Focke-Wulf Fw 190
Baltic Winter

Sopwith Aero Marquis

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Series
Baltic Winter Limited Edition

Written and researched for Sopwith Watch Company by Barrett Tillman, award-winning author of “The Dauntless Dive-Bomber of World War II,” “When the Shooting Stopped: August 1945,” and more than 40 other books on World War II and the VietNam conflict

Through much of the war, the Luftwaffe’s Baltic command was Luftflotte (Air Fleet) One, headquartered in Latvia while conducting operations against the Soviets in Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland. The aviation component supported Army Group North, focused on the Leningrad front.

Chief among Luftwaffe fighter units in the Baltic was Jagdgeschwader 54 (JG 54), publicized as the “Green Hearts” for the wing’s emblem. Formed in Thuringia in 1939, the unit adopted the region’s motif as “the green heart of Germany.”

Jagdgeschwader 54 was a first to last combatant, flying against Poland, France, and Britain until transferred east in 1941. The wing only had five Kommodores throughout the war, notably Oberst (Colonel) Hannes Trautloft whose combat career began in Spain, and Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel) Hubertus von Bonin, killed in his Focke-Wulf 190 in December 1943. His successor, Oberstleutnant Anton Marder, fell ill ten months later.

At the outset of Germany’s invasion of Russia – Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 – the Luftwaffe counted nearly 4,400 aircraft of which 2,600 were deployed in the East. Thus, the Germans were outnumbered more than three to one by the Red Air Force. But the qualitative difference proved decisive in the early phase as the Luftwaffe gained air superiority for the first several months.

The Green Hearts scored heavily against the technologically inferior and less experienced Red Air Force. But then came Russia’s historic ally, “General Winter.” Flying and operating in that environment challenged the Germans over the next three winters. With Russian resilience, the Eastern Front settled into a grinding, four-year war of attrition.

Twenty-one Experten with more than 100 victories flew in whole or in part with JG 54. They faced Soviet fighter aircraft typically mounting both cannon and machine guns, as did Germany and Japan. The usual weapons, as in the much-produced Yakovlev series, were a nose-mounted cannon with two rifle-caliber machine guns. The 20mm ShVAK cannon’s standard projectile was claimed to defeat 10 to 15mm (0.39 to 0.60 inches) of homogeneous armor at close ranges.

Twin 7.62mm ShKAS machine guns generally augmented the cannon. Armor-piercing rounds were rated to penetrate 11mm (0.43 inches) of armor at 400 meters.

Russian and German home front efforts were felt at the sharp end of combat. In 1942 Russian factories delivered 25,000 aircraft, peaking at 40,000 two years later. However, U.S. and British lend-lease deliveries increased the disparity over Germany, which produced about 15,000 in 1942. Overall, Allied lend-lease deliveries totaled about 18,000 aircraft to the Soviet Union.

While producing prodigious numbers of planes, Russia improved aircrew selection and training. Gradually the Red Air Force’s deficits were reduced, brought to parity, and eventually reversed.

The Luftwaffe typically flew in an environment of numerical inferiority in the East, with an average of about 1,100 aircraft available. At the end of 1943 the command deployed as few as 425 fighters, presumably with many awaiting repair or spare parts. Attrition was constant. During 1943, Luftwaffe fighter losses in the East ran more than 300 per month. Meanwhile, as priorities evolved, single-engine fighter production rose from 200 in the first half of 1941 to nearly 800 in the first half of 1943.

The most active pilots found combat on 60 percent of their sorties. But conversely, many were shot down or crash landed repeatedly. Some joked that they bailed out enough times to qualify as paratroopers, and several jumped more than the requisite six times.

JG 5’s luminaries included Oberleutnant Otto Kittel (267 total, all with the wing); Major Walter Nowotny (258, all but two with the wing); Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel) Hans Philipp (206, 196 with the wing); and Major Erich Rudorffer (222, 69 with the wing). Most began combat in the Bf 109 but the Geschwader began transition to Focke-Wulf 190s in February 1943 when the Green Hearts claimed their 4,000th victory.

As one example, Hans Phillipp was a six-year veteran pilot with a stellar career. He became Germany’s fourth “century ace” in March 1942 and the second to reach 200 victories, in September of that year.

In April 1943 Philipp was transferred to the West, commanding Jagdgeschwader 1. It was a drastic change from Russia similar to other Ostfront veterans. That October Phillip wrote “Hannes” Trautloft, his former Kommodore, “Against 20 Russians trying to shoot you down, or even 20 Spitfires, it can be exciting, even fun. But to curve in towards 40 Fortresses and all your past sins flash before your eyes. And when you yourself have reached this state of mind, it becomes that much more difficult to have to drive every pilot of the Geschwader, right down to the youngest and lowliest NCO, to do the same.”

Days later Phillip was killed fighting Eighth Air Force P-47s, age 26.

Meanwhile, JG 54 continued its Ostfront campaign. From Barbarossa onward, wing headquarters moved twenty times, finally settling at Ciava, Latvia, during the last four months with FW-190A models augmented by the powerful “Dora” with a 1,700-horsepower Jumo 213 in-line engine.

At war’s end the Green Hearts claimed 9,600 victories, exceeded only by JG 52 with 10,000.

Contrarily, throughout the war the wing lost 733 pilots killed or missing plus 570 non flying personnel. Among the 1,800 aircraft missing or written off, about 750 (41 percent) were Focke-Wulfs, indicating the 190’s superior survivability over the Bf 109.

The Baltic Winter Limited Edition of the Sopwith Aero Marquis rescues unsalvageable armor plates from an original Fw 190 and preserves them for posterity in the form of a world-class timepiece.