WWII Tech Pubs Briefing

Written by
Daniel Gebhardt

Final Draft The Editor is still busy with this article. This preview is posted here for you to read.

East of Dunkirk's beaches, a Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3 of II./JG 3 clashes with RAF Hurricanes in a fight for local air superiority as the British Expeditionary Force evacuates below, June 1940

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Overview

At the end of 1933 the Reichsluftfahrtministerium was in the progress of developing tactical guidelines for fighter planes. Besides the Rüstflugzeug II and III, which became the Ju87 and Bf110 respectively, the Rüstflugzeug IVwas intended to be a Verfolgungs-Jagdeinsitzer, one seat pursuit plane, intended for air fighting both during the daytime and at night. Design would be around one engine, one pilot and an armament of either 2 machine-guns with 1000 rounds each or one 20 mm cannon with 200 rounds, its intended use was as an interceptor and and point defense, supplementing the twin-engined Zerstörer, which in the doctrine was to become the primary fighter airplane.

Four companies submitted designs, Arado, Heinkel, Focke-Wulf and Messerschmitt, but only the Heinkel He112 and the Bf109 turned out to be viable designs. In the end, the Bf109 was chosen over the He112 due to better performance in climb and top speed, easier handling and better suitability for mass production. Three prototypes of the Bf109 were built, with the first one mounting a Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine and the two following prototypes the Jumo210 A.

In 1936 the first models of the A series were produced, equipped with the Jumo210B or D engine (680 PS), armament consisted of two cowl mounted MG17 (7.92mm) machinguns, the projected spinner mounted 20mm C/30 cannon had to be deleted due to reliability problems. Most of the 20 A-series aircraft built were immediately shipped to Spain, where they joined the Versuchsjagdstaffel 88 at Tablada.

The B series entered production while the A series was still being produced, and only small changes were incorporated, among them the installations of a third spinner-mounted MG17 (7.92mm) machinegun and a ReVi C/12B gun sight. With 341 built the series was considerably larger than the A series and exceeded BFWs construction capacity, licensed production took place at several other companies such as Erla and Fieseler, overall, only a small portion of the all Bf109s would be produced by BFW.

In 1937, the C and D series were introduced into service. Both models were very similar, with the main change to the B series being the Waffenflügel mounting two MG17 (7.92mm) machineguns for a total of four, doubling the earlier model's firepower. A new exhaust system and an enlarged L-shaped fuel tank were also fitted. The Bf109 C was also equipped with the new Jumo 210G engine which was one of the first fuel injected engines availaible, in contrast to carburetor equipped engine, the flow of gasoline was not interrupted during low or high-G maneuvers, increasing the planes tactical value. However, production was not sufficient and only 58 C models were built, whereas of the Jumo 210D (carburetor) equipped D model 647 planes were built.

On November 11^th 1937 the Bf109-V13 prototype, equipped with a pre-series DB601A engine, set a new world record for speed at 610 km/h, beating Howard Hughes' old mark by nearly 50 km/h. This prototype essentially was the forerunner of the E series, which was the biggest revision in the development so far.

Extensive changes were necessary to accomodate the larger engine. The fuselage was lengthened by 10 cm, and the cooling system was completely redesigned, with only the oil cooler remaining under the nose and the water coolers being split in two and moved to the underside of the wings. A new three-bladed VDM variable pitch airscrew was installed to handle the engines increased power of 1175 PS, and fuel capacity was increased to 400 liters. All in all, the changes led to a 450kg weight increase, however, due to the larger powerplant, performance increased substantially.

While the E-1 was still armed with four MG17 (7.92mm) machineguns, the next big change in armament was the E-3, which introduced the MG/FF 20mm cannon as wing armament, significantly increasing the firepower. An export subtype, the E-3a (a for ausländisch, foreign) was also built and exported to Bulgaria, Japan, Rumania, Switzerland, Spain and Yugoslavia. Equipment of this subtype was not on the same level as for the german planes, with no radios fitted and, in the case of the Yugoslavian Bf109s, no wing armament.

The E-4 model was a refinement to the E-3, adding an armored headrest and the newly-available MG/FF “M” cannons able to fire Minengeschoß shells, thin walled high explosive shells which had a significantly higher destructive power than regular HE shells. Also, a portion of the E-4 series was equipped with the DB601N engine, which, using 100 octane fuel, had a higher sustained power and gave the plane a better performance. Both the E-4 and E-4/N could be fitted with bomb racks for use as fighter bombers.

The E-7/B model was developed after the Battle of Britain and cured the range problem with the provision for carrying of a 300 liter external tank that was also included for the E-7/N, the difference between the two models being the oxygen system. Later on, some E-7s received additional armoring in order to enhance survivability in low level strafing attacks that were fairly common in the african campaign. The E-7s thus modified and were designated as E-7/U2 (U for Umrüstsatz, conversion kit). Modifications like this became more and more common as the war went on and served to accommodate the plane for different tasks or upgrade it to improved standards.

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Variants

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Specifications

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