THE FOCKE WULF Fw 58 IN BRAZIL   Source : Weihe in Brazil

THE FOCKE WULF Fw 58 IN BRAZILIAN NAVAL AVIATION SERVICE
By the middle 1930s, the Brazilian Naval Aviation had a requirement for a twin-engined aircraft to support the Fleet, to train its crews and also to run the Naval Air Mail Service lines.
The Brazilian Navy decided that it would be best to licence-built a suitable aircraft in Brazil. After several studies, the aircraft chosen was the Fw 58 Weihe, which came as part of a deal to buy German training aircraft, which also included the Fw 44 Stieglitz primary trainer and the Fw 56 Stösser basic trainer.
The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 meant that the deal was only partially completed, the Stössers having not been built at all. However the Fw 58 program started immediately, as in July 1937 the first Fw 58-B2 arrived in Brazil, to be rebuilt at the Oficinas Gerais da Aviação Naval - OGAvN (Naval Aviation General Works), based at Galeão. The components for ten other aircraft, to be built by Brazilian personnel, under German technical supervision, arrived at the same time.
The first aircraft, registered as D2Fw-147 in the Naval Aviation, was considered as the prototype of the Brazilian Fw 58-B2 and was used as the basis for the building of the remaining Fw 58. It was also used for air and ground training of the pilots and groundcrew, and was presented to the public and authorities on 30 July 1937.
The OGAvN soon started to build the remaining ten aircraft and on 20 April 1938 the first Fw 58-B2 of this batch was delivered and the last was delivered on 4 October of the same year.
These aircraft were registered as D2Fw-168 to D2Fw-177, and were allocated to the Segunda Esquadrilha de Adestramento Militar - 2ª EAM (2nd Military Training Flight) to be used as advanced trainers. The "D2Fw" in the registration has the following meaning: D = General Duties, 2 = second model of the Focke Wulf company in Naval Aviation service, Fw = Focke Wulf.
The Fw 58 in Naval Aviation service were painted in aluminum dope and also carried a code identifying the unit and the individual aircraft number in the unit, painted in large black letters in the rear fuselage sides. Initially, these aircraft carried the codes 2-EAM-1 to 2-EAM-8. Later, an U.S. Navy coding style was adopted, the aircraft carrying the codes 2-V-1 to 2-V-11, the "V" meaning a training unit (it is worth noting that the Argentine Naval Aviation uses this coding today).
After the first batch of aircraft were built, the OGAvN began the building of the second batch. The aircraft from this batch were to have an increased number of items built in Brazil, including tires, propellers, brakes and, most important of all, the use of Brazilian wood in its construction. The aircraft were also to have a side door, as in the Fw 58C.
These aircraft were designated Fw 58-V9 by the factory and as V2AvN by the Navy, and were registered as V2AvN-209 to V2AvN-223; again, following the Brazilian Navy practice, the "V2AvN" registration could be break down as follows: V = Training, 2 = second model built by the OGAvN, AvN = Aviação Naval. It was therefore easy to distinguish the aircraft of the first batch from those of the second.
The production of the second batch aircraft commenced at a quick pace and on 8 May 1940 the first aircraft built in Brazil took to the air, under the controls of the naval aviators, lieutnants Sampaio and Menezes.
In the following month, the aircraft flew to Santos and Florianópolis. This flight showed that the V2AvN model was slower than the German version, due mainly to the use of heavier Brazilian wood and other modifications introduced. This version was painted in German RLM 63 Hellgrau paint.
The Fw 58 life in the Naval Aviation ends on 20 January 1941, when both the Army and Navy air arms ceased to exist, to form a new branch of the Armed Forces, the Brazilian Air Force. At that time, only three aircraft from the second batch had been built.

