impressions of the 109 from both sides....
“Renowned test pilot Capt Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown, who has the unique distinction of having flown every major combat aircraft of WW2, was one of the first Allied pilots to get his hands on the Bf109. He recalls: ‘The Bf109 had two problems in combat. It had a very claustrophobic cockpit and was very tight and narrow. As a fighter pilot, you behave like a falcon swinging your head side-to-side in search of prey and particularly trying to look behind. And the rear view of the 109 was very poor. When we knew about that we took advantage of it with close in middle of the tail shooting. The Germans never knew what hit them. I calculate over 60 percent of our kills happened this way. Also, if you increased speed in the Spitfire and Hurricane, you could ease the rudder and trimmer. The 109 had no rudder trim. So the pilot was continuously working against the rudder to catch up speed, and you are bound to make slight mistakes and ruin your sighting. I saw many examples of this. The 109 had an offset to the right gun sight. One of the reasons for this is the plane seemed to always pull to the left as soon as you fired. They seemed to think this then moved the gun sight onto the target as it jerked over. Our tests showed the nose cannon mainly caused this. Our pilots saw numerous times when the 109’s missed an easy target because they were constantly fighting the rudder and missing aim. You couldn’t be an average shot in the 109 you had to be virtually so close a burst would hit something. Another problem that the 109 had was that it could not follow in a steep turn when using lots of power. If so, it would get into your slipstream, and he has these slats on the wings of his aircraft, these would tend to come out and snatch as the airspeed varies. And in these turns when the slats open and close unevenly, a rocking motion develops that ruins your shooting in addition to the nose jerking about. Another tip we learned is to dive as fast as you can. The Spitfire and Hurricane had a very effective elevator and could pull out of a dive. At 400mph, the elevators of a 109 locked solid and the plane would hurtle into the ground. I can’t count the number of German pilots I saw this happen to. So this was a good manoeuvre against the 109 we used very effectively. On the ground, taking off and taxing it was an unstable beast. Huge motor, in a long nose balanced on two ping pong balls, ridiculous design that cost the Krauts many pilots.”
“Once it was in the air is was very manoeuvrable but unforgiving. We learnt quickly and tried to teach new pilots never follow a Spitfire or Hurricane down in a dive, if the slats lock in their slipstream you’ll most likely die and be unable to pull up. It speeded up very fast, if you dived a little but you must work the rudder all the time. They did this to get away, we’d dive at them, they’d dive for the ground, you had half a second to get a shot off. Often we’d be circling high; they’d be circling low beneath us, trying to bait us to dive down. Over France our side had the advantage and waited till their fuel got short. During the Channel battle they had the advantage because the 109’s had only 15 minutes of combat fuel. Extra fuel tanks were unheard of and experimental. You had to get right on your target. It didn’t aim well because with speed the wing slats opened and threw off your aim. Also the big nose cannon pushed it to the left. I waited till my target filled the windscreen; you had maybe a second or two of firing then pull up or roll away. Many pilots died crashing into their targets too focused on firing. You could pull out of a spin but you worked at it. The major problem occurred during take-off. It had a strong engine, and a small, narrow-track undercarriage. If you took off too fast it would turn [roll] ninety degrees. The Russians would catch us on the ground taking off. You’d couldn’t speed up or go over. They hit us many times like this; this is why we staggered the planes over the place so if one went over the others could get up. We lost so many pilots in takeoffs. I lost 4 in one day – one very experienced, in the whole war it was the only time I felt like weeping.”
In 1941 aged 19, Erich Hartman joined the Luftwaffe being posted to the Eastern Front where he quickly claimed increasing number of victories. Proud of the fact he never lost a wingman he claimed 352 aerial kills. At wars end, Hartmann was deported to Siberia where he was sentenced to 50 years hard labour. Released in 1955, he joined the newly-established West German Luftwaffe. He died in 1993.
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