Hitlers FW200 Video

[Hawk777]

Sorry if this is a repost. I was trying to find some shots of Hitlers different airplanes and ran across this.

Its Hitler in Finland and has some great shots of the inside of the his FW 200 with Hans Baur his pilot at controls. Seems hard to find much on the Condor in general around the net so thought it was a great video.

 

[The Basket]

Watch video.
Fw200 brakes on fire.

 

[stona]

The aircraft were operated by the Fliegerstaffel des Fuehrers (F.d.F). Interestingly this was NOT part of the Luftwaffe. There is a famous picture of the military members of the organisation, commanded by Bauer, posing in front of a couple of Fw 200s. Of the 26 men in the photograph 16 are officers in the SS or Waffen SS, most are ex-Lufthansa Captains. The other 10 are Luftwaffe officers or NCOs on attachment. Maintenance of F.d.F aircraft was undertaken by Deutsche Lufthansa, not the Luftwaffe, and its personnel wore DLH uniforms. They were considered civilians under the Hague conventions and could not be used as air gunners, these came from the Luftwaffe.

At least 10 Fw 200s were regularly operated by the F.d.F., Bauer quotes 13. I think the one in the film is Werknummer 0099, KE+IX, which was normally a support aircraft. You can just about make out the codes in this adjusted screen shot:

This was the first armed Fw 200 to enter service with the F.d.F. being a Fw 200C-3/U9. It was usually used by staff and guests, but Hitler did use it occasionally, he liked its higher speed.

Hitler's personal aircraft at this time was Werknummer 0137, CE+IB and this is not that one.

Three Fw 200s were fully equipped Fuehrer versions (complete with 'Fuehrersessel'), CE+IB (obviously), GC+AE (Goering's aircraft used by Himmler) and finally TK+CV (a support aircraft used by Hitler, but not delivered until 1943).

Cheers

Steve