Hobby Master 1/48 Air Power Series
HA8752BF 109G-6 "Yellow 6", Ofw. Alfred Surau, 9./JG 3, Germany, September 1943
General Background
The first German mass produced 109 fighter was the Bf-109E that has been mistakenly referred to as the Me-109. The Bf is the designator for the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW) (Bavarian Aircraft Works) that produced the original aircraft. In 1938 Messerschmitt took over BFW but throughout WWII German handbooks and documents referred to the aircraft as the Bf-109. By the end of 1939 the Bf-109E (Emil) had replaced all other 109 variants and equipped 13 Gruppens with 40 aircraft each. The Bf-109 was the main single-engine aircraft until the Fw-190 came along.
The Aircraft
Ofw. Alfred Surau scored his first victory on February 28, 1943 while flying Bf-109G-6 “Yellow 6” over the Eastern Front. In mid 1943 JG. 3 “Udet” units returned to Germany to defend against Allied bomber attacks. Surau’s first Western Front kill was a B-17 on September 3, 1943. In only 6 months Surau managed to increase his victory total to 41. He is one of the Luftwaffe’s most effective but shortest lived aces because on October 14, 1943 he was shot down and died while destroying a B-17, his 45th victory.
