twin-engine heavy fighter. While it’s true that the Me Bf 110 did have a long service career, and the fighter derivatives of the Ju 88 were successful, the Luftwaffe high command had been let down on several key Zerstörer projects. Most notable of these was the Me-210/410 debacle, although the failure of the Fw Ta 154 didn’t help things.
Messerschmitt ME-210/410 "Hornisse"
First flown in September 1939 and intended as the successor to the Messerschmitt Bf 110, the Messerschmitt Me210 heavy fighter was an inherently unstable aircraft which pilots found difficult to handle. Despite substantial modification of its tail unit, this instability persisted and production of the type was suspended in April 1942 while renewed efforts were made to improve its flight characteristics.
Some of the aircraft’s vices were eliminated with a redesign of the fuselage and wings, but in all only 352 aircraft were completed (with a further 108 built under licence in
The Messerschmitt Me410 Hornisse (Hornet) was a simple derivative of the Me210 and enjoyed moderate success in the light-bomber, fighter and reconnaissance roles.
The Luftwaffe’s apparent apathy towards the excellent He-219 multi-role aircraft only exacerbated the problem. With the arrival of the excellent P-38 and P-61 heavy fighters of the USAAF, and the continuing plague of RAF Mosquitoes, the Luftwaffe was put in a very unenviable position. There were, of course, many Zerstörer projects on drawing boards in mid-1944 (some jets, some props), but these would require time to develop and put into service. Even the powerful Dornier Pfeil was not the answer to the Luftwaffe’s problems; it was undergoing trials, but there were still bugs to be worked out.
What was needed was a Zerstörer based on a proven airframe/engine combination. This was precisely what a small group of engineers at Focke Wulf had been working on independently. The group submitted a proposal to the RLM in August 1944 that outlined a new heavy fighter based on twinning the Fw-190D-9 then in service with the Luftwaffe.
The proposed aircraft was billed as a multi-role machine that could be configured for several roles, including day and night fighter, reconnaissance and ground attack/anti-shipping.
The Fw-190Z, as it was then unofficially known, was approved in concept at a Luftwaffe High Command meeting at the end of September 1944. The first prototype was made by combining two factory fresh D-9 airframes, and the aircraft was ready for flight at the end of November, 1944. There were some minor problems encountered, but overall the test flight program was successful, and the type was judged production-ready in late December 1944.
At this point, a decision had to be made regarding what variants would be put into service first. The various Luftwaffe Generals each wanted a plane that would suit their particular needs, but it was eventually decided that a day fighter, night fighter and torpedo bomber would be put into service first.
These three aircraft types were judged to be the most urgently required, since other jobs were already being taken over by new types, such as the Me-262 Schwalbe and Ar-234 Blitz.
The first night fighter Fw-190Z was flown in February 1945. However, it was found to be too lightly armed and too slow to have much affect on the Mosquito aircraft prowling the Reich’s night skies. This was when a new version of the night fighter, the Fw-380B-1a was proposed. This was a single-seat night fighter, with the pilot sitting in the port fuselage. The starboard fuselage was converted into a giant cannon pod.
It was originally envisioned that the starboard fuselage would hold up to six Mk-103 30mm cannons in three Schrage- Muzik weapons fit, combined with the cannons’ slow rate of fire, did little to arouse enthusiasm. However, the B2-a model generated much more interest.
The Fw-380 B-2a was similar to the B-1a, except it used an array of six (later reduced to five in the production B-2c model) 20 mm MG-151 cannons in place of the Mk-103s. These guns had adequate hitting power, as well as a higher rate of fire and their ammunition was lighter. Thus, more rounds could be carried and the weight penalty was less. The fighter was approved for prototype construction in March 1945.
(NOTE: sometime in late February/early March of 1945 the designation was changed from Fw-190Z to Fw-380. It is suspected this was done simply because “380” is twice “190”, and it made it simpler for RLM bean counters to track procurements and funding decisions. No official reason for the change has ever been documented…)
The first Fw 380B-2c night fighters began operation with Erprobungskommando 380 (EK 380) in April 1945. Very quickly, the pilots took a liking to the big, powerful fighter. With its external drop tanks and extra fuel storage in the center wing, the 380 could stay aloft much longer than the Fw-190. The armament was also well-liked; in the first month of sorties, EK 380 bagged over 25
One problem with the fighter, however, was that it was operating in the Wilde Sau mode, and required ground control to find bombers effectively. This was changed with the arrival of the compact FuG 240C “Diamanten” (Diamond) radar homing set. This was an improvement of the existing
With the Diamanten installed, the record of EK 380 improved dramatically. Also, by May 1945 there were a total of four squadrons operating the night fighter. By July 1945, the type had completely supplanted the Me Bf 110 and Ju-88G series night fighters in all remaining Luftwaffe Nachtjäger Gruppen.
In night combat, the 380 often encountered various marks of night fighter Mosquito, as well as the USAAF’s Black Widows. Up against such opposition, early 380 B-2a models were at a disadvantage: they had no forward firing guns, and the Schräge-Musik installations were not well suited for maneuvering combat. This was the primary reason that the B-2c model retained the wing mounted 20 mm cannons of the D-9. The cowl mounted guns were left off, however, for flash blindness reasons.
While it was a powerful, fast (top speed: 424 mph) and quite maneuverable aircraft, it did have its flaws. The major flaw was the landing gear. There had been little improvement made to the landing gear of the original D-9s from which the 380 was constructed. Thus, the gear legs and tires were being asked to handle twice the weight at almost twice the track! This was, given the state of metallurgy and rubber manufacturing at the time, too much to expect. Many 380s were destroyed in landing accidents.
Another fault was due to the recoil of the cannons in the starboard fuselage. When all five were fired, the recoil was sufficient to throw the plane into a spin. This could by corrected by applying a ‘bootful of rudder’ to counteract the recoil, but timing was critical. Since the guns on the B-2a could only be selected either “all on” or “all off”, many pilots chose to fly with only two or three of the cannons armed. While this reduced the effectiveness of the attack, it also allowed the plane to stay under control. This problem was rectified with the B-2c series: each of the five cannons could be selected independently, and an automatic rudder deflection system was incorporated. A similar concept would be used in the USAF F-15 over three decades later…
Unfortunately, the career of the Fw-380 was not long. The B-2c night fighters were in service until the final capitulation of the Reich in September 1945. In this time, only 290 of all versions had been made, and it was estimated that only half of these reached squadron service, the rest being destroyed in bombing raids or cannibalized for parts.
After the war, several B-2c machines were carted off by the Allies. Three were taken to the
~Text editing and modification by Rob Arndt
