Backstory:
In 1939, a Heinkel He-100 (a custom, short-winged, hot-rod version, NOT a fully-equipped military one) held the world’s airspeed record. The fighter versions promised some 60mph speed advantage, and greater range, over the contemporary Messerschmitt Bf-109’s and piqued Japanese interest. The powerful, inverted-V Daimler-Benz engine and its motor-cannon firing through the propeller hub were particularly intriguing. In truth, the Japanese were looking for a “modern European” land-based naval fighter to get them by until their own industry could produce something similar (Mitsubishi developing the J2M “Raiden” fighter for such a purpose). This led to a manufacturing license agreement and several examples of the newest “E” (export) model of the He-100 being shipped to Japan as the “AXHei”
The purchased Heinkel He-100E model was similar to those “D” models used by the Heinkel factory-defense squadron, and the Corpo Aero Italiano against Britain during the summer of 1940, but had modified cooling and intake systems compared to the originals. This combat airplane and battle arena were watched closely by Japanese observers attached to the Italian airfields in Belgium.
Drawing from Italian combat experience, the Japanese proposed further modifications to meet their specific needs. Willing to trade off some speed for practicality, the Japanese re-designed the wing root to take additional armament, fuel, and increase wingspan to relieve its high wing-loading (to the Japanese, a distasteful attribute). The wing-root supercharger intake was moved to the nacelle side like the Bf-109. Slight length and control surface size increases gave additional room for fuel (range) and maneuverability. A changed canopy and cut-down turtledeck gave slightly better vision rearward. Speed was brought back up to just over 400 mph by using the now-available DB 605 engine. Though initially not meant to be a carrier-borne fighter, this revised design had folding wings for compact storage, and stress points for a tail hook if the plane proved worthy. The Imperial Japanese Navy now had their high-performance land-based “European” fighter with no equal in the Pacific.
Japan had hopes of increasing contacts and trade with South American countries. Already Brazil, Argentina, and Peru had significant Japanese populations. As the 20th century unfolded, Japan made an armored cruiser for Argentina’s navy but had to “buy it back” to make up shortages due to the Russo-Japanese war. In 1939 Argentina wanted to create a submarine fleet and an aircraft industry to intimidate and impress her South American rivals, so eventually an agreement was made for Japan to supply I-boats to Argentina in return for subcontracting the manufacturing of warplanes for Japan.
Conveniently enough, a subsidiary of Heinkel Flugzeugwerke was being built in Argentina, known as F.M.A. (Fabrica Militar de Aviones). Wartime blockade of goods coming in or out of Germany stifled the new industry. But Japan was still at peace, and was even still busily trading with Germany over the polar route past the Soviet Union. Batches of Daimler-Benz engines and machine tooling from Germany made the arduous trip to Japan, then continued across the Pacific to Argentina to jump-start the production of the modified He-100’s. Germany even made a deal with FMA to acquire fully carrier-equipped aircraft for its own use in the Luftstreitkrafte, and ferry dozens of the Japanese land version to the Pacific via the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin and freighters plying the lonely expanse with little chance of Allied interception.
The Graf Zeppelin had slipped into the North Atlantic late in 1941, evaded Allied ships or kept them at bay, and then raided the Panama Canal (on the day after Germany declared war on the US) before heading down the coast of South America bound for the Pacific. The Bf-109T-3R fighters aboard were somewhat obsolescent and the air group tired of the Bf-109’s atrocious take-off and landing characteristics, so the Graf Zeppelin handed over the Bf-109s to Argentina, then picked up a batch of new FMA-100’s before heading for the Marshall Islands and a rendezvous with the Rengo Kantai. In Ushuaia, at the tip of Cape Horn, seven of the first batch of Japanese-built submarines lay alongside a tender as the Graf Zeppelin craned aboard her new “Heinkels”.
Two variants were built and transported: the initial Japanese version with DB 601 engine and 7.7mm guns in the wings (20mm cannon engine-mounted and in each wing root being standard) with no tailhooks; and the German “Traeger” version with the DB 605 engine, 12.7mm guns in the wings (in addition to the aforementioned 20mm cannon), and tailhooks.
The first kills of the new FMA-100T were flying boats from the USS Curtiss that were trying to snoop and shadow the carrier near Samoa. The Graf Zeppelin’s high cruising speed made any interception difficult and she was not bothered again until she entered Japanese-controlled waters in the spring of 1942.
What a welcome sight to see German recce planes (Aichi 119’s, another Japanese-built Heinkel product) meet them at sea off the Marshall Islands! Kommando Marschall, the German Pacific Expeditionary Force, had been set up in the former German colony to train and assist the Japanese with the several German aircraft being license-built by Japan and to trade tactical expertise in air/sea warfare. When the Graf Zeppelin’s FMA-100T’s landed on Majuro, there were already many FMA-100’s and other German naval planes decorated with the agreed-upon Kommando Marshall national markings, combining elements of German and Japanese symbols into a “Sonnekruze” or Sun-Cross. The normal-sized Balkenkruez has a conveniently small Hinomaru built into the center of it.
The Majuro airfield was flanked on one side by Japanese planes and workshops, and the other by German planes and workshops. Both sides were using the new FMA-100 fighter for land-based interception duties. The FMA-100 could clearly out-pace and out-gun the newest version of the Mitsubishi Zero aboard most Japanese carriers at the time, but still couldn’t out-turn it. The Japanese were very eager to see how the FMA-100 might perform at sea, so took the Graf Zeppelin and her “Heinkels” along in a Striking Force mission in the Solomon Islands area.
The FMA-100 was more than a match for most Allied combat aircraft in theatre, notably the Grumman/Eastern “Wildcats”. Arrival of the more capable Hellcats was just a few months away, but the Heinkels appeared in a short-lived window of superiority and opportunity. When the Graf Zeppelin cruised with the Japanese raid out to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, its full complement of eighteen FMA-100T’s were aboard and confident. The British, however, had their high-performance Hawker “Waterspout” fighters (Sea Tornado), quite the equal or better of the FMA-100, aboard its carriers. In a watershed battle, the Graf Zeppelin’s Heinkels put up a gallant but losing fight trying to save their carrier from attack.
The difficulties in acquiring Argentine-built aircraft with the war in full swing were now overwhelming, so Japan lost interest in the FMA-100. The remaining Japanese stock was fitted with the lighter but inferior Kawasaki Ha-140 engine requiring the surreptitious removal of seat armor to restore the center of gravity. The Japanese instead were phasing in their new J2M Raiden, and had even converted a potent seaplane fighter into an even better land-based fighter (N1K2 Shiden-Kai) built at home.
The last use of carrier-borne FMA-100s was in 1943 when the Allies invaded Maloelap (adjacent to Majuro) and nearly the entire Japanese fleet responded to the threat. Graf Zeppelin’s air group now consisted of a core of German pilots and planes, with fill-ins of Japanese pilots in their land-based FMA-100s converted with tailhooks and sporting a superimposed white-outline Balkenkruez over their Hinomarus. Slated to land at Majuro after a mission against the Allied fleet, the Graf Zeppelin’s air group was duly “ambushed” by hordes of American carrier fighters sent specifically to keep the air base neutralized. The successful Allied invasion of the Marshalls, and the sinking of the Graf Zeppelin in the fleet battles, saw the disappearance of the FMA-100 from Pacific skies.
Aspects of the improved FMA 100 were incorporated into the He-100G (T) and the enlarged He-113 M back in Europe, but these were limited-run productions and ultimately replaced by the Fw-190.
This model depicts one of the Japanese, land-based FMA-100T replacement aircraft given over to the Graf Zeppelin’s air group late in 1943 and re-equipped with a DB-605 engine, seatback armor, and tailhook. The Hinomaru of the Japanese plane was hastily overpainted with overlarge outline Balkenkruez to approximate the more deliberate “Sonnekruez”. The fuel for the spray paint compressors was deemed too valuable to waste, so the splotchy camo to help darken the monotone Japanese sea green was applied by brush. Gerhard Burkhorn was “Gruppen adjudant” of “Gruppe III”, MarineJagdgeschwader 3, in the “inflated” organizational airgroup structure aboard ship. The Japanese plane already had three kills credited to it, so Gerhards’ mechanic just added two previous American downings. Gerhard was credited posthumously with an additional kill before he was shot down off Maloelap.
About the model:
My very first “what-if” aircraft, c. 1979, was a simple “paint” whiff (plus a tailhook) made from a 1/72 Lindberg He-100 (only $.79!) into a fictionalized German carrier aircraft. Recently I decided to replace this model with one more demonstrative of my extra thirty years of skill. I morphed it into a slightly more complex aircraft for which I have great fondness. Elements of a Hasegawa Ki.61 “Hien”, Fw-190D, Monogram P-51 “Mustang”, Matchbox Vickers “Wellesley”, and the Lindberg and MPM He-100’s went into this “FMA-100T”.
