World War Photos

Focke-Wulf Fw 189 Uhu was a German twin-engine, twin-boom, three-seat tactical reconnaissance and army cooperation aircraft.
The experience of the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War had shown that the Heinkel He 46 and Henschel Hs 126 close reconnaissance aircraft used by the Luftwaffe were too slow and unprotected. So the RLM laid down requirements that the new aircraft had to meet, including defensive armament consisting of machine guns and a payload of 200 kilograms of bombs. In addition, the aircraft was to have an engine power of 900 hp to provide the necessary speed and maneuverability.
Engineers at Focke-Wulf then designed an aircraft with two twelve-cylinder Argus As 410 V-engines housed in separate nacelles, which provided the observer in the center cockpit with a very good field of view and defense, since no engine interfered with the forward view. The instrument panel was also moved upward to improve visibility. The project was designed by Andreas von Faehlmann, while Erhard Kosel was responsible for the overall construction.
In April 1937, orders were then placed with Ar 198, Blohm & Voss Bv 141 and Focke-Wulf to build three experimental aircraft each. The Arado design suffered from unrecoverable problems and the project was terminated prematurely, and the unusual Blohm & Voss design was also developed further but no series production took place.
The first prototype Fw 189 V1, with registration D-OPVN and two 430 hp Argus As-410 engines, made its maiden flight on July 23, 1938 piloted by Focke-Wulf chief designer Kurt Tank. Other prototypes were built, including a design for an attack aircraft with machine guns and bomb mounts. Since the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht did not yet see a need for its introduction, only a small build order for 13 aircraft was placed.
Delivery of the pre-production A-0 began before the war. Twenty-four aircraft were ordered, but certainly not all were delivered. Six of the B-0s were ordered, and eight of the C-0s, of which five and three, respectively, were delivered by May 31, 1941. In all, there were about 20 prototype and zero-production aircraft. Deliveries of the A-1 series began in October 1940, with a total of 830 built at the Focke-Wulf main plant in Bremen, by Aero in Prague, and in France by SNCASO (under partial production at Breguet). The series was phased out by SNCASO in March 1944, after Aero and FW had already delivered the last Fw 189s in early 1943.
The Uhu became the ‘flying eye’ of the German armies and served in Finland and North Africa but mainly on the Eastern Front where it proved more difficult to shoot down than its modest performance suggested. The view from the extensively glazed ‘fuselage’ was excellent, flying qualities were regarded as superb and its ability to absorb punishment was almost legendary. Examples captured by the Russians were given unusually generous praise after evaluation and the design had an ongoing influence on Soviet aeronautical engineers. Hungary took delivery of about 30 Fw 189A-2s and Slovakia had 14 A-1s, these aircraft in both cases intended for use on the Eastern Front. Slovakian Uhus were also used against German forces in the Slovak National uprising of 1944.

Specification

Bibliography

• George Punka, Joe Sewell: Focke-Wulf Fw 189 in Action, Squadron/Signal Publications, Aircraft Number 142, 1993
• Pavel Kucera: Focke Wulf Fw 189, MBI (Czech/English)
• Focke Wulf Fw 189 “Uhu” – Flugzeug Profile 49 (german)
• David Wadman, John Bradley: Aufklarer – Luftwaffe Reconnaissance Aircraft & Units 1935-1945, Hikoki Publications 1997
• David Wadman: Aufklarer Volume One – Luftwaffe Reconnaisance Aircraft and Units 1935-1941, Luftwaffe Colours, Classic Publications 2007
• David Wadman: Aufklarer Volume Two – Luftwaffe Reconnaisance Aircraft and Units 1942-1945, Luftwaffe Colours, Classic Publications 2008
• Flugzeug Classic Special 8 – Zerstorer, Transporter, Aufklarer, Hubschrauber
• Richard A. Franks: The Focke-Wulf Fw 189 Uhu: A Detailed Guide to the Luftwaffe’s Flying Eye
• Barry Ketley: Luftwaffe Emblems 1939-1945
• Colin West: Luftwaffe Geschwader Formations, Emblems & Markings 1933-1945
• David Donald: Warplanes of the Luftwaffe, Barnes and Noble 1994
• R. Smith, Antony L. Kay – German Aircraft of the Second World War, Putnam 1990
• Jean-Denis G. G. Lepage: Aircraft of the Luftwaffe, 1935-1945 – An Illustrated Guide