"Fw-189 Night Fighter" Topic

An interesting and not very well known version for the FW -189 was the Night Fighter version used on the Eastern front to try and interdict slower moving Soviet aircraft bombing at night.

"A nightfighter ace -- in FW 189s
April 25 2011, 5:52 PM

These FW 189s were fitted with a FuG 212 radar in the nose, and had a MG151/20 in a schräge Musik installation (facing diagonally forward, not rearward as the box art depicts).

Hptm. Josef Pützkuhl of the I/NJG 100 was credited 26 victories, and was awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold.

He flew the following machines between the Spring of 1944 and March 1945:

W7+DB, W7+EB, W7+LB, W7+MB, W7+UH, W7+NL, W7+WM. This last one is a puzzle, as M should indicate 4. Staffel, usually assigned to a II Gruppe."

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Thats a great story!
Did not know this.
Thanks for sharing.
Joep

Thanks Joep. I believe that they were used due to the fact that other aircraft used by the Luftwaffe were too fast to catch the slower Soviet aircraft at night like the PO-2. Robert

That makes sense.
I'd like to try a scenario using CY6.
Some day I'll get around to gaming the air war over Hungary, using the CY6 book and this would be a neat addition.
Good Gaming Robert
Joe

I was thinking the same thing Joe. Robert

You will hopefully check out my thread on night-fighters.

TMP link

Robert

I did one in that scheme!
Will post a picture of it tonight when I get home from work.

Here is my old resin model of the Fw189 nightfighter as based on the above colour photo.
Please note that this model is not my latest 'Gold' series version.

I'm going to have to pick up some 1/600 Fw-189A2s from Tumbling Dice. Robert

I do find it interesting that the MG151/20 schräge Musik installation was facing forward. Robert

"Besides using them as an ad-hoc night fighter, the little units were used for night recon. NJG 5 and NJG 100 were being used more and more in the dual roles of night air defence and suicidal night ground attack missions. The latter the little Fw 189 was not especially suited for. When faster, newer Soviet equipment, two engine bombers and the useage of the B-25 on a consistant scale, the Fw 189 could not keep up with any of these a/c. Only with use against slower bi-planes and some of the older twin engine a/c could the Fw 189 be shown effective.
It must be remembered that the Ost front night fighter units did not receive the latest equipment first. The directive was to supply Reich defence first them filter it down to Ost front staffeln. The Ju 88G-6 was well suited because of visibilty, heavy armament, fast and with good agility, and very funny because many of the NJG 100 pilots just had the radar sets turned off while flying as I mentioned the Soviets did not use radar, only radio broadcasting sets to ground control or ground troops. These could be followed with other electronic means"

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Oblt. Josef Pützkuhl seemed to be very adapt at shooting do the U-2,PS-84 and Il-4. Robert

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Does anyone know if the NJG 5 and NJG 100's Focke Wulf FW 189A-1 Night Fighter version was ever fitted with Sonderaktion Schneekufen. Robert

I pulled out my Osprey book on German Night Fighter Aces and there was barely any mention of the FW-189 being used as one nor mention of any Aces with it. Robert

"Does anyone know if the NJG 5 and NJG 100's Focke Wulf FW 189A-1 Night Fighter version was ever fitted with Sonderaktion Schneekufen".

NO.
No evidence that the fitting of skis occurred.

And;
"Hptm. Josef Pützkuhl of the I/NJG 100 was credited 26 victories, and was awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold.
He flew the following machines between the Spring of 1944 and March 1945:
W7+DB, W7+EB, W7+LB, W7+MB, W7+UH, W7+NL, W7+WM. This last one is a puzzle, as M should indicate 4. Staffel, usually assigned to a II Gruppe." All Fw189.
Source: Günther Hiese, who interviewed the pilot and consulted his Flugbuch

I posted the info about Hptm. Josef Pützkuhl in my first post pbhawkin . It looks like he also was given credit for downing a B-25 though I don't know if it was with the Fw-189 or not. Robert

AHHH!
I didn't check the other messages before replying!

Like you I would l;ove to see some more information and pictures about this rather interesting plane. With the release of the great Wall 1/32 model maybe ther will be some better profiles to come out?

No worries pbhawkin . The other night fighters the Luftwaffe used have been so well documented. I'm surprised the Fw-189 hasn't. Robert

"Besides using them as an ad-hoc night fighter, the little units were used for night recon. NJG 5 and NJG 100 were being used more and more in the dual roles of night air defence and suicidal night ground attack missions. The latter the little Fw 189 was not especially suited for. When faster, newer Soviet equipment, two engine bombers and the useage of the B-25 on a consistant scale, the Fw 189 could not keep up with any of these a/c. Only with use against slower bi-planes and some of the older twin engine a/c could the Fw 189 be shown effective. "

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Found this interesting statement,

"The Fw 189 was not used as a NF, but as a makeshift ("improvisiert") nocturnal destroyer (auf gut Deutsch: "Nachtschlächter" und nicht "Nachtjäger") against targets like the russian Po 2. It was therefore equipped with a simplified (only one antenna, instead of four) FuMG 202/212 and a turret mounted MG 151(/20)."

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Robert

Found my copy of the Squadron FW-189 In Action book. There is a very short description of the Night Fighter version. It says that they were called "Behelfsnachtjoger" "auxiliary night-fighters". Robert