After seeing the Heinkel He 162, we stay at the Air and Space Museum in Le Bourget to admire a very rare ‘French’ Focke Wulf 190, known as NC 900. We then head to Cravant, near Auxerre, where the Fw 190 repair workshop was located.
Cravant
In 1939, aircraft manufacturer Lioré et Olivier began building a new underground factory in a 35-hectare limestone quarry in Cravant, near Auxerre. The factory included a small runway and shelters. In 1940, with the withdrawal of French troops, it fell into German hands and was not used again for several years.
In 1943, the Germans decided to relocate the repair of Focke Wulf Fw 190s due to enemy bombing. The Organisation Todt then designated the Cravant site on behalf of the Ago Flugzeugwerke factory. On 6 February 1944, the repair centre was operational and was named ‘Sonderreparaturbetrieb GL & Elbag Lager 918 Auxerre’. The runway was extended and the interior aisles were widened.
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Focke Wulf wrecks photographed after the capture of Cravant |
Aircraft carcasses or less damaged aircraft were moved inside on rails. 932 aircraft were repaired at Cravant.
On 18 August 1944, faced with the advance of Anglo-American troops, the Germans attempted to blow up the site before abandoning it. Two days later, the Americans captured Cravant.
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View dating from 1949 showing the three entrances to the Cravant aeronautical factory. Opposite the main entrance, on the other side of the river, we can see a track leading to the runway. |
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| In this view, we see the three entrances to the Cravant workshop-factory. The Yonne river flows at its feet, where the Fw 190s were brought on barges and then unloaded. |
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| One of the entrances to the workshop-factory |
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| Second entrance, the third being walled up and rendered almost inaccessible by vegetation. |
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On the bank of the Yonne, we can see the road leading to the runway, which is not that small. The three entrances to the factory workshop are just opposite, on the other bank. |
From the Fw 190 to the AACr NC 900
The war was not yet over, but Charles de Gaulle quickly made the decision to rebuild the French Air Force. With limited funds, it was decided to assemble Fw 190s in Cravant. This decision was motivated by cost: a Supermarine Spitfire cost 12 million Swiss francs, while an Fw 190 cost only 1.5 million. The Swiss franc, a stable and undevaluated currency, was used for financial transactions during this period.
In November 1944, the Société nationale de construction aéronautique du Centre de Cravant (SNCAC) was created. Fw 190 A5 and A8 aircraft were assembled, then other aircraft abandoned here and there on improvised runways were recovered and sent to Cravant.
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| Focke-Wulf Fw 190 in French Air Force, after the war |
The first Fw 190 was released on 16 March 1945 and was named AACr 6 (AACR standing for "Atelier Aéronautique de Cravant", or Cravant Aeronautical Workshop). On 1 April 1945, the Société nationale de constructions aéronautiques du Centre (SNCAC) took over from the Atelier de l'Air. The French Fw 190 was then given the designation NC 900, specific to this company.
The first aircraft were delivered in June 1945 to the Normandie-Niemen squadron, but the pilots refused to fly their enemy's aircraft.
Based at Le Bourget airport, the NC 900 squadron faced the same problems as the Avia S-199, the Czech Messerschmitt Bf 109: the engines that powered the aircraft were defective. These engines had been partially sabotaged by workers during the war, a common practice that also affected tank engines. On 18 February 1946, the NC 900s were grounded and the Cravant factory workshop ceased operations after assembling 64 aircrafts, the order was for 125 fighters.
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| This magnificent engine is on display at the Aviation Museum in Prague. |
Withdrawn from service
On 1 November 1946, the NC 900s of GC III/5 ‘Normandie-Niemen’ were withdrawn from active service, meaning that their service records were relatively short.
Fifty aircraft were used by the Brétigny-sur-Orge Flight Test Centre, some of which were used as training aircraft. The last flight took place on 22 June 1949. Only one NC 190 survived; it is on display at the Air and Space Museum in Le Bourget.
There is an excellent, very comprehensive book, but unfortunately it is in French. You can buy it here.
Fw 190/NC 900 from the Le Bourget Museum
The Fw 190A-8 was manufactured in France in 1945; it is therefore an SNCAC NC.900. Of the 64 models assembled, ours is the 62nd. It was delivered to the Air and Space Museum in Le Bourget in 1947.
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| Musée Air et Espace du Bourget in Paris |
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The Fw 190A-8 was incorporated into the French Air Force under the name NC 900. |
Rather than keeping it in French colours, it was unfortunately repainted in the colours of JG 26 ‘Schlageter’, and more specifically those of Josef Priller's Schwarze 13 ‘Jutta’, he used Fw 190 A5 and A8 aircraft at the end of the war.
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| The ‘Jutta’ is a nod to Priller's wife. |
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| The BMW 801 engines recovered after the war were often sabotaged at the factory. |
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The Fw 190 (NC 900) is displayed next to a Me 109. |
Who is Josef Priller ?
Born on 25 July 1915 in Ingolstadt (a city well known for its Audi cars), he achieved 101 victories on the Western Front between the Battle of France in May 1940 and 1 January 1945. From the Battle of France in May 1940 to 1 January 1945, he racked up 101 victories on the Western Front.
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| Major Priller, who commanded JG 26 ‘Schlageter’ |
He was in Jagdgeschwader 26 when the invasion began. On 6 June 1944, he flew over the D-Day beaches with one of his fellow pilots, a feat in itself. Despite the enemy dominating the skies over Normandy, on 7 June he managed to shoot down a P-51 Mustang and a Republic P-47!
He survived the war, got married and ran a brewery. He became a consultant for the film The Longest Day, then died of a heart attack in Böbing on 20 May 1961, at the age of 45.
Josef Priller is buried in the Westfriedhof cemetery in Augsburg. A street in the city is named after him.
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