Weapons

• Article by Arnold Palthe
• Published on November 13th, 2015

Focke Wulf Fw 200 Condor

One of the major shortcomings of the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War was the almost total lack of long-range heavy bombers. Not long after the Germans had begun their assault on Great-Britain, they found themselves in need of a heavy bomber suitable for attacking the British convoys far out in the Atlantic Ocean. Since the need was urgent and the time to develop a new aircraft was too short, there was only one option open to them, converting the new airliner designed by Kurt Tank, the Focke Wulf Fw 200 Condor, to a bomber. Strangely, this became one of the most succesful conversions of the war, although the Condor was not ideally suited for this role. The success lay in the fact that British convoys were extremely vulnerable to and inadequately protected from aerial attacks.