P-51 Mustang vs Fw 190: Europe 1943-45 (Duel) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

..I think I like the series concept - the comparative context is certainly interesting - but this title is something of a misnomer since the comparison between the two types is difficult to draw. If anything the prinicpal opponents of the P-51 over Germany were the light, agile, power -boosted Bf 109 in its G-6/AS & G-10 variants brought together in 'leichte Gruppen' to defend the Fw 190 as they went up against the bombers.
Author Bowman - a recognised 8th AF authority - produces an interesting text on the Mustang within the limitations of space imposed in the typical Osprey format. Unfortunately the profile of the FW 190 presented here is what you might expect a non-specialist to write. The chronology that introduces the book highlights the disparity in developmental time frame between the two fighters which represents a good four years of aviation progress. The high performance P-51 Mustang was conceived during 1940/41 and didn't really come into its own until 1943 over Europe while the FW-190 'Butcher Bird' was a 1937 project and no thoroughbred seven years later. Tank was a WW I infantry soldier turned aircraft designer - his creation was a 'workhorse', powered by a massive air-cooled radial engine and suited for a range of operating environments and mission types - lethal in its early incarnations but rather long in the tooth for the period covered by this book. In the battles fought high over the Reich during 1944 the P-51 was 'cutting edge' while the Fw 190 was a lumbering bludgeon totally unsuited for fighter vs. fighter combat. The A-8 variant - produced in greater numbers than all the other FW 190 sub-types put together - weighed in some 2,000 kg heavier than the first Fw 190s to see service over the Channel during 1941 while powered by essentially the same BMW 801 engine. Fw 190s were generally deployed as bomber destroyers - only the odd Staffel of Fw 190s might be deployed as cover against P-51s and these were generally machines stripped of their heavy armament and flown by the handful of pilots that had achieved successes against the P-51s.
Not surprisingly then the Mustang out-performed the 190 in virtually all flight modes unless flown by one of the shrinking number of 'Experten' such as Konrad Bauer of 5./JG 300. Bauer had downed three Mustangs in a matter of minutes on 9 September 1944. If its firepower could be brought to bear - a combination of MGs and cannon - the Fw 190 packed a considerable punch. A discussion of why the US kept faith with .50 machine guns and didn't develop a decent heavy cannon might have been of interest here - but then the Brownings got the job done I guess..There is an interesting chapter on pilot training, which, during the period 1943-45 on the German side, was significantly inferior to that undergone by US pilots, most of whom had hundreds of hours in the air. Late-war Jagdwaffe pilots invariably had less than 100 hours of total flying time before being strapped into their 190s and sent against the bombers or - by March 1945 - on ground strafing sorties against American tank columns pushing deep into southern Germany - here the Fw 190s prinicpal opponent was the P-47. Bowman misspells the German word for certification - Schein - throughout this chapter.
The strength of a book like this should surely be in the first-hand accounts of combat but as already suggested in this thread this volume falls well short from the German perspective. Two paragraphs from Ernst Schroeder and a short piece from Helmut Rix is all I could find - Rix was shot down on his first sortie, so his contribution is hardly insightful. Disappointing. The discussion of tactics from the German side likewise, and merely comprises a US pilot's recollections. While there is one informative passage on the P-51's K-14 gunsight, there is nothing on the gyroscopic EZ 42 sight developed for the Fw 190. A series of vignettes are presented on the aces profiles page but elsewhere note that Walther Dahl was not a 128 victory ace, Ernst Schroeder didn't engage the bombers on 27 November 1944 and his famous 'Red 19' was not written off following this sortie but rather repaired and returned to service with JG 301, as described in the latest volume of the JG 300 history...One final criticism - of the eighty pages here two are taken up with a rather lame Postlethwaite painting of Schroeder's 'Red 19' and another two are taken up with a bibliography that mostly comprises references to other Osprey publications....the photos are credited mostly to Weal or Creek but have been seen many times before...

This work could have presented a nice compendium of accounts from Fw 190 pilots engaged in defence of the Reich sorties, alongside a consideration of what it was to fly and fight against massed bomber pulks while desperately trying to avoid the attentions of the agile and long-ranged escort fighters - it doesn't. For that there is no better reference source than the recent Geschwader chronicle of JG 300 published by Eagle Editions.

Recommended if you are new to the subject or your library contains nothing on the P-51 or the Fw 190 ....

P-51 MUSTANG VS FW 190 is the first in Osprey's new 'Duel' series, an interesting concept that compares Allied fighters, tanks and ships to their corresponding opponents. (Others include Sherman Fireflies vs. Tigers, Camels vs. Fokkers, U-boats vs DEs, etc.). Judging from this inaugural effort by Martin Bowman, the series shows promise but needs some work.

'Duel' titles such as the Bowman book examine the development, design and performance characteristics of the opposing airplanes/ships/tanks; compare and contrast the two opponents; evaluate the comparable training given to pilots (in this case); relate how they performed in combat; etc.

Bowman's book addresses most of those points but doesn't do a good enough job addressing the "how did they stack up in combat" issue, which is the series' raison d'etre. It would have benefitted from the inclusion of more first-hand combat narratives and comparative evaluations from the pilots, especially FW 190 jockeys. The book contains a lot of 'white space' that could have been used for such additional material; likewise the Glossary and Bibliography could have been printed in smaller type.

The book includes over 60 black & white and color photographs along with diagrams, side-views, etc. of pilots, aircraft, gunsights, cockpit diagrams and armament mountings. It also has dynamite cover artwork by Jim Laurier.

So, I recommend P-51 MUSTANG VS FW 190 with some reservations. Likewise, the 'Duel' concept is an intriguing one but Osprey and its authors need to tweak the concept to better deliver the goods.

This is part of Osprey's "Duel" series, in which duels between weapons of war are described and assessed. This slender volume focuses on World War II. Here, we are told of the duel between the American P-51 Mustang and the German FW-190. The result (Page 4): "The legendary P-51 Mustang, the finest American fighter of World War II, versus the Fw 190A, one of Germany's greatest piston-engined interceptors, provided some of the most deadly combat confrontations of the war in Europe."

This book speaks of the evolution of the Mustang--from an underpowered plane until the Merlin engine was installed, transforming the plane into something very special. The Fw 190 had been superior to American and British fighters until the revved up Mustang was rolled out. The first section provides a brief introduction to the two planes (with a chronology on pages 6-7). The second section focuses on the design and development of the planes. Next, specifications of the two planes, including a comparative look at the cockpits of each (pages 28-29).

Other sections examine the strategic situation, the combatants, actual combat, statistics of the battles between the planes, and the aftermath. The Mustang actually some action in the Korean War, after jet fighters had been deployed.

A nice work laying out the respective abilities of these two fighter planes.