1/48 Hobbycraft Me-109D and 1/48 Tamiya Me 109E |
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Gallery Article by Sinuhe Hahn
on Aug 1 2003 |
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Switzerland - Foundation of the Swiss Confederation
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Me-109 in Swiss
Air Force
Decals by
Piet van Schalkwyk and Sinuhe Hahn
In 1939 the Swiss Air Force
acquired a sizeable number of Me 109D and E's (the Swiss did not make use of the
Bf prefix, but used the Me prefix). This followed a thorough evaluation of other
comparable aircraft at the time e.g. Heinkel, Macchi, Morane and Spitfire. It is
interesting to note that Swiss pilots were more impressed by the performance of
the Me 109 E than that of the Spitfire Mk1! In any case the British government at
that time forbade the sale of any first class front line fighters such as the
Spitfire to foreign powers as it was clear that war was imminent. Training for
the new fighters was performed in the structurally similar Me 108 Taifun.
J-310 is probably the most
frequently depicted of all Swiss Davids. This aircraft was lost on 7 June
1940 in combat with Luftwaffe Bf 110's, with the loss of Lt. Rudolf Rickenbacher.
At that time, it appears that Goering was trying with all might to involve the
Swiss in the conflict - a prelude to a possible invasion? The lesson that
Goering should have learnt from these entanglements was the Bf 110 was no match
in combat for the more nimble single seat 109 fighters, and several of the
German aircraft (including He 111's) were shot down over Swiss territory or had
to crash land in neighbouring France.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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I have decided to
depict my models in their livery schemes, the David being single colour Black
Green and Light blue, whereas the Emil had a wavy pattern of Dark Green &
Black Green. The aircraft were delivered without any armament, this being fitted
locally. In the case of the Emil this is obvious from the blanked-off gun
troughs. Unfortunately, the
Swiss armament, especially the wing cannon, turned out to be extremely
unreliable, to the extent that aircraft were frequently only armed immediately
before take-off! No armour was fitted to either aircraft, a feature which would
have fatal consequences in later encounters with USAF P-51's.