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HISTORY

deployment took place on April 7, 1945 and did

not meet with significant success.

One of the last aerial victories of the

Luftwaffe was scored by a pilot of a Bf 109 K-4.

After an emergency scramble on May 8, 1945, at

11.00 from the base at Žatec (Saatz) in Bohemia,

Uffz. Eugen Maier of 14./JG 300 shot down

a low-flying Soviet twin-engine aircraft,

probably a Pe-2.

In Foreign Service

It is not known if the Bf 109 K-4 was used by

the Royal Hungarian Air Force (MHKL) or the

volunteer units of the Russian Liberation Army

(ROA). However, they found their way into the

air units of two other air forces that stood by

Hitler’s Germany.

The fighter units of the National Republican

Air Force (ANR) in northern Italy were the only

Axis units operating fighter aircraft on this

battlefield since the autumn. These were Io and

IIo Gruppo Caccia, which were equipped with the

Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6, G-14 and G-10. Three

Bf 109 K-4s at the end of February 1945 were

received by Io Gr. C., specifically its 3a Squadriglia

at the base at Malpensa. Another three Bf 109

K-4s were acquired in April by 6a Sq., which

belonged to IIo Gr. C. at Maniago Airport. The

third fighter unit of the ANR, IIIo Gr. C., was in

the middle of organizing at the end of the war.

Before the end of the war, on April 22, the ANR

had only three Bf 109 K-4s in service. Two were

located at staff headquarters of Io Gr. C. and one

was with 6a Squadriglia. The remaining three

machines were lost in combat with American

airmen.

A little known fact is that the Bf 109K-4

entered service with the Air Force of the

Photo: Goskatalog

with combating Allied ground attackers and

medium bombers. The new year of 1945 brought

heavy losses to the Germans in the Operation

Bodenplatte, both in terms of equipment and in

the ranks of experienced veterans. Another blow

to the Luftwaffe was the Soviet Vistula-Oder

operation, which began in mid-January 1945. The

German command in the east hastily relocated

a number of units, including ones equipped with

Bf 109 K-4s. In the following months, K-4s also

reached units deployed on the Eastern Front for

many years, such as Stab, III. and IV./JG 51, or

Stab, I. and III./JG 52 in Silesia. In the last weeks

of fighting against the Red Army, the unique Karl

version also entered service with II./JG 52 and

Stab JG 6.

The only unit that had Messerschmitt Bf

109 K-4s in the Luftflotte Reich (part of the

Reichsverteidigung) from the beginning of 1945

was IV./JG 300. Later, its sister unit III./JG 300

also received a few Ks. This version of the Bf

109 also entered the arsenal of bombing units

converted to fighter units. These were II./KG(J)

6, II./KG(J) 27 and II./KG(J) 55. If these formations

came into contact with the enemy, they usually

suffered fairly significant losses.

On the Western Front, from the beginning of

1945, the Bf 109 K-4 gradually came into service

with III. and IV./JG 53, while in April 1945, they

already represented a significant part of their

flight fleet. Rare specimens of the K-4 version

also reached the night fighter unit I./NJG 11.

The Bf 109 K-4 machines were also part of

the equipment of the Sonderkommando Elbe,

which was organized for a mass attack against

formations of four-engine bombers. The pilots

were supposed to crash into enemy aircraft

and then take to their chutes. The unit's only

A warehouse of parts for the tail surfaces of the G and K versions of the Bf 109, found by the Red Army in

Strasbourg, West Prussia, in early 1945. These were produced in the system of the decentralized aircraft industry.

September 2023

Independent State of Croatia (ZNDH). Even

with the approaching end of the war, Germany

continued to provide its Croatian ally with aircraft

technology, so in February 1945, in addition to

ten Bf 109 G-6, G-14 and G-10 airframes, the

2. ZLJ also took over four examples of the Bf 109

K-4. However, two of them were damaged on

February 20 when landing in a blizzard at Lučko

Airport. Another three K-4s were received by

the 2. ZLJ during April. One of them, delivered

on April 23, was hidden near Borongaj airport by

supporters of Tito's army from among the ZNDH.

Croatian aircraft participated in the fighting

around Zagreb until May 6, 1945, and ZNDH pilots

came into conflict with American and British

fighters. The Bf 109 K-4 hidden at Borongaj was

tested in the air in mid-May by a Yugoslav pilot,

Lt. Boris Cijan. According to his memoirs, the

machine was marked with red stars. Apparently

another pilot made an emergency landing with

the same plane a few days later. There are no

records of further post-war use of the Bf 109

K-4 in the Yugoslav Air Force.

Bf 109K-4 Schemes

The coloring of the Bf 109 K-4 is among the