THE FOCKE WULF Fw 58 IN BRAZILIAN AIR FORCE SERVICE
The creation of the Força Aérea Brasileira - FAB during the Second World War required the use of all available aircraft to give a degree of protection of its extensive coast. Even being neutral until 1942, Brazil needed to protect its coastal sea lanes, due to its importance to the economy.
The Fw 58 were thus at first kept at Galeão, waiting its allocation to a FAB unit. The Brazilian Government cancelled ten aircraft of the second batch when it became obvious that it would be difficult to build a German aircraft during the war.
Until December 1942 - when Brazil was by now at war with German and Italy - twelve aircraft had been delivered to the FAB, which used them in the Correio Aéreo Nacional - CAN (National Air Mail Service), during 1942 and 1943; as a training aircraft; and in maritime patrol duties in the South and Southeastern Brazilian coastal regions, to inhibit the activity of the German and Italian submarines.
With the arrival of U.S. aircraft to reequip the young Brazilian Air Force, the Fw 58 were distributed to several FAB units. Nine remained at Base Aérea do Galeão - BAGL (FAB serial nos. 1168, 1171, 1177, 1178, 1180, 1182, 1184, 1187 and 1190); four were allocated to Base Aérea de Santos - BAST (1169, 1174, 1183 and 1188); five to Escola de Especialistas de Aeronáutica - EEAR (1172, 1173, 1175, 1181 and 1185); two to Base Aérea de Florianópolis - BAFL (1176 and 1189); two to Base Aérea de Curitiba - BACT (1179 and 1192); one to the Fábrica do Galeão - FGL (1191), the successor to the OGAvN; and, finally, one was delivered to the 1º Grupo de Transporte - 1º GT (1186), available for use by the Directorate of Material. Until June 1945, only two aircraft - 1167 and 1170 - were struck-off-charge due to accidents.
The Fw 58 were locally modified to carry out the coastal patrol missions. The fuselage undersides received racks to carry 113,4Kg depth charges and the German MG15s were replaced by Browning .30in machine guns, two of these being located in the nose.
Apart from the Fw 58B2 and V9, the FAB also used two Fw 58Ki-2 (the civilian version), which had been acquired back in 1940 by the German-controlled "Syndicato Condor" airline. When Brazil declared war on Germany in 1942, theye were impressed into use by the FAB, the company having been closed down by the Government.
The Fw 58Ki-2 had had German registrations D-OUPG (c/n 3102) and D-OKDN (c/n 3103). They were registered as PP-CBM and PP-CBN in the Brazilian civil aircraft register and were named as "Aquirí" and "Cacurí", respectively. In the FAB, they were known as the UC-Fw 58 and received serials 2654 and 2655. The first was allocated to the Base Aérea de São Paulo - BASP and the second to the HQ, Third Air Zone in Rio de Janeiro.
Though they were not designed as maritime patrol aircraft, the Fw 58 performed well in this role during World War II. The presence of an aircraft above a convoy was enough to make a submarine search for a more easy prey. This is confirmed by the accounts of the commanders of two German submarines sunk in the Brazilian coast, the U-199 and U-513 (see R. Terlizzi, "Os FW-58B no Brasil").
A picturesque fact relating to a Fw 58 based at Galeão is told by Alberto Martins Torres - whom as a young pilot flew the PBY Catalina which sank the U-199 in 1943 - in his book "Overnight Tapachula":
"One of these Fw-58, with Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Büngner as the instructor and Karl Heinz Eberius as the student pilot, over the sea off Caraguatatuba, near the entrance to the São Sebastião Canal, were overflying on 30 June 1943 two isolated merchantmen, off convoy, when the smaller was torpedoed just in front of them. The other vessel, north-american, with the guns on the stern started firing at a point where, presumably, the torpedo had been launched, due to its trail. The Focke-Wulf made several low passes over the place, seeing nothing. From the accounts of six German sailors rescued later, the submarine was the U-513, commanded by Lt.-Cdr. Guggenberger which would be sunk near Florianópolis, two weeks later, by a PBM from the U.S. naval squadron VP-74, based at Galeão. The humoristic side of this story is what was commented in the FAB after the event: With the instructor, pupil and aircraft having German names, it would have been very difficult to have not had sighted the U-513!"
With the end of the war, the Fw 58 were disposed of their armament and used as general duties aircraft, being redesignated as AT-Fw58. With the low availability of supplies most were struck-off-charge from 1947 onwards; those in better conditions were distributed to Government agencies - including the Ministry of Agriculture, the Central Brazil Foundation and the Government of the State of Goiás - being enrolled in the Brazilian civil aircraft register.

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