Does the 109E have armor?

[Kurfürst]

Originally Posted by Osprey

Kurfurst, just an observation but I notice that your 4 109's listed are all recovered late in the BOB, the earliest 31st August. Do you have any records from the start too? Or even Battle of France?

I think that's it, I have found these on http://aircrewremembrancesociety.com/luft1939/ site, there are many other such reports for Bf 110s, bombers etc. It's a good source.

I have the crash report for WNr. 4101 somewhere too (that's the only E-4/N crash report I know of ) which also confirms the armor plate. These reports were made in haste and were superfluous. Still they are invaluable.

It's difficult to find examples earlier, I am sure there are some other but I guess during most of August the air combat typically occured near the coastline, and those 109s that were hit and did not go straight down (and pancaked, so there was not much to report but aluminium ash pile..) probably tried to make it for France over the sea... either they did make it or did not, obviously no reports of those.

As for Battle of France, no, I have not too many French reports (relatively few 109s were lost anyways, and the French/British had other problems during retreat than inspecting them). I have the one 109E-3s which the French tested (and later handed over to the British, that's the long RAE or Morgan report), serial no 1304., which notes there were no armor fitted. But they captured that plane back in the late automn of 1939, so it does not tell you much about the BoF period's fitting.

However the 109E manual issued in december 1939 however notes that armor weight is not included in the loading weights, so its pretty clear armor was / was about to be introduced in the end of 1939 (right after the French captured WNr. 1304), given the reference.

Most secondary sources seem to note that it was the E-4 that introduced armor into serial production (and puts it May 1940), so pilot armor essentially went parallel with similar RAF upgrades.