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The DB 605 AM engine was also installed in part of the Messerschmitt
produced block of airframes in the 781 000 range, numbering about thir-
ty birds, which had a low rudder. The remainder of this production block
were Bf 109 G-14/ASs with the DB 605 AS powerplant. According to photos,
there were standard G-14s with a low rudder even in the 782 000 series
production block, in which H. H. Vogt lists only the G-14/AS. The six hundred
Bf 109 G-14/U4s, production block 510 000 to 512 000, armed with a 30mm
MK 108 fuselage/engine mounted cannon, produced by WNF, also had the low
rudder and Erla Vollsichtshaube type canopy. These machines did not have
the bulge on the fairing above the right fuselage machine gun breech (6),
and between bulkheads 4 and 5, they had an access cover for the compressed
air bottle for the MK 108 engine mounted weapon (4). There was also an
MW 50 system tank filler cap on the right side of the fuselage spine behind
the second bulkhead.
Example: Bf 109G-14/U4, W. Nr. 512382, Flown by Lt. H. Schlick, 4. / JG 77,
Schönwalde, Germany, November, 1944
Conclusions
If you have read this far, I value you sticking with me and I greatly appre-
ciate that you understand that the subject surrounding the technical de-
velopment of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 is extremely complicated. It is
a theme that is probably without parallel in the history of aviation, per-
haps remotely comparable are some types from the First World War,
such as the Breguet 14 or the Hansa-Brandenburg C. I. But only remotely.
For the Bf 109 G-6, the issue is complicated by the fact that production took
place under extreme wartime conditions, under heavy Allied air raids and
almost constant reorganization of German war efforts. It was a situation
that is difficult to imagine today. The production of aircraft in Germany, and
not only the Bf 109 G-6, responded not only to the needs of the customer,
the RLM and the Luftwaffe and its combat units, but also to the prevail-
ing economic conditions and the deteriorating state of the industrial base.
As a result of the air raids, a large part of the factories were destroyed
or badly damaged, production operations were scattered to branch plants,
hidden in the mountains, forests, railway tunnels or underground. The dy-
namics precipitated by the changes were unbelievable, and moreover, these
changes were intertwined on the production lines. The fact that three pro-
duction plants were engaged in the production of the Bf 109 G-6 plays only
a partial role in this. During the war, between early 1943 and late 1944, proba-
bly more than 13,000 Bf 109 G-6s were produced. The exact number is not and
will never be known, and a significant part of the production lacks definitive
documentation. It was apparently irretrievably lost in the maelstrom of war.
One reason I am writing these articles is because from time to time some
lost documents turn up somewhere. Part of the facts presented in the text
you have read will certainly be further refined and corrected over time,
thanks to new discoveries, or thanks to relevant new interpretations of al-
ready known documents.
If you research previously published material and kits of the Bf 109 G-6,
you will certainly come across images of aircraft that do not correspond
to their classification within the production variants we have discussed or
even to types according to other sources. Please, treat such cases with
lenience. There will be many of them, even in the case of Eduard kits.
Unfortunately, from the point of view of the facts and conclusions that
I tried to convey in my article, a large part of the profiles in current litera-
ture and kits, whether by Eduard or someone else, are wrong. It may cause
some loss of confidence in some, but let’s take it positively. Let’s take it
as an opportunity to revise our old knowledge, assumptions and mistakes,
because this type of research is an ongoing evolution and needs adjust-
ments to evolve in the right direction.
A nice example of the above is this Bf 109 G-6, serial number 160303, flown
by III. /JG I’s Hauptmann Friedrich Eberle:
HISTORY
INFO Eduard16
February 2024