Battle of Britain by Simon Pearson & Ed Gorman

Author:Simon Pearson & Ed Gorman [Simon Pearson and Ed Gorman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Published: 2020-05-13T16:00:00+00:00

A portrait of Franz von Werra, who flew the Messerschmitt Bf 109, which was the perfect plane for a self-confident, swashbuckling fighter pilot. He was embraced by the Nazi propaganda machine

11

First Lieutenant Baron Franz von Werra

Messerschmitt Bf 109E Single-Engine Fighter

5 September 1940

He was good-looking, arrogant and not averse

to portraying himself in a heroic light.

UNFORTUNATELY FOR FIGHTER Command, 5 September provided perfect conditions for aerial combat; the Allied leaders had been praying for low-level clouds and rain to give Britain’s defences and its exhausted pilots a breathing space from the relentless onslaught by the Luftwaffe.

High in the sky over London, German bombers and fighter escorts were making their way up the Thames estuary in formation. Their target was Biggin Hill aerodrome and their attack was preceded by a diversionary move against Croydon airfield that the Luftwaffe hoped would entice RAF fighters away from Biggin Hill. The ruse did not work, however, and fighters from 79 Squadron attacked the bombers as they approached Biggin Hill, as a result of which many of the German munitions fell wide of the mark.

Among the German aircraft flying home from Kent was a Messerschmitt Bf 109 flown by Baron Franz von Werra – one of thirty fighter escorts for the bombers. It was the start of a great odyssey for the Swiss pilot.

Alongside the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire on the Allied side, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 is the most widely known of the aircraft that took part in the Battle of Britain, reflecting its key role for the Luftwaffe as a fighter escort for German bombers trying to destroy Britain’s airfields, aircraft and cities.

The Bf 109 was the Luftwaffe’s only single-engine fighter and it was a remarkably successful flying machine, becoming the most prolific attack aircraft in history, with 33,984 airframes built between 1936 and April 1945. In some conditions the Messerschmitt could outmanoeuvre not only the Hurricane but also the Spitfire, and its pilots were responsible for the majority of the 1,172 aircraft lost by RAF Fighter Command between July and October 1940. Over the same period 610 of the German planes were lost.

Like the Spitfire, the Messerschmitt was based on a finely designed, all-metal monocoque with only the movable control surfaces and flaps covered by fabric. Powered by a V12 aero engine, it was fast, agile and armed with a combination of cannon and machine guns that could destroy Hurricanes and Spitfires with two short bursts of fire at close range.

One big advantage that it held over its British-built equivalents was its direct fuel injection engine. This meant that its pilots could dive from level flight without any interruption to the fuel supply caused by negative gravitational force. By contrast the Spitfire’s carburettor engine would momentarily stop in a steep dive, losing its pilots precious seconds in a dogfight.

Adolf Galland, one of the most famous aces who flew the Bf 109 throughout the Battle of Britain, amassing fifty-seven kills by the end of 1940, remarked on this in his 1953 memoir, The First and the Last.

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