Hungarian Bf 109s

The first Hungarian produced Me109 – still Ga-4 – was
finished on November 21, 1942. Its first flight was on December 30, 1942.

In October 1942, Germany gave Hungary 50 Bf109F-4s, which
were used to re-equip Re.2000 units. 40 Ju87D-1s, 30 Ju87D-5s, 6 Bf110G-4s, and
160 Me210s (which the Germans were happy to get rid of) were added to the
Hungarian Air Group to be used on the Russian Front.

By May 1943, 50 Bf109G-2s re-equipped 2 squadrons armed with
F-4s. By May 1944, 4 squadrons on the Russian Front and 6 for home defense
(against British and American bombers based in Italy) were armed with G-6s. By
December 1944, The Russians were at the door step of Budapest; all 9 remaining
squadrons were armed with G-6s. a few surviving squadrons retreated with the
Germans and continued to fly G-6s until May, 1945.

Hungarian produced Bf
109s.

If I understand correctly many of the components were
manufactured in Germany and major parts like the fuselage where built in
Hungary. Of course late war (dispersed) manufacturing techniques might give
reason to believe that perhaps aircraft produced in the latter part of the war
of Hungarian origin had a higher quality finish, giving them some advantage. On
the other hand German aircraft were designed with mass production in mind, and
the component concept was highly developed – the penalty could not have been
excessive.

Different
circumstances

According to an Franz A. Vajda article Mr. Fritz Wendel
visited the MWG (and Dunai Repülõgépgyár Rt.) factories in January 1944 and
after some test flights he wrote in his report that the Hungarian produced
Messerschmitts (both the Bf 109G and Me-210Ca) had better quality than the
German produced ones.

There are two possible reason for this:

First, main components for Hungarian produced Bf 109Gs were
made in Hungary except canopy frame and armament (and partially the radio
equipment and instruments) delivered from Germany. Although the German industry
was very well organized, the Hungarians had some advantage, because the Allied
bombing raids started “only” on April 3, 1944 against Hungarian
Industry. Between 12-1942 and 03-04-1944 approx. 140 Bf 109G-4/G-6s were
produced in MWG Gyõr and until 31-03-1944 some 820 DB605A/B engines were
produced in Weiss Manfred factories at Budapest / Csepel in peace conditions.
After this date Hungarian factories were damaged by MASAF which caused problems
in production / assembly and I’m sure in quality too.

Second, in Hungarian aircraft factories most of the
employees had some years of experience in aircraft industry and there were no
POW’s, only Hungarian workers by profession. (For contrast just think about
German V-2 production in Nordhausen / Mittelwerk underground tunnels with slave
workers.)

However I think there were no any major differences in
quality and performances between the German and Hungarian / Romanian produced
Messerschmitts.

Hungarian Bf 109G-14s
and G-10s

Most of the Hungarian G-14 and G-10 appear to have been
G-14/U4 and G-10/U4, at least their WkNr appear on WNF/Gyor production lists as
such.

The Me-109G was the most numerous of the Messerschmitts,
with production reaching 725 a month by July 1943, and that year’s total
reaching 6,418 aircraft. In spite of Allied bombing raids against