0:02 The Mesosmidt BF109 was the most
0:04 produced fighter aircraft in history.
0:06 With over 33,000 units built in less
0:09 than a decade, it created the highest
0:10 scoring aces the world has ever seen
0:14 with over 300 confirmed kills. Fast,
0:16 heavily armed, and constantly evolving.
0:18 It became the face of German air power.
0:21 But behind its reputation was a floor so
0:24 dangerous that it killed more than 1,700
0:26 German pilots, usually before they ever
0:28 even faced the enemy. This is the story
0:31 of the BF 109, the legendary World War
0:33 II fighter.
0:36 Let's first set the stage. When it was
0:38 introduced in 1937, it was the most
0:40 advanced singleseat combat aircraft in
0:42 the world. For the first half of World
0:44 War II, it would form the backbone of
0:46 the Luftwaffer's fighter force. And even
0:49 when the Fauler Wolf 190 arrived in
0:52 1941, the BF 109 would remain in service
0:54 and production until the very last days
0:56 of the war. But to really understand the
0:59 BF109, we need to go back to a time when
1:01 Germany wasn't even allowed to have an
1:04 air force. After the First World War,
1:05 the Treaty of Versailles imposed strict
1:08 limits on Germany's military. Among them
1:10 was a total ban on building or operating
1:12 combat aircraft. Officially, the German
1:14 Air Force didn't exist, but
1:16 unofficially, well, that was a different
1:19 story. Throughout the 1920s and30s,
1:21 Germany quietly kept its aviation
1:23 industry alive on paper as civil
1:25 aviation, but in practice preparing for
1:28 war. By the early30s, the Nazis were in
1:31 power, and the masks started to slip.
1:33 Germany wanted to leaprog every other
1:34 country and create something that could
1:37 dominate the skies when the time came.
1:38 One of the men at the center of that
1:40 ambition was a Bavarian aircraft
1:42 designer named Willie Messesmidt. The
1:44 aircraft he came up with would become
1:46 widely known, especially among allied
1:49 pilots, as the ME109, even though the
1:51 correct German designation was BF, short
1:54 for Berisha Flukeer, the company where
1:56 it was first designed. The world got its
1:58 first public glimpse of this new
2:00 aircraft during the controversial 1936
2:04 Olympic Games in Berlin. Germany quietly
2:06 rolled out its newest prototype, which
2:08 set a new international speed record of
2:10 610 kmh.
2:12 It was a clear message. Germany was back
2:15 in the game. Ironically, at the time,
2:17 Germany's engine manufacturers were
2:19 still catching up, so the BF 109 was
2:21 initially fitted with a British-made
2:24 Rolls-Royce Kestrel. Later, Germanbuilt
2:25 Dame Leben's engines would take over,
2:28 unlocking the aircraft's true potential.
2:31 As for firepower, the early BF 109s were
2:34 armed with just two MG17 machine guns
2:36 with 500 rounds each mounted above the
2:38 engine. They were synchronized to fire
2:39 through the propeller arc without
2:41 hitting the blades, which was a common
2:43 solution at the time. But when German
2:45 intelligence learned that the British
2:47 Spitfire was entering service with eight
2:49 wing-mounted machine guns, they
2:50 immediately scrambled to improve
2:53 firepower. So the 109's armament was
2:56 increased to two MG17 machine guns, now
2:58 each with 1,000 rounds, plus two 20 mm
3:01 cannons, one in each wing. The cannons
3:03 had a 60 round drum magazine and could
3:05 fire about 750 rounds per minute, giving
3:08 it just under 15 seconds of total firing
3:11 time. Still, those cannons packed a much
3:13 more serious punch than machine guns,
3:15 especially once the Germans began using
3:18 minos, high explosive shells designed to
3:20 explode on impact. Compared to the
3:22 machine guns, the cannons were much more
3:24 devastating and a single hit could be
3:26 fatal to the enemy aircraft. In later
3:28 variants, the Germans installed a third
3:30 cannon directly behind the engine,
3:31 mounted to fire through the hollow
3:33 propeller shaft and through the center
3:35 of the spinning propeller. The cannon
3:37 barrel was carefully aligned inside to
3:40 avoid touching the shaft, and the result
3:42 was a perfectly centered gun, making it
3:44 extremely accurate. However, the
3:46 vibration from the engine combined with
3:48 the recoil of the gun made the system
3:50 prone to jamming. Some pilots didn't
3:51 like it, but these were just early
3:54 versions, and the 109 would evolve
3:56 significantly as the war progressed. The
3:58 main floor that was killing its pilots
3:59 almost more than the enemy, however,
4:01 stayed with it. You'll hear about that
4:04 in a moment. At the time, the 109 was
4:05 quite ahead of most fighters in the
4:07 world. It had an all- metal frame, a
4:09 closed cockpit, and landing gear that
4:11 folded into the fuselage. That might
4:13 seem basic now, but back then, when most
4:15 countries were still flying wood and
4:18 canvas biplanes, it was revolutionary.
