World War 2 In Review: Luftwaffe

Messerschmitt Bf 109G over the Caucasus, 1944.

Messerschmitt Bf 109.

Messerschmitt Bf 109 "Karaya 1" of Erich Hartmann.

Messerschmitt Bf 109s at Deurne airfield, Antwerp when in use by Front-Reparatur-Betrieb GL / Erlawerk VII.

Luftwaffe pilot in the cockpit of a Messerschmitt Bf 109.

Messerschmitt Bf 109 getting ready for take-off.

Pilot resting on his Messerschmitt Bf 109.

Messerschmitt Bf 109G given the markings of No. 3 Squadron RAAF and the aircraft code letter “V” for Victory. This was Squadron Leader R. Gibbes’ personal code.

Captured Focke-Wulf Fw 190A and Messerschmitt Bf 109G in front of an American P-51D Mustang. Picture taken at airfield in Furth, Germany which survived the war intact and was used by the US Army until 1993.

Mechanics and pilots of the Royal Australian Air Force get a very close look at a captured Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4 with RAF serial number HK849. Used by 3 Squadron RAAF as a squadron hack.

An RAF-marked Messerschmitt Bf 109 at Treviso Airfield, Italy, in March 1946. This aircraft, a former Croatian operated 109, was captured by the British and operated by 318 Polish Squadron in Italy immediately after the war. Note the Polish checkerboard symbol on the nose. The “LW” lettering was the RAF Squadron code for 318 Squadron. 318 was at Treviso for only one week in the month of May 1945, and then March to August of 1946.

Another Messerschmitt Bf 109F, captured by a South African Air Force unit (No. 4 Squadron SAAF) in North Africa (with the serial “KJ-?”), is pictured on the airfield at Martuba’s No.4 Landing Ground in Libya, January 1943. It is not uncommon, for squadrons operating captured aircraft, to give them squadron markings so as to lay claim to the booty. Also it was common to give them a question mark (?) or an exclamation point (!) instead of an aircraft letter code. Whether this was done for humorous reasons or to keep letters for operational aircraft is not known.

A captured Messerschmitt Bf 109F with tropical filter on its engine cowl was used by No. 5 Squadron of the South African Air Force as a squadron hack. Here we see one of many times that the aircraft letter code was replaced by a punctuation mark.

Another Messerschmitt Bf 109 trophy (14513 operated by II JG 3) bagged by the Soviets was tested against a Lavochkin La-5FN and Yakovlev Yak-9D, with the conclusion being that the Russian fighters could compete successfully against the 109. This aircraft was tested at NII VVS Research Centre after it had been captured, following a forced landing with battle damage. According to trophy lists, the Soviets would acquire 54 Messerschmitt Bf 109s with eight of these being fully operational.

Messerschmitt Bf 109G-14 of the Croatian Air Force captured by the RAF in Jesi, Italy, 1945.

Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4/Trop (perhaps Werk Nümmer 12564), originally coded "9 yellow" of 9 Staffel Jagdgeschwader 53. Captured in October 1942 by 1 Sqn personnel of the SAAF. Actually, the aircraft was abandoned by the Germans in El Daba due to a shortage of fuel preventing it from taking off. Code AX-? by1 Sqn of the SAAF and used for training.

Messerschmitt Bf 109 of II./JG 1 crash landed, location not available.

A captured Messerschmitt Bf 109 in RAF camouflage and markings with a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress of the 379th Bomb Group at Kimbolton, January 8, 1944.

The 4,000th Messerschmitt Bf 109 produced at the Wiener Neustadt Flugzeugwerke (WNF), date unknown.

Captured Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4 in RAF markings.

Engine repair of the DB 601E of a Hungarian Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4, Eastern front, 1942-43.

Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4, 7 black, Luftwaffe, Mensuvaara, Russia, 12 August 1942.

Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 of 1.JG 52.

SD-2 bombs loaded beneath a Messerschmitt Bf 109.

Messerschmitt Bf 109K "White 2" of III/JG77 in Russia.

Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 MT-480 (W.Nr 165464) of HLeLv24's 3rd squadron in field overhaul at Lappeenranta on July 10, 1944. The pilot of the plane was SSgt. Leo Ahokas (1915-1988) and he had 12 aerial victories, including five with Bf 109 fighters; c. June-July 1944

Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4 "Black 7" of 5./JG26, the aircraft is named "Schluck Specht" (swallowing woodpecker), pilot Horst Buddenhagen. 1940.

Messerschmitt Bf 109.

Messerschmitt Bf 109K in a junkyard with other aircraft and vehicles.

Messerschmitt Bf 109 near the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Messerschmitt Bf 109K-4 of JG 77 in 1944.

