This book - which contains many photographs, some profiles and a lovely cutaway drawing - will tell you the story of the most famous German fighter plane during the Second World War : the Messerschmitt Bf 109.

Quarter century

of greatness

Introduction by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland

 

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the author and the editor for offering me the opportunity of writing the foreword to the book ’ Me 109 ’. I consider it an honour do to this, since the book was written by an expert who did tremendous work and research on such a highly technical historical subject. I extend my hearty compliments to the author. He did an excellent job. Only an enthusiast for this subject, a man who lives and flies the Me 109 to this day, can have written such a comprehensive history of this famous aeroplane.

 

As I started to write this foreword, my mind went back to the days when the Me 109 virtually filled my life. I first met the aircraft in 1935 when Messerschmitt’s chief test pilot landed with the prototype No. V - 2 at our fighter base at Jüterborg, south of Berlin. He was on the first ferrying trip from the Messerschmitt factory to the Luftwaffen - Test Centre at Rechlin and it was easy to understand his proud desire to show off this aeroplane.

 

I was a Lieutenant at the time and a fighter pilot, and I was in a position to arrange with him to carry out a dogfight between our Heinkel 51 biplane and this fabulous but still highly secret Me 109 monoplace. Needless to say, it was easy for us to outturn the higly wingloaded Me 109, but its pilot, though a brilliant test pilot, was without any air combat training or experience. Consequently, he did not make the right use of his superiority in acceleration, speed and climb.

 

( ... ) I had been checked out on the Me 109 in 1937 in Spain, and I had my last Me 109 flight in April 1968, also in Spain, during the filming of ’ The Battle of Britain ’. This is a span of 31 years. As a matter a fact, the first Me 109 flight took place in 1935, and the last Me 109, of a grand total of about 32,000 aircraft, was built in 1960. Thus Me 109’s were being built during a period of more than 25 years - a remarkable testimonial.

 

( ... ) No wonder that I developed the kind of affection for this aircraft that is normally reserved for human beings.

 

( ... ) The number of those who came in touch with the Me 109 and who had some form of relationship with it runs into millions. We, therefore, thank the author for this excellent book and wish him every success.