Messerschmitt
Lilya Litvak: The Red Air Force’s Female Fighter Ace
By Michael D. HullWhen German panzer and infantry columns rumbled across the frontier into Russia on June 22, 1941, the Soviet Air Force was woefully unready for war. Read more
Messerschmitt
The Harrowing Return from the The Bombing of Bremen
by Lowell L. Getz“Bombs Away” rang out over the intercom static of the 29 aircraft of the 91st Bomb Group (Heavy). Read more
Messerschmitt
The Luftwaffe Me-109F vs. the Red Army’s Yak-1
By Ray DenkhausBy the summer of 1942, the venerable and battle-proven Messerschmitt 109E was all but replaced by the improved Me-109F in front-line units. Read more
Messerschmitt
Innovative Soviet Fighter Ace
By Christopher J. ChlonAccording to contemporary Soviet news sources, fighter Ace Alexander Pokryshkin was the most famous pilot in the Red Air Force during World War II. Read more
Messerschmitt
Ace of Aces
By Kelly BellBy May 8, 1945, Adolf Hitler had been dead for more than a week. Germany was in the act of formally surrendering to the Soviets and the Western Allies, so occupying Red Army troops in the eastern German town of Brunn were not expecting to witness what may have been World War II’s last dogfight over Europe. Read more
Messerschmitt
Wunderwaffe: The Nazi “Wonder Weapons” of World War II
By Arnold BlumbergDuring Germany’s early string of victories between 1939 and 1941, Hitler informed the members of the nation’s aerospace industry that he had decided to impose new restrictions on aircraft research and development. Read more
Messerschmitt
Storming the Reichstag in Russia’s ‘Military Disneyland’
By Nicholas VarangisExplosions send fire through the air, aircraft drone overhead, tanks rumble across the cratered ground, and machine guns chatter in murderous conversation on a chaotic battlefield. Read more
Messerschmitt
The Supermarine Spitfire and the Battle of Britain
by William F. Floyd Jr.On March 5, 1936, the new Supermarine Type 300 took off from Southampton, England. The plane would soon be called the Spitfire, and along with the Hawker Hurricane it would become Great Britain’s first line of defense. Read more
Messerschmitt
The Hawker Typhoon 1A & 1B: Worst RAF Fighters in WWII?
by Arnold BlumbergIn 1934 the British War office accepted a new aircraft design eventually designated the Hawker Hurricane Mark 1. Read more
Messerschmitt
Engineering Excellence, Political Dysfunction: Mercedes-Benz in WWII
by Albert MrozFew would argue that Daimler-Benz is one of the most prominent and highly regarded motor vehicle manufacturers in automotive history. Read more
Messerschmitt
Americans in the Royal Air Force
by David Alan JohnsonAs they boarded the train for Montreal, the two Americans tried to look as inconspicuous as possible. Read more
Messerschmitt
P-47 Thunderbolts at the Battle of the Bulge
By Robert F. Dorr & Thomas D. JonesThe captured German pilot was cocky and boastful. He had just parachuted into the American airfield, now lit up by the fires of burning Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, a sprinkling of bright torches amid the gray January gloom and the dirty white snow. Read more
Messerschmitt
The Falaise Pocket Scourge: The RAF’s Hawker Typhoon
By Michael D. HullFrom the Supermarine Spitfire to the North American P-51 Mustang, and from the Soviet Yak series to the Vought F4U Corsair, the Allies were able to field a formidable array of fighter planes against the Axis powers in World War II. Read more
Messerschmitt
WWII Aircraft: The Arado Ar-234 Blitz Jet
By Robert F. DorrWhen the Arado Ar-234 Blitz jet bomber first appeared in the skies of Europe, most Allied airmen did not know what it was. Read more
Messerschmitt
William R. Dunn: Eagle Squadron Pilot
By David Alan Johnson“I jammed the throttle wide open and, attacking the Me-109 from the port quarter, fired one burst of four seconds and three bursts of two seconds each,” Pilot Officer William R. Read more
Messerschmitt
Veterans Day Special: A Gallery of Heroes
By Al HemingwayWhen the United States was plunged into World War II on December 7, 1941, more than 16 million Americans answered their country’s call and donned a uniform. Read more
Messerschmitt
The Nazi Aircraft Carrier Program: Erich Raeder vs. Hermann Göring
by Blaine TaylorOn June 6, 1944, as the massive Allied naval armada made its way from ports in England across the English Channel to launch the projected D-day invasion at Normandy, a German fleet sortie swept down from its home ports on the North Sea and from occupied Norway. Read more
Messerschmitt
Erwin Rommel Frustrated By French Foreign Legion At Bir Hacheim
by Edward L. BimbergWhen Brig. Gen. Joseph-Pierre Koenig, commander of the 1st Free French Brigade, surveyed the area he had just been ordered to defend, he must have been mightily discouraged. Read more
Messerschmitt
The Fieseler Storch Fi 156
by Blaine TaylorOn March 12, 1939, Heroes’ Memorial Day (or Veterans Day) in the Nazi Third Reich, the thousands of onlookers at the giant annual parade in Berlin were treated to an unusual sight as a small monoplane landed on the Unter den Linden between Hermann Göring’s State Opera House and the Neue Wache (New Guardshouse). Read more
Messerschmitt
390th Bomb Group’s Risky Run Over Merseburg
By Milton J. Elliott IIIWhen the call came that morning, it was not unlike the 25 times previously when they had flown, or all those other times when weather intervened and postponement was ordered. Read more
