Hi all

I found this while doing some research for my Airfix 109f build.

It maybe old hat to some of you but it was news to me.

http://109lair.hobbyvista.com/articles/bf-me/bf-me.htm

Hope it's useful to all.

Cheers

Chris😊

Hello Chris,

Not old news mate, just that not many people know about it. Same thing with the 110, Me-110, Bf-110, same animal.
If memory serves me right, and I'm sure somebody will correct me, when bomber gunners would I.D. the 109, they would called it out as "109 3 o'clock low!" and didn't really know or care if it was an Me-109 or Bf-109.
All they knew was that something was shooting at them and it was him or me. The correct make was the last thing on their minds.

See ya in the funnies..................

Officially the 109 was the Bf 109 for most of the war. Allies looked at all the other German planes, that the companies were named for the designer, and made the reasonable assumption that a 109 was a Messerschmitt, not a "Bf": Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW) (Bavarian Aircraft Works). Willy Messerschmitt joined the company and eventually bought it, but Nazi hierarchy chicanery prevented him from changing the name of it, and the existing airplanes, to Messerschmitt.

From that point forward, however, all of his designs were prefixed "ME".

So unless someone wants to nitpick a bureaucratic squabble, a ME 109 was a Bf 109, and most Allied pilots knew it as the ME.

Ok, I'll fess up and be the 1st to admit that I never really understood which was right or why. At least now I understand the issue, even though it seams that you can use either ME or BF.
Joel

Similar situation withe Spitfire which we know as the "Supermarine Spitfire."

The parent company of "Supermarine" was "Vickers-Armstrong," hence the "VS Spitfire" designation.

Whatever company name it is given, it is simply beautiful...

And even the Germans themselves weren't that into nitpicking either - there are official documents where both Me and Bf are used on the same page.