Messerschmitt Bf 109 E–F series (Air Vanguard, 23)

The E-F series of the German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter carried the Luftwaffe through the early battles of the Second World War, including the invasion of Denmark and Norway, the Battle of France, the Battle of Britain, North Africa, and the initial invasion of the Soviet Union. The Bf 109 E and F model fighters more than held their own against a variety of opponents. This is their story."Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-F Series" is an Osprey Air Vanguard Series book, well-authored by Robert Jackson, with some excellent aircraft graphics and illustrations by Adam Tooby. The book opens with an extended introduction into the Bf 109 and the multiple variants fielded in the E and F series models. The bulk of this concise book is devoted to a summary of the operational history of the Bf 109 E-F models. The Bf 109 served across all German military theaters in the opening years of the war. A few were exported and served with other air forces. The author works in some thumbnail sketches of some of the German aces and some details of specific air battles and campaigns.The book concludes with an assessment of the fighter. Of particular interest are excepts from a British Royal Air Force evaluation of a captured Bf 109-E, candidly comparing its performance against the Hurricane and Spitfire. There is plenty of technical detail in the book, along with some excellent period photographs and modern diagrams. The author does assume some prior aviation and historical knowledge on the part of the reader. Recommended as a good introduction to an excellent combat aircraft.

Lots of pictures and info about the models, I use it as background info for building models, very usefull.

Many times the term: “Legend of the aviation” is abused but in the case of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 it is perfectly fitted to.This beautiful fighter was produced at an incredible output (estimations vary between 33.000 and 35.000 units, that is the highest production record of all times for a fighter) and was indeed among the most recognizable Nazi’s icons and the true “aces’ fighter”.Its sleek and nice aesthetics conceal a deadly efficiency that was at the top in the E and F versions analyzed in this nice Air Vanguard title.Many “Experten” aces judged these two versions as the best of the entire 109 family, particularly from the point of view of handling and performance. Author Robert Jackson underlines the many outstanding aspects of the plane, from the superlative DB601 V12 engine to the excellent aerodynamics, born from the ingenuity of Prof. Willy Messerschmitt world-widely re-known for his sailplanes.The book deepens into the advanced technique of the fighter and its rich operational history, from the close encounters in the Battle of Britain to the long campaign on the Eastern front.A paragraph is also devoted to the many Bf 109 aces, from Molders to Marseille; the usual rich iconographic section (courtesy of Adam Tooby) completes a good book on this incredible fighter.

This book is rather glorifies USAF and RAF pilots and planes rather that describes the Messerschmitt fighter plane. One star goes for the authors effort and second one for those few facts about the airplane and history of it’s use that managed to make their way to this book.

The illustrations and tables given in this book appear to be sometimes badly researched.For example in the beginning a three view drawing (the first of the book) of a Bf-109 E-1 is given. Immediately I noticed this E-1 has MG/FF cannons installed, which seemed wrong. A quick google search of that plane led me to the book 'Aircraft Salvage in the Battle of Britain and the Blitz: Rare photographs', featuring original photos from the crash of this particular 109, after which it did not fly again. These photos clearly show the 109 E-1 infact had like every other E-1 machine guns in the wings, not cannons.The cut-away drawing in this book, a 109 E-3, also shows features of the E-4 such as the revised canopy, which was fitted to some E-3s, but then it should be mentioned that this is not a standard E-3 canopy.But those are only a minor flaws compared to the performance tables given for 109s. These are completely off. Today you can find tons of original performance tests freely available on the internet. I cannot imagine how someone might come up with such absurd numbers, making some of these aircraft a hundred km/h faster than they really were.EDIT: I finished reading the book for the sake of curiosity. The chapter 'conclusions' perfectly summarizes everything wrong with this book. This chapter was so bad the thought came up there was something wrong with my book, which I picked up from Google books, but the online extracts from Google books had exactly the same terrific content. It mentions something of externally mounted MG 151 15mm being the standard cowling armament of the 109 K-4. I have an entire book with photographs of late 109s and the only thing it never mentions is cowling mounted machine-cannons, especially of a type completely obsolete by the time. It then goes on about a 20mm MK 108 cannon and claims that there were 109s equipped with three(!) MK 103 cannons. A pretty ridiculous thought on its own.

thank you

Excelente lectura en un inglés básico (para aquellos con pequeñas nociones de este idioma) sobre uno de los mejores cazas de la II Guerra Mundial

Eine kleine Ergänzung zur Privat-Flugzeug-Bibliothek. Im Format wie Aircraft of the Aces, nur nicht so "dick". Aber, ich wollte es erst nicht glauben, tatsächlich mit zumindest einigen Fotos, die zumindest ich noch nicht kannte. Ein paar Farbprofile und jeweils zwei Illustrationen "Combat-Art". Ob alle Angaben in den Heften so stimmen, muß jeder für sich entscheiden bzw. recherchieren. Kann man immer mal wieder durchblättern ...

An excellent book. A welcome edition to my military aviation collection.

Félicitations à monsieur Jackson pour son ouvrage sur la cheville ouvrière de la chasse allemande. Ce livre décris avec justesse le 109 E, héros de la blitzkrieg et le 109 F, le faiseur d'as comme Hans-Joachim Marseille. Un ouvrage utile pour ceux qui souhaitent en savoir plus sur ces 2 versions du célèbre chasseur de Messerschmitt.

Muy bueno, con la calidad de Osprey, complemento del libro dedicado a las primeras versiones del Messer. Relación calidad precio muy buena