HISTORY

the wheel well and a retractable tail wheel of

smaller diameter. Additionally, older G-2s were

retrofitted, usually during general repairs, to G-4

standard by installing larger wheels with the appropriate equipment.

A total of 1,586 Bf 109 G-2s were produced

from May to December 1942 and 1,242 Bf 109

G-4s from September 1942 to June 1943, plus

one license built Bf 109Ga-2 and 24 Bf 109Ga4s were produced in Györ, Hungary. In addition

to them, 167 Bf 109 G-1s and 50 Bf 109 G-3s with

pressurized cockpits were produced. All versions

could be equipped with an additional fuel tank

with 300 liters of fuel or cannon pods with 20mm

MG 151/20 cannons, or a belly bomb rack. But the

aircraft usually carried either an additional tank

or cannon pods. The simultaneous use of the tank

and cannon pods was rare. You can find photos

of such combinations, but this may have been

a ferry configuration. Cannon pods were never

combined with the fuselage bomb racks.

Bf 109 G-2 from III./JG 54 “Grünherz” on the Eastern Front in this picture taken in August 1942. This unit took delivery of the first

G-2s in July 1942 and had them in service until January the following year. The G-4 version was delivered to III./JG 54 in February

1943. [Bundesarchiv]

Combat Use of the Bf 109 G-2

and G-4

Both types gradually replaced the Bf 109 F-2

and F-4 in Luftwaffe fighter units over the second

half of 1942. The Bf 109 G-2 ensured the performance superiority of German fighters over Allied

opponents both on the Eastern Front during the

successful German summer offensive and the

advance of the German armies to the Caucasus and to Stalingrad, as well as in North Africa

during the advance of the German Afrikacorps

and its Italian ally along the North African coast

towards Egypt. After the defeat of the German

armies at El Alamein in North Africa in November, 1942 and the encirclement of the German 6th

Army at Stalingrad in the same month, the tide

had begun to turn. Luftwaffe fighters were unable

to maintain their air supremacy over the battlefield at Stalingrad and keep the air supply lines

open to the encircled German forces, nor in North

Africa, where a strengthening Allied air force was

successfully disrupting supplies to the remaining

Bf 109 G-4 and personnel of the Slovak 13th/JG 52 at Anapa airfield in Crimea in the summer of 1943. [Bundesarchiv]

Bf 109 G-4 MT 213 still has the original smaller main landing gear wheels, but now has a larger fixed tail

wheel (350x135). This machine is part of the color profiles in this kit, in a new camouflage applied after

the overhaul. [SA Kuva]

November 2023

INFO Eduard

9