Aviation Archive Issue 25 - 2016 UK

(Jacob Rumans) #1

MESSERSCHMITT Bf 110 9


Left: Groundcrew re-arm the nose-mounted
cannon of a Bf 110 of ZG 26 immediately after
the aircraft’s return from an operation during
the Mediterranean campaign in 1941. The
twin 20mm cannon and two 0·30in machine-
guns mounted in the Bf 110’s nose packed an
accurately sighted and powerful punch if it could
be brought to bear on its target.


Right: View from the radio operator’s position in
a Messerschmitt Bf 110 showing the back of the
pilot’s head.


Inset: Celebrated cartoonist E.A. ‘Chris’ Wren
captured the Bf 110’s salient features in this
caricature published in The Aeroplane early in
the war.


Below: Although the Bf 110 had taken a hefty
beating from the RAF during the Battle of Britain,
its career as a front-line aircraft was far from
over. Here, two Bf 110Cs of ZG 26 patrol the
Mediterranean when the unit was engaged on
coastal and convoy duties.


Bottom: The 25th Focke-Wulf-built Bf 110C-1, the
first variant to go into large-scale production.
By September 1939 the Luftwaffe operated 159
of the ‘C’ model.

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