"In personally facing the RAF in the air over the Dunkirk encirclement, I found that the Bf 109 E was faster,
possessed a higher rate of climb, but was somewhat less manouverable than the RAF fighters"
"Performance by 1940 standards was good. When put into a full throttle climb at low air speeds, the airplane
climbed at a very steep angle, and our fighters used to have difficulty in keeping their sights on the enemy
even when at such a height that their rates of climb were comparible. This steep climb at low air speed was
one of the standard evasion maneuvres used by the German pilots. Another was to push the stick forward
abruptly and bunt into a dive with considerable negative 'g'. The importance of arranging that the engine
whould not cut under these circumstances cannot be over-stressed. Speed is picked up quickly in a dive, and
if being attacked by an airplane of slightly inferior level performance, this feature can be used with advantage
to get out of range"
the 109 F. This was my beloved aircraft. It was the first aircraft with the round wing tips, no struts in
the back, 601 engine. Excellent, and not too overloaded. You know, later on they put in this, and put in this,
and put in this. The aircraft became heavier, but not this one. The F was my ideal aircraft. And it had a very
good weapon set. We had a 20 millimeter gun through the propellor, and two 15 millimeters (actually 2 x
7,92 mms) on top of the engine. It was enough.
Major Gunther Rall