Re: Fw-190D-12 Color Pic- A Beauty

On Jun 10, 3:22 pm, Rob Arndt <teuton...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
BTW, it is proper to call Messers Me Bf
109 rather than Me-109 (even if the USAAF or RAF) called them that. It
is the proper German designation.


I have quite a few German wartime production documents and they refer
to the 8-109 as either a BF 109 or an Me 109 (the "Me 109" documents
and dataplates are from the fall-winter of 1944); one thing I have
never seen is a designation of "Me Bf 109".

There was a formula for German aircraft designations and it did not
vary throughout the wartime period. A one or two letter manufacturer
id followed by a space, then the "8" series number (signifying
airframe instead of, say, a tank or rifle), a sub-type identified by a
letter, and then whatever R or U kits are installed.

Bf 109 G-6/R-6 is an "8" (airframe) product of the Bav. Flug. Werks,
subtype of G-6 with the /R-6 kit (underwing MG pods).
FW 190 A is correct, but on production documents, the second space
was often omitted. Since Focke and Wulf were two different proper
names, they were both capitalized.

There was of course a few scattered references from the war where
builders or the OKB missed spaces or capitalized the "e" in "Me", but
that was not the accepted designation method. One thing that was
quite common was that when Messerschmitt fighters were discussed
informally, they almost always were referred to simply as "Der
Me" ('der MAY'). Galland said it many times - General Krupinski
confirmed it to me. I've asked other Bf 109 pilots and they agreed
that it was universally called by that name by its pilots. What I
can't find is *anyone* in the Luftwaffe during the war that called an
E an "Emil" - I know both the Emil and Gustav were names used often by
the PK and magazines, but the pilots do not seem to have done so.
Sentences crop up with phrases like "my trusted Emil", but I think
that is a writer's device, not the pilot.

The US and UK called the Bf 109 either "Me 109" or "Me. 109", which is
fine - its not like the Japanese called their A6Ms "Zekes" or the
Russians actually designated the Tu 95 as "the Bear". We develop our
own methods for identifying enemy aircraft. Art is perfectly correct
to call it the fighters he faced "Me 109s", for no other reason than
it was the accepted name used by the Allies during the war. We don't
require WWII vets refer to Japanese aircraft by their manufacturer's
names - hell, we couldn't pronounce them :)

Gordon
.

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