Club de Historia Militar: Duelo: Spitfire contra Messerschmidt

Who will win - the Supermarine Spitfire of the Bf 109 Mersserschmitt? Join us and find out about the advantages and disadvantages of each aircraft during the epic Battle of Britain.

The Battle of Britain had seen the Bf 109E pitted against the Hurricane and increasing numbers of Spitfires as German fighter pilots forlornly tried to protect Heinkel, Dornier and Junkers medium bombers targeting southern England. By early October 1940 it was clear that the hitherto invincible Luftwaffe had for the first time failed to achieve its assigned objective – the neutralisation of the Royal Air Force (RAF), which would have allowed the Wehrmacht to invade Britain. With the Luftwaffe forced to switch to a night Blitz to reduce the unsustainable losses being suffered by its Kampfgruppen, offensive operations during daylight hours increasingly fell to the Bf 109-equipped Jagdgeschwader based along the Channel coast in occupied France. Bomb-equipped Bf 109Es and Bf 110s, escorted by yet more E-model Messerschmitts, continued to take the fight to the RAF long after the Battle had officially ended on 31 October – a date observed only by the British.