Messerschmitt 109 Design Problems

[Kurt Braatz]

I know from Guenther Rall that he hated wing cannons, no matter if gondola-mounted or integrated. They reduced roll rate and jammed in tight turns, thus making the whole system inoperable. Whenever he had been assigned a 109 with wing armament, he did not fly it in combat before these guns were removed. The opinions of aces like Guenther had a considerable influence on the Messerschmitt engineers, so they tended toward concentrating firing power as close as possible around the longitudinal axis of a fighter.