4:19 Then the civil war broke out in Spain
4:21 and Germany saw a chance to test their
4:24 new fighter in real combat. Against old
4:26 Soviet planes and early monoplane
4:28 designs, the 109 was just unmatched.
4:31 German pilots gained valuable experience
4:33 and engineers used that feedback to
4:35 improve the design. By the time Germany
4:38 invaded Poland in 1939, the 109 was
4:41 already the Luftwaffer's main fighter.
4:42 And yet again, Polish aircraft were
4:44 mostly outdated and the Luftvafer
4:47 quickly took control of the skies. After
4:48 invading the rest of Western Europe soon
4:51 after, the 109 was everywhere, escorting
4:53 bombers, attacking targets, and soon
4:55 began fighting British hurricanes and a
4:57 couple of early Spitfires during the
4:59 retreat at Dunkirk. However, all of this
5:01 was just a warm-up for what was about to
5:04 come, the Battle of Britain. By the
5:06 summer of 1940, Germany had conquered
5:08 most of Europe and now shifted its
5:10 attention across the channel. The plan
5:12 was to bomb Britain into submission
5:14 through a sustained air campaign. The
5:16 Luftvafer launched waves of bombers and
5:19 the BF 109s were tasked with escorting
5:21 them. However, a big problem immediately
5:24 emerged. The 109 was a short range
5:26 interceptor, not a long range escort.
5:28 Flying from French airfields by the time
5:29 they crossed the channel, German
5:32 fighters had fuel for just about 15
5:33 minutes of flight over British
5:35 territory. Any longer and they wouldn't
5:37 have enough fuel for the trip back.
5:39 German bomber formations flew slower
5:41 with much lower cruise speed than the
5:43 109s, which absolutely did not suit the
5:46 fighters. Time and again, Luftvafer
5:47 fighters had to break off engagements or
5:49 leave bombers exposed so they could make
5:52 it back to France, and many didn't.
5:54 Dozens of pilots were lost crashing in
5:55 the channel because they ran out of
5:58 fuel. Now in the air, the BF 109 and the
6:00 newly deployed Spitfire were well
6:02 matched, but with very different flight
6:04 characteristics. The Spitfire could
6:06 outturn and outmaneuver the BF, but the
6:09 109 could outclimb and outdive the
6:12 Spitfire. The main advantage of the 109
6:14 was its fuel injection system. The Dame
6:17 Leben's engine injected fuel directly
6:19 into the combustion chamber. You see,
6:21 the British Spitfire used a carburetor
6:23 system, which would flood or cut out
6:25 under negative G's. This made the engine
6:27 stall at the worst possible moment,
6:29 letting the 109 dive away during a dog
6:31 fight. Spitfire pilots eventually
6:34 learned to roll first, then dive, which
6:36 kept positive G's on the carburetor. The
6:38 issue was later resolved with a simple
6:39 device that prevented this from
6:41 happening. By the end of the Battle of
6:43 Britain, the Luftwaffer had suffered
6:46 heavy losses. Over 600 BF 109s were
6:48 destroyed and the invasion of Britain
6:50 was cancelled, but the end was still far
6:52 ahead as the war moved south. Now,
6:55 before going into upgraded
6:57 aces with multiund air kills, let's
6:59 explain why so many pilots got killed in
7:01 109s with enemy action having nothing to
7:04 do with it. One persistent issue
7:06 continued to haunt this fighter. Its
7:08 narrow undercarriage. The landing gear
7:10 was mounted directly to the fuselage
7:12 rather than the wings, which gave the
7:14 aircraft a clean aerodynamic profile,
7:16 but made ground handling extremely
7:19 unstable. On takeoff and landing, even
7:21 small mistakes or slightly uneven
7:23 terrain could result in violent tipovers
7:25 or crashes, and they did quite often.
