What did the RAF mistake the Fw 190 for the first time it saw one?

During the fighter's first months in combat, the Allies, completely unaware of the new aircraft's existence, attributed pilots' reports of a 'radial-engined fighter' to Curtiss P-36 Mohawks the Germans had captured from the French. The British obtained an intact Fw 190 A-3 at the end of June 1942, when Oberleutnant Armin Faber, a pilot with Jagdgeschwader 2, mistakenly landed at a British airfield.

Galland decided the aircraft would fly in high and low cover, with the low groups flying below British coastal radar. Between 8:25 and 9:59, RAF radar operators under Squadron Leader Bill Igoe, using an uninterfered frequency, detected four echoes of German aircraft circling north of Le Havre, which were initially taken for air-sea rescue operations. At 11:25 the alarm was raised that the Brest Group was entering the Strait of Dover with air cover.

The six torpedo-carrying Swordfish of 825 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, took off from Manston at 12:20, after Esmonde decided he could wait no longer. The Spitfires of 72 Squadron, flying as close escort, sighted the German ships at 12:40, but were surprised from above by Bf 109s and Fw 190s and lost contact with the Swordfish. Esmonde's aircraft was shot down before he could release his torpedo. Five survivors were rescued from the Channel, only one of whom was unhurt.