Messerschmidt 109

In an earlier blog entry I mentioned that my
Dad was joined by six uncles that fought in
World War II. Actually that is incorrect. My
father's side of the family came to America
in 1908 from the Bavarian section of Germany.
Some members of his family did not migrate
to America, so I had some distant members of
the family that fought against the United States
in World War II.
Having said that, I have always had a great
admiration for the German Air Force (Luftwaffe)
in the second world war. While the Allies used
their air forces at high altitudes, it was the Germans
who demonstrated the success of close quarter
air support for the ground troops.
The Messerschmidt 109 was the most widely
manufactured fighter of World War II, with over
35,000 of them being built. It was not the same
plane in 1945 as it was in 1937 as it was continually
being refined and updated. Even in 1943 when the
Foch-Wolfe 190 was introduced as the successor to
the 109, a lot of the Luftwaffe pilots stayed with the
older plane rather to change to a new one. The 109
was the first plane to fly over 400 miles per hour.
The Luftwaffe used the Civil War in Spain to perfect
their tactics and find just what the 109 was capable
of. It featured a cannon in the nose of the propeller
that allowed the pilot to aim the weapon better, and
each wing had two machine guns mounted on it.
The Luftwaffe may have come up second best in the
Battle of Britain, but that may be attributed to the
success of the Brits use of radar as an early warning
system.
The Messerschmidt 109 saw its demise when the
American P-51 Mustang started to appear over the
battlefield. The P-51 was faster, could climb higher,
and could fly farther than the 109.
Still,..it was a great plane and had classic features.
I have three models of the 109 suspended from the
ceiling of my office.