Focke – Wulf Fw 190 in the Battle for Sicily

The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 served on all fronts during the Second World War, and one campaign in which it played an important role was the battle for Sicily. This book describes the service of the Fw 190 fighter-bomber in Sicily, Sardinia, and southern Italy in the summer of 1943, including the numerous operations flown against a variety of well-defended Allied targets, and the many difficulties that were faced and overcome by the pilots and ground personnel of the Fw 190-equipped units.

The Fw 190 pilots undertook their first bombing mission from a Sicilian airfield just eight days after the Axis defeat in North Africa, and in June 1943, they returned to full-scale operations, primarily against shipping. The invasion of Sicily on 10 July 1943—at the time the largest amphibious operation in history—presented a serious challenge to the Fw 190 units, which Luftwaffe commanders expected to be an important anti-invasion force. Despite relentless Allied bombing and a lack of serviceable aircraft, the Fw 190 pilots enjoyed some success over the Anglo-American beachhead. In the subsequent Sicilian campaign, the Fw 190 pilots flew many difficult and costly missions to try to delay the steady Allied advance from the invasion beaches in the south to Messina in the northeast. Using a wide variety of sources from both sides, this is the first time that the full story of the Fw 190 in the battle for Sicily has been told.

Source: Publisher's summary printed on cover