Messerschmitt Bf 109 "White 7" being stripped after landing accident.

Messerschmitt Bf 109s over the Balkans sometime in early 1941. A Luftwaffe machine with two Romanian machines.

Messerschmitt Bf 109 WNr. 790, former Legion Condor machine (6-106), seen here after 1960s restoration with fake Stkz AJ+YH.

Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 of the Swiss Air Force, who received 13 Bf 109G-6 fighters from Germany, coded J-701 through J-713.

A ground crewman zeros in an ESK2000 gun camera on a an early Messerschmitt Bf 109.

Romanian fighter pilot Nicolae Sculli-Loghoteti relaxing in front of several Messerschmitt Bf 109E fighters.

Romanian fighter pilot in Messerschmitt Bf 109.

Messerschmitt Bf 109K-4.

Royal Yugoslav Air Force Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3.

Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2 machines being transported to another location for completion at the factory WNF, Austria.

Messerschmitt Bf 109 fuselages under construction.

Messerschmitt Bf 109.

Henschel Hs 129 on left and right background and two Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters, Deutsch Brod, summer 1945.

Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters in foreground along with variety of other Luftwaffe aircraft under repair.

Romanian fighter pilot with Messerschmitt Bf 109.

Hungarian pilot climbs into the cockpit of a Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4 in 1943.

Messerschmitt Bf 109D.

“Irmgard”, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 captured by the 79th Fighter Group of the USAAF, is seen wearing the 87th Fighter Squadron crest, with an 86th Fighter Squadron P-40 Warhawk (X5-8) behind it.

Messerschmitt Bf 109B fighters on an airfield, Poland, Sep 1939.

Finnish mechanic next to a Bf 109G-2.

Messerschmitt BF 109G-6 of the Finnish air force, c. 1943/1944.

Soldiers pose with Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4 (W.Nr. 5587) 'Yellow 10' of 6./JG 51 'Molders', which crash-landed at East Langdon in Kent, 24 August 1940. The pilot, Oberfeldwebel Beeck, was captured unhurt.

What happened to downed aircraft on British soil?

Ultimately, they became the responsibility of the RAF. The responsibility for wrecks in the main Battle of Britain area, both British and German, fell to No. 49 MU based at RAF Faygate, near Horsham in Surrey. They would send a ‘Crash Party’ of eight to ten man to any reported wreck. Each party was under the command of a senior NCO but attached was a crash inspector (usually a Pilot Officer) who would assess the wreck and decide on equipment and manpower required to deal with it.

As far as enemy aircraft were concerned, there were two intelligence departments of relevance to downed Luftwaffe aircraft and airmen, AI1(g) and AI1(k). The first was responsible for gathering information about the aircraft, engines, weapons etc. and though its HQ was in London it had several field officers, not to be confused with the MU’s crash inspectors, who could examine crashed enemy aircraft and prepare a report. These officers were attached to the MUs responsible for recovery which gave easy access to wrecks all over the country. Their Crashed Enemy Aircraft Reports give invaluable information about the aircraft shot down over the UK, though some amount to nothing more than the report of a smoking hole in the ground.

The second department (AI1(k)) was responsible for gathering and interpreting information about the Luftwaffe’s organisational structure and personnel. It was officers from this branch that interrogated Luftwaffe airmen (these interrogations could be what we might today call ‘hard’), initially in the Tower of London, but later in 1940, as numbers of prisoners increased, at Trent Park, Cockfosters. This branch also had field officers who could make an initial interrogation soon after an enemy airman arrived and would also gather intelligence from documents found on the airmen or in the aircraft, like Ausweis (identity cards), pay books, Feldpostnummern (from letters), etc. These K reports were initially closed for 75 years due to the personal nature of the information contained; writing that someone was an ardent Nazi in 1940 might have an unjustified impact on someone’s later post war life for example. Some of these reports were passed to the Americans and declassified in the 1970s.

The aircraft themselves were made safe by the Crash Parties. Armament and ordnance were removed, this might involve the Army, and the wreck recovered to a dump, No 49 MU’s was beside the London-Horsham railway line. Rarely, German aircraft might be recovered to the RAE at Farnborough for further examination, most were ‘recycled’. The aircraft were broken up and the various material separated at the MU dumps, aluminium alloys, magnesium alloys, steel, copper, brass, plastics, rubber, ‘glass; etc. all had to be separated. The Northern Aluminium Company works near Banbury* were the main destination for the aluminium, which was cast into ingots for the British aircraft industry. At the end of the war Victory Bells, ‘cast from metal recovered from German aircraft shot down over Britain’ were sold to raise money for the RAF Benevolent Fund.

