"Guns before butter. Guns will make us powerful; butter will only make us fat."
- Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, Head of the German Luftwaffe
Numerically the most abundant fighter produced by either side during WWII, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 formed the backbone of the Jagdwaffe on both the eastern and western fronts, as well as in the Mediterranean and North Africa. Of the eight distinct sub-types within the huge Bf 109 family, the most populous was the G-model, of which over 30,000 were built between 1941-45. Despite its production run, only a handful of genuine German Bf 109s have survived into the 1990s, and with the serious damaging of the RAFs G-2 at Duxford in October 1997, only the German-based MBB G-6 and Hans Ditte's G-10 (both composites) are currently airworthy.
Pictured here is a German Messerschmitt Bf-109G-2 fighter in tropical camouflage. Now in stock!
Dimensions:
Wingspan: 5.25 inches
Length: 5 inches
Release Date: August 2004
Historical Account: "Ace of Hearts" - Jagdgeschwader 77 (JG 77) Herz As ("Ace of Hearts") was a Luftwaffe fighter Geschwader (US "wing"/UK "group") during World War II. It served in all the German theaters of war, from Western Europe to the Eastern Front, and from the high north in Norway to the Mediterranean. All three gruppen (US "groups"/UK "wings") within the Geschwader operated variants of the Messerschmitt Bf 109. However, II. Gruppe is notable as the only German unit entirely equipped, albeit only during November-December 1943, with the Macchi C.205, a highly-regarded Italian fighter. |
