Using first-hand accounts and brand-new artwork, this book brings to
life the realities of flying the Bf 109 in combat during the very first
battles of World War II.
The Bf 109 was one of the principal fighter aircraft types in the
Luftwaffe's inventory during the opening months of World War II and it
was central to many of Germany's early victories, before coming up
against the unbeatable RAF during the Battle of Britain.
This book presents first-hand experiences of the pilots who flew the Bf
109E, the aircraft which first featured a Daimler-Benz DB 601
powerplant, and which was in the front line in the skies over Poland,
the Low Countries and France, and the older Bf 109D, still in use in the
Polish campaign.
The early variants of the Messerschmitt fighter, the Bf 109E-1, Bf
109E-2 and Bf 109E-3, swept all before them during the opening wartime
campaigns, their successes only fading at the Battle of France, when the
Bf 109's seasoned pilots encountered modern and well-flown RAF and Armée
de l'Air fighters.
In a rigorous and engaging new analysis, Luftwaffe aviation expert
Malcolm V. Lowe examines and assesses the Bf 109 as a fighting machine
from the perspective of the Luftwaffe at the forefront of the German
blitzkrieg. Contemporary photographs and specially commissioned artwork,
including a dramatic battlescene, armament views, technical diagrams and
ribbon diagrams illustrating step-by-step each battle tactic of the main
dogfights explored in the book, bring the experiences of the Bf 109
pilots vividly to life.