With British aircraft it would depend on the condition. Many were carefully recovered and made their way into the civilian repair organisation, where they would be repaired and returned to service. If written off they would be broken for salvage, like their German counterparts.

Many crash sites were scenes of almost total destruction. In such cases, though a CEAR would be made (if an enemy aircraft), the Crash Party would ensure that the area was cleaned up and made as safe as possible before the crater would be filled in.

*Yet another diversion, and an illustration of how one story leads to another! It’s one of the things about history, you never know where it will take you. Since the Northern Aluminium factory on the Southam Rd (later called Alcan) was an obvious target for enemy bombers during the War, a dummy factory was built by technicians from Shepperton Studios, two miles to the north, known as the ‘Dummy Ally’. The real factory, located next to the Banbury Canal, was camouflaged and the decoy was built to the east of the A423 between Great Bourton and Mollington. The dummy factory was built to look as much like the real factory as possible, with pillars and finials at the entrance and a length of railway track alongside. Men were hired to keep fires burning on the site, producing smoke just like the real Alcan. In fact, they were using the building to keep pigs and chickens (I wonder if they declared them to ‘The Ministry’, yet another story). The decoy worked well as the real aluminium factory was never bombed, while the decoy was, notably on 3rd October 1940. The dummy gateposts still existed in the 1970s, while the real factory finally closed in 2009.

Messerschmitt Bf 109 being readied for wind tunnel test.

A mix of Army and Air Force personnel mill around the cockpit area of a downed Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109E during the Battle of Britain.

Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6, Oberleutnant Max-Bruno Fischer, JG 3 Udet, Evreux, France, 1944.

Ground crewmen running up the engine of a Messerschmitt Bf 109 of JG54. In the background is a Dornier Do 17.

Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Junkers Ju 52.

Paint job on propeller of Bf 109 of JG 77. Was meant to hypnotize pilots or gunners of bombers or fighters in a head on attack that just lasted for a few seconds while they shot their deadly 30mm ammo.

Messerschmitt Bf 109E1, CE+BM.

Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3.

During World War II, the most modern fighter in Switzerland's air force was the Messerschmitt Bf 109. Today, J-333 is on display at the Swiss Air Force Museum in Dubendorf near Zurich, Switzerland.

Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3 (J-345), Compagnie d'Aviation 21, Dubendorff (Suisse), May 1940.

Bf 109 G-6 W.Nr. 440 726 (?) "Schwarze 21", Stab III./JG 26 (?), Le Bourget, France, Autumn 1944. W.Nr. given as 449 726 in Frappé 1999, p. 333. The indicated W.Nr. is the most plausible one, but it could be also 441 726, though very few machines of the latter batch were delivered at that time to front units.

Walter Horten, Gruppenkommandeur of III.-JG 26, in the cockpit of his Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-7

Bf 109 J-22 in foreground with several others, Swiss air force.

Bf 109 K-4 "Weisse 16", 1./JG 53, Lechfeld, Autumn 1945.

Bf 109 J-317, Swiss air force.

Bf 109 G-6 W.Nr. 18 068 "Gelbe 7", 6./JG 53, Comiso, July 1943.

Bf 109E-4s, Black 5 and Black 1, of 8.JG3 shortly before the Westfeldzug - Western invasion of France - at Wesel. April 1, 1940.

Looking at the grouping after adjustment of the 20mm cannons of a Bf 109 in the North African desert.

Adjustment of the 20mm cannons of a Bf 109 in the North African desert.

Bf 109G-6 maintenance on DB 605 engine.

After dogfighting Spitfires over El Alamein, Egypt this Bf 109F piloted by Gerhard Mix took hits to the engine forcing him to belly land in the desert behind Australian lines and loaded onto a trailer to be taken to RAF workshops for inspection. Western Desert, 14 August 1942. Note: Colorization has been removed (note the reference to the colorizer in lower right hand corner).

300 liter (66 Imp. gallons) drop tanks for the Bf 109 Rüstsatz 3.

Hungarian Bf 109F-1, 1943.

300 liter (66 Imp. gallons) drop tanks for the Bf 109 Rüstsatz 3.

Bf 109s in Northern France, c. 1941-1942.

Hungarian groundcrewmen take a break from servicing a Bf 109G-6 of Jagdgruppe 101, the famous “Red Pumas.”

Walter Wolfrum standing in front of his Bf 109G-6, W.Nr. 411777, "Quex", Black 15, March 1944.

Soviet pilot or technician in the cockpit of Bf 109G-2/R-6 (No. 13903), in January of 1943. Captured near Stalingrad and tested in the Soviet Union using the designation “Five-Pointer”, this fighter seriously worried the Red Army Air Forces leadership due to its excellent flight capabilities.