Original German WWII Battle of Britain Messerschmitt Bf109 E-1 No. 4816 Wreckage Piece – Crashed After Dogfight, Piece Recovered In Kent Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a fantastic desktop display item that was recovered from a BF-109 crash sight in Kent, England. In late 1938, the Bf 109E entered production. To improve on the performance afforded by the 441–515 kW (600–700 PS) Jumo 210, the larger, longer Daimler-Benz DB 601A engine was used, yielding an extra 223 kW (300 PS) at the cost of an additional 181 kg (400 lb). A much bigger cooling area was needed to disperse the extra heat generated by the DB 601, and this led to the first major redesign of the basic airframe. Enlarging the existing nose-mounted radiator sufficiently to cool the engine would have created extra weight and drag, negating some of the performance gains afforded by the increased power, so it was decided to move the main radiators to the undersurfaces of the wings immediately outboard of the junction of the wing root and wing panel, just forward of the trailing edges’ inner ends, leaving the oil cooler under the nose in a small, streamlined duct. The new radiator position also had the effect of counterbalancing the extra weight and length of the DB 601, which drove a heavier three-bladed Vereinigte Deutsche Metallwerke (VDM)-made propeller.

To incorporate the new radiators, the wings were almost completely redesigned and reinforced, with several inboard ribs behind the spar being cut down to make room for the radiator ducting. Because the radiators were mounted near the trailing edge of the wing, coinciding with the increased speed of the airflow accelerating around the wing camber, cooling was more effective than that of the Jumo engined 109s, albeit at the cost of extra ducting and piping, which was vulnerable to damage. The lowered undercarriage could throw up mud and debris on wet airfields, potentially clogging the radiators. To test the new 1,100 PS (1,085 hp, 809 kW) DB 601A engine, two more prototypes (V14 and V15) were built, each differing in their armament. While the V14 was armed with two 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17s above the engine and one 20 mm MG FF in each wing, the V15 was just fitted with the two MG 17s mounted above the engine. After test fights, the V14 was considered more promising and a pre-production batch of 10 E-0 was ordered. Batches of both E-1 and E-3 variants were shipped to Spain for evaluation, and first saw combat during the final phases of the Spanish Civil War.

History of Messerschmitt BF 109 E-1 (4816)
Messerschmitt Bf109 E-1 Werk No. 4816 was serving with the German Luftwaffe, and was attached to Unit 5/9951. They were based at Caffiers in occupied northern France, which was 20 minutes flying time to England.

On the 29th October, 1940, the Battle of Britain was still being fought over the skies of southern England, and Me 109 (4816) was flying on a freelance fighter sortie over Dover when it was intercepted and forced into combat with fighters of the Royal Air Force.

In the dogfight that followed the Messerschmitt was badly damaged, The pilot bailed out and landed safely at Gate Inn, west of Elham, and the aircraft crashed into the ground at North Elham in Kent at 5pm.

A lovely item ready for further research and display.