7:28 During training alone, around 1,750
7:30 Luftwaffer pilots were killed in
7:33 non-combat accidents, and 10% of 109s
7:35 were destroyed. It was a deadly flaw
7:37 that would never fully be resolved. With
7:39 the campaign shifting to North Africa,
7:42 the 109 had to adapt again. Dust, heat,
7:44 and long-distance operations meant new
7:47 challenges. In response, a tropical
7:48 version of the fighter was developed,
7:50 equipped with sand filters, drop tanks
7:52 for better range, and additional
7:55 modifications for desert operations. In
7:58 June of 1941, Operation Barbarasa began
8:00 Germany's massive invasion of the Soviet
8:03 Union, and once again, the 109 led the
8:06 way. Drawing on experience from both the
8:07 Battle of Britain and the Desert
8:10 Campaign, the Fvariant was introduced
8:12 with several key changes. The
8:14 wing-mounted cannons were removed in
8:16 favor of concentrating all firepower in
8:18 the nose. It now carried two
8:20 synchronized MG17 machine guns above the
8:23 engine and a single 20 mm motor cannon
8:25 firing through the propeller shaft. This
8:27 layout improved weight distribution,
8:29 reduced drag, and made aiming more
8:31 precise. This was the variant that would
8:33 carry many of Germany's highest scoring
8:35 aces to their records, including Eric
8:38 Hartman, who would go on to claim 352
8:40 confirmed kills, making him the highest
8:42 scoring ace in aviation history. After
8:44 him was Ghard Barkhorn, credited with
8:47 301 victories. But there was a quite
8:48 dark reason the numbers reached such
8:51 extremes. Unlike Allied pilots who were
8:53 routinely rotated out for rest, training
8:56 or reassignment, German pilots remained
8:58 at the front indefinitely as they were
9:00 always in short supply. If you survived,
9:02 you kept flying, usually until you were
9:04 killed. As a result, a handful of elite
9:06 pilots accumulated hundreds of missions
9:08 and hundreds of kills, but just a
9:10 handful of them actually survived the
9:13 war. As the war dragged on, the BF 109
9:16 continued to evolve. The Gustav or G
9:18 variant became the most widely produced
9:20 model. It featured a more powerful
9:23 Dameler Benz engine, improved cockpit
9:25 protection with bullet resistant glass,
9:27 and on some versions, even a pressurized
9:29 cockpit for high altitude interception.
9:31 But the biggest changes came in
9:33 armorament. The G variant was now fitted
9:35 with two 13 mm heavy machine guns
9:37 mounted above the engine. These replaced
9:40 the earlier MG17 guns and provided far
9:42 greater stopping power. But that's not
9:45 all. A 20 mm motor cannon firing through
9:47 the propeller shaft was upgraded with a
9:49 30 mm cannon, now much more capable of
9:51 destroying heavy Allied bombers.
9:53 Optional underwing gondelas could carry
9:56 two additional 20 mm cannons. Some G
9:58 models were armed with unguided rockets
10:00 that were originally intended to attack
10:02 bomber formations or ground targets, but
10:04 their accuracy was poor and they added
10:06 significant drag. Under the fuselage, it
10:09 could now carry a 500 kg bomb or four
10:13 110 kg bombs and even two 300 L drop
10:16 tanks. Now, this dramatically increased
10:18 firepower, but at the terrible cost of
10:21 speed and agility, making 109s extremely
10:22 vulnerable to Allied fighters like the
10:26 P-47 Thunderbolt, P-51 Mustang, and
10:28 later Marks of the Spitfire. Later
10:30 attempts to improve on the G model were
10:32 the models H and K, intended for high
10:34 altitude combat, but none truly
10:36 surpassed the G in numbers or influence.
10:38 By then, it was too late. The Allied
10:40 bombing campaign had devastated German
10:42 industry and production was constantly
10:44 interrupted. Fuel shortages,
10:46 inexperienced replacement pilots, and
10:48 the sheer scale of the enemy overwhelmed
10:50 what remained of the Luftvafer. As the
10:52 Reich collapsed, BF 109s were pulled
10:54 back into desperate defensive roles.
10:56 They tried to intercept American bomber
10:58 streams and fought over the skies of
