In 1934 the German Air Ministry issued a requirement for a single-seat, interceptor fighter monoplane. Professor Willy Messerschmitt headed a design team that strove to achieve optimum performance by designing the smallest possible airframe and yet still accommodate the most powerful engine. A 695hp Rolls Royce Kestral V engine powered the first prototype but this was soon changed for one of German manufacture. The Bf109 evolved through various stages of development until the introduction of the Bf109E, which went into mass production towards the end of 1939. The 'Emil', as it was known, replaced all previous models in first-line service with the Luftwaffe, and thirteen Gruppen, consisting of forty aircraft each, were operating with this type when the Second World War began.

As the main German protagonist during the Battle of Britain, the Bf109E had a speed and manoeuvability advantage over the Hurricane but lost these when the Spitfire took over as the British front-line aircraft. Among the leading Luftwaffe pilots who amasses high victory scores, in the Bf109E, were Werner Mvlders, Adolf Galland and Helmuth Wick.

In January 1941 the 'F' series was introduced and in the summer of 1942 the 'Gustav', but the easily identified configuration was retained, more or less, until the end of the war.

The Messerschmitt Bf109 was in service with the Luftwaffe for nearly a decade. Although no exact figures are available for the total number produced, it is though that over 33,000 were built between 1936 and the end of the Second World War, representing more than 60% of all the single-engine fighters produced by Germany during that period.

Edward Shacklady
Hardcover 160 pages 2000