One of the most adaptable aircraft of the war, the ME 109 gave good service to the Luftwaffe in all theaters of operation. During the Battle of Britain it was superior to the Hurricane and about equal with the early marks of Spitfire. The 'ME' was a difficult aircraft to fly, take off and landing were particularly hard due to the lack of pilot vision (the large, high nose cowling cut down the pilots view considerably) and the placement of the undercarriage close together making it easy to 'roll' the 'ME'. The ultimate ME 109 being the G 'Gustav' model. While not as nimble or fast as the later marks of Spitfires or Mustangs that opposed it, its two 20mm cannon in the wings and two 7.9mm machine guns in the engine cowling gave it a good 'knock down' ability if any allied plane was unlucky enough to get caught in its sights for a second or two. Adolph Galland, Germany's most famous pilot of WWII, achieved most of his 'kills' in various models of the ME 109. The Spanish Airforce was still flying Messerschmidts into the 1970's as witnessed by them being used in one of my favorite movies, 'The Battle of Britain'

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