The FW 200 Condor began patrols from Bordeaux-Merignac airfield
in western France in August 1940. Flying in wide sweeps out over
the Bay of Biscay and into the Atlantic west of Ireland it would
continue round the north of Britain and land in Norway, a route
that encompassed most of the possible convoy routes. It proved
highly effective not only because of its bomb load, but also in
its capacity as a reconnaissance aircraft capable of calling in
U-Boat attacks. Often described as ‘the scourge of the
Atlantic’, attributed to Churchill, in fact he said: To the
U-boat scourge was now added added air attack far out in the
oceans by long range aircraft. Of these, the Focke Wulf 200,
known as the Condor, was the most formidable. The title now so
widely used ‘The Battle of the Atlantic’ did not come into use
until the 6th March 1941, when Churchill issued his Directive on
giving the U-Boat menace high priority. German newsreel footage
of the Condor in action against merchant shipping: