ME 109g-6 u4 arnaments?

[Kurfürst]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

Your memories of our 1989 Freiburg trip have faded a little! My notes from RL2 III/881 on the strength of NAG 11 in June, July & August 1944 include Bf 109 G-8/R5, G-6/U2/R3 and Bf 109 G-5/U2/R2. However, all the unit's other aircraft are recorded more conventionally as G-6, G-6/U3, G-8/U3, G-5/U2.

In RL2 III/882 (Aug-Dec 1944) NAG 11 records BF 109 G-6 MW 50, Bf 109 G-6/R-2 MW 50, Bf 109 G-5/R2 MW 50, Bf 109 G-8/R5 MW 50, Bf 109 G-6/U3 MW 50 and Bf 109 G-6/U2/R2.

None of the other units we were looking at gave that much detail. JG 77 recorded a lot of Bf 109 G-6 and Bf 109 G-6/U4 but no Rüstsatz numbers.

These are not showing kits, but permanent factory conversions...

Take for example, G-6/U2/R3 in the records. It's probably 'custom' G-6, converted into a long range photo recce (with GM-1 none the less..?) the /R3 is actually showing a rarer variant of the 109 which carried a 300 liter droptank under each wing (2 DTs in total). However that was a special version with fuel lines in the wings for the droptanks, which standard fighters did not have.. the /R3 suffix meant it had these two droptanks, a camera in the fuselage, and an extra oil tank in place of the cowl MGs. I am not 100% sure about if the /U2 means the same as on fighters (GM-1 tank and boost present), but probably so. Such plane makes sense in Nähaufklärungsgruppe, ja?

R5 and R2 I believe showed different cameras. G-6/R2 (camera + MW50 boost) was later re-designated as G-8 if I am not wrong and mixing the desinations up.

Field kits - bombracks for 50kg/250 kg, 300 liter underfuselage droptank, gondolas etc - NEVER !!!! show up in the type designation... there of course exceptions. For example the 109F could not mount gondolas, there was a late 109F serie that could and it had the /R1(?) suffix as a result (regardless it actually carries them or not. It just shows it's been modified to be able to). However, all the subsequent 109G airframes were factory prepeared for gondolas, so there's no special

The confusion probably arises from the fact that authors used the designations wrong for so many time, and it's easy to mix up R-factory conversions (with arab numbers) with R-field kits (with roman numbers).. the latter again do not show up in the designation.