[GuerraCivil]

Radinger & Schick 1997/1999 is very often mentioned as the standard reference. Maybe still the best after all the years after its publication.

However, I do not know if the recently appeared thin Osprey volume is more "up-to-date" - there are many years between it and Radinger & Schick so one could assume that it has something that Radinger & Schcik not.

There is some disagreement concerning the top speed of Bf 109 B -D - mostly it is given around 460 - 470 km/h at an altitude of 4000 meters. This supposedly a production series type, not a light V-prototype without armament and camo.

Soviet tested one Bf 109 B captured in Spain - they could not get more than 422 km/h out of the machine at any altitude. However found it easier to fly than I-16. The photos which I have seen of this Soviet tested machine (Legion Condor nr. 6-15) show that it had a fixed prop (wooden Schwarz?), although some colourplates show it erroneusly with VDM Hamilton variable prop. I wonder how much the different prop may have created difference performance in different test flights.

One could also ask if Bf 109 B - D was really "stiff" in dogfight - probably it was not so bad in dogfight manouvering - it was still a very light aircraft compared to something like Bf 109 G-6.

The A/B -series question is interesting. In the Legion Condor sources it is stated that in Spain were sent first V-prototypes for testing and after that came directly the B-series planes. In some other sources it is stated that almost all A-series planes were sent to Spain, but for some reason they were labelled there as "B". In some sources it is stated that there was not such as the A-series at all and the production went directly from V-prototypes to B-series and only later were the V-prototypes labelled as "A-series"!