Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6/AS

Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6/AS   ‘Black 14’   Wrk Nr 412179   2./JG 3 Udet,
Unteroffizier Horst Petzschler, Burg bei Magdeburg, May 1944.

This pressurised version of the Bf 109G-6 was developed to combat the increasingly high altitude operations of the allies in the later part of the war With the Daimler-Benz DB 605 AS engine, giving nearly two hundred additional horsepower over the earlier DB 601, Black 14, like many later Gs, had a larger vertical tail and an improved cockpit canopy with less framework for better visibility, the Erla-Haube. The all light blue finish for high-altitude operations was similar to that used by the Spitfire Mk VII.
Horst Petzschler joined the Luftwaffe in April 1941, and after completing his fighter training on the Fw 190 at Toulouse was posted to the Eastern front, assigned to the Geschwaderstab of JG 51 at Smolensk. His primary role was ground attack, particularly tank-busting, but he had claimed three kills before being posted to 2./JG 3 in April 1944. In May he claimed two B-17s and two Mustangs but was himself shot down twice, the first time by P-38s when he force-landed; the second time he successfully baled out. He returned to Stab./JG 51 in June at Minsk, and then spent five months as an instructor at the Fighter Pilot School at Liegnitz before joining JG 51 for the third time in February 1945. He took his score to 26 by the end of hostilities; on 4 May the unit was ordered to Schleswig-Holstein, but a combination of navigation error and a damaged fuel tank meant that Petzschler had to make a dead-stick landing in neutral Sweden, where he was interned. In January 1946 he was handed over to the Russians, and was eventually released from prison in September 1949. He worked as a mechanic for BEA in Germany before emigrating with his family to Canada in 1953, and then moving to the USA where he worked for Boeing, Lear, Northrop and Beechcraft before retiring in 1988.

Scale 1:72    Wingspan 5.41″ (137.5 mm)
Base size 6.37″ (162 mm) square (No. 4)
Weight not including base 5.5 ozs (153 grams)     Limited edition of 25 only