The famous Messerschmitt Bf 109 single-seat fighter was one of the most important warplanes of the Second World War. Originally designed during the 1930s, and a contemporary of the equally-legendary Supermarine Spitfire, it was vitally important to Germany's Luftwaffe and was flown in combat by the highest-scoring fighter pilots in history. It was

ROBERT JACKSON is the author of over eighty books on military, aviation, naval and scientific subjects. He was defense and science correspondent for a major British newspaper publishing group. Among the other books he has compiled for Pen & Sword are Bf-109 in the FlightCraft series and for TankCraft he has written extensively on the T-34, the Panzer I and II, the Centurion and Chieftain Main Battle Tanks as well as the Russian T54/55.