The rise and fall of the third Reich in Messerschmitt Bf109 pictures.

[huub vink]

1936 developing the tools for war.

The Bf109 V3. The first armed prototype with two Rheinmetall MG17 7.92mm (.303) calibre machine guns. As the British were developing aircraft with 6 to 8 wing mounted machineguns, it was intended to mount a centrally mounted gun. But this idea was abandoned due to constant problems with this gun.

1937 Condor Legion Spain. Testing for war.

The Bf109B. The first Berthas were originally installed with a fixed wooden propeller, which was soon replaced by a adjustable propeller. As problems with the centrally mounted gun continued, most were armed with just two machine guns.

1938 Preparing for war.

The Bf109C. Due to limited room the between the automatic slats and the wheels wells, there was only room for one gun in each wing. The Cesar version was the first Bf109 to be equipped with these guns.

1939 Invasion of Poland.

The Bf109D. Roughly 235 Doras took part in the invasion of Poland. But these were soon replaced by the Emil. It had both MG17 machineguns in the nose and in the wings. It was the last Bf109 to be equipped with the Jumo210 engine.

 

[huub vink]

1940 Battle of Britain

The Bf109E. With the much more powerful Daimler-Benz DB601 engine the Emil performed much better than its predecessors. To increase fire power the MG17 machine guns in the wings were replaced by automatic MG FF/M 20mm guns from the E-4 onwards.

1941 Operation Barbarossa

The Bf109F. The Friedrich or Fritz, was a aerodynamically improved version of the Emil. This version had redesigned wings with round tips and redesigned leading edge slats. In the new wing design the integrated wing armament disappeared and did not return on later versions. The Friedrich was standard equipped with two synchronised MG17 machine guns in the nose and a 20mm gun shooting through the propeller shaft.

1942 Consolidating the territory

The Bf109G. The main difference between the Friedrich and the Gustav was the new DB605A engine. With the arrival of the G-5 and G-6 versions the nose mounted MG17 7.92mm machine guns were replaced by MG131, 13mm machine guns, which resulted in the well-known blisters on the engine cowlings. The call for heavier armament resulted in a variety of underwing mounted weapons. This made the Gustav the version with the largest amount of sub-versions. With over 10,000 aircraft the Gustav version was also the most produced version of the Bf109.

1944 Defending the Reich until defeat.

The Bf109K. The Kurfürst was the last version of the Bf109 produced in large numbers. It was mainly an attempt to standardise the aircraft to simplify production. It was the logical successor of the Gustav. The main difference was the 30mm MK108 engine mounted gun which replace the 20mm MG151 engine gun seen on earlier types. Different antennas, radios and shortage of materials caused different appearances.

 

[Blackbird686]

I read a book of the same name... BTW, Very Nice presentation Huub.

 

[zswobbie1]

Thanks for the hard work in putting this together.
A historical presentation.
Imagine a Spitfire presentation like this?

 

[rohan]

Huub,
great work - I love the images you have used to illustrate it, and am wondering whether these repaints have all been released here.

Thanks again,
Ro

 

[huub vink]

Thanks for the hard work in putting this together.
A historical presentation.
Imagine a Spitfire presentation like this?

I actually started with a similar presentation about the development of the Spitfire before I did this one. The development of the Bf109 was quite linear. The Emil replaced the Dora and the Friedrich replaced the Emil, etc. But the development of the Spitfire went a bit less linear. With the arrival of the Griffon engine, two more or less parallel development paths started. While some earlier types like the photo reconnaissance types were individual marks, but nevertheless side steps from the development track.
But I intend to do something similar with Spitfires.

Looking at the development this way, shows one of the shortcomings of the Bf109 was already caused by the original design. The auto slats made it impossible to put multiple guns in the wings, so the only ways to improve fire power where bigger caliber or increased fire rate, or external armament which increased drag. The design had its advantages as well as the wings were easy to remove for transport, repairs, and maintenance, while the aircraft still stood on its under carriage.

Huub,
great work - I love the images you have used to illustrate it, and am wondering whether these repaints have all been released here.

Thanks again,
Ro

The models from the V3 prototype were all done by Shessi and available here in the library. The repaint for the V3 was not done by me. And I forgot where I found it. The model by Shessi was based one an IL2 mod, which he converted to FS004/CFS2. Therefore the repaint could be artwork originally done for the IL2 model. The other repaints were all done by me and either included in the original release by Shessi, or in the library under my name.

The Emil is the A2A/Shockwave WWIIfighters model. The repaint is not done by me, but most likely by TonyG or Martin "ICDP" Catney. The Friedrich, Gustav and Kurfürst are all Flight Replicas models. The repaint on the Friedrich shows Werner "Vati" Mölders's Friedrich and is a repaint done by me. The white 6 is also a repaint done by me, and shows an aircraft from 7./JG-53 based in Sicily in 1943. Known for the cartoonish personal markings painted on the aircraft, which all contained a red figure with the JG53 unit marking as head. These repaints can be found in the library. The artwork at the Kurfürst is a default scheme included in the package.

Cheers,
Huub

 

[rohan]

Huub,
many thanks for the update - off to go collecting models and repaints.

And REALLY, REALLY looking forward to your postings about Spitfires . . .

Best regards,
Ro