A little history... The Focke Wulf FW-190 entered in service in 1941, and quickly became one the finest fighter aircraft of its time. More than 20 000 saw service in WWII, and it was still rolling off the production lines until the very last days of the war. As it was deployed to frontline units in early 1941, the allies were completely unaware of the Luftwaffe's new aircraft, and pilots reporting contact with the FW-190 were chalked up as engagements with Curtiss P-36 Mohawks, which the Luftwaffe had captured from the French. The british quickly realized the error as the FW-190 completely outclassed the Spitfire Mk. V's in every meaningful category except turning radius. As the FW-190 began to reclaim air superiority over the channel from the RAF, the british planned a raid across the channel by commandos to try and snatch an FW-190 for evaluation. This was scrapped after Armin Faber from Jagdgeschwader 2 accidentally landed at a british airfield. Information gleaned from the capture was a direct influence on the Hawker Tempest II design, and also forced the rapid development of the more powerful Spitfire Mk. IX.

In the first mass engagement, FW-190's engaged allied air assets performing CAP to the Dieppe landings. The RAF committed over 300 aircraft, mostly Spitfire mk.V's, along with six squadrons of Mk. IX's, and some Mustangs and Typhoons. The 125 FW-190's of JG2 & JG 26 inflicted 106 kills of allied aircraft for the loss of 25.

The FW-190 went on to see service in all theaters, and saw many aces behind the controls. Otto Kittel (267 kills) and Walter Nowotny (255 kills) both number in the highest scoring aces of all time. The FW-190 remains one of the most interesting and beautiful aircraft of its era.

The aircraft is painted in the scheme of Jagdgeschwader 1 (JG 1) Oesau which saw significant combat over France and the Netherlands, as flown by Feldwebel Alfred Bindseil. He was credited with 5 kills before being shot down by a combined force of Spitfires and P-47 Thunderbolts on July 20th, 1944.