me-109 overall "76" combat usage?

On 15 Dec 2003 04:11:32 GMT, Krztalizer wrote:

You mean Bf 109 don't you?

www.ultratech.net/~davtow


At no place in my post did I use the "Me" aircraft discriminator, but since you
brought it up, the Messerschmitt firm had already used "Me-109" on data plates
and internal company documents for years, so either this or Bf 109 would be
correct for the aircraft that was actually assigned the RLM identifier of
"8-109", if you'd care to quibble. I have copies of KTB (loss reports from
units to their parent wings within the Luftwaffe force structure) and
Messerschmitt docs that from as early as 1943 that clearly call the little
fighter "Me-109". I wouldn't say it was in general usage in Germany, as it was
in the Allied nations, but its certainly wouldn't have caused an identification
crisis if you called one by that name as it passed over. Good to remember that
every German pilot that flew them in combat usually referred to them as simply
"der Me" ('the Me').

I thought they were usually known by the version letter, such as
"Emil" for the 109E, "Gustav" for the 109G, etc.



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I thought they were usually known by the version letter, such as
"Emil" for the 109E, "Gustav" for the 109G, etc.

Not nearly as common as the 1970s books made it seem - most '109 guys' didn't
go for the nicknames in general. "Me", "Focke-Wulf", and "Dora" are the only
three nicknames that I routinely encountered during interviews with WWII German
aviators. I know that much is made of "Emil" and "Gustav", but most of the
guys didn't think variations to the basic airframe all that important. A 109
pilot usually said he flew 109s, not an Emil or a Gustav. A large percentage
of the 109 pilots flew exclusively in the latter stages of the war, so all they
ever knew was the G-series (K-4s were quite rare). No pilot I have talked to
has identified his aircraft by subtype - although the nightfighter 109 guys
flew highly modified Bf 109 G-10s and G-14s, none of the guys in Jotka 300
seemed to know/care which of the variants they drove around the sky.

v/r
Gordon
Stormbirds.com/recon