1942-1945

The story of the Messerschmitt 109 is intimately linked with the that of the Luftwaffe between 1939 and 1945 and they were, so to speak, one and the same, revealing the prevarication, uncertainty and other difficulties which marked the period.

The Me 109 was the symbol of the apparently invincible might of the IIIrd Reich's air force at the beginning of WWII with the "Dora" and the "Emil" versions; Willy Messerschmitt's little marvel was produced throughout the conflict, the last versions that came off the production lines no longer having much in common with their predecessors during the Phoney War.

It must be said that the strategic situation had completely changed, the original hunter had now become the prey. Indeed, at the time, it was fighting on an equal footing - at worst! - with its opposite numbers, but it did need, month after month, to be modified so that it could face new situations; the engineers often had to find emergency solutions to the new threats it was ill-equipped to deal with.

It was thus that the fearsome single-seater of the early days, light and agile like a bird of prey, never had a true successor - the 209 and the 309 were tried and tested at length but finally not mass-produced - and was never redesigned thoroughly. It was produced in many different variants and improved on in many different ways with the result that its power was increased, and therefore also its weight, making it less and less manoeuvrable.

Within these pages, we invite you to relive this historic, noisy, violent and sometimes heroic period.