[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Dottore

Interesting Joe:

I grew up in Germany and my father did a brief stint in the Luftwaffe before the war ended. I often heard the FW 109 referred to as "schlachtvogel".

I think the confusion arises because the factory designation was "wuerger" which translates as "shrike" in English. In English a "butcherbird" is apparently a type of shrike - and the allies apparently started to call the FW 109 "butcherbird" - which I gather then gained currency in Germany as "schlachtvogel" - although the ordinary meaning is rather different.

Reminds me of Kennedy's famous words "Ich bin ein Berliner" which many Germans understood as "I am a donut".

Know what you mean. We also laughed about the "Berliner" comment but everyone knew what he meant. Many of the words in German have several meanings.

If Kurt Tank, who designed the FW-190 called it a butcher bird, then guess we might as well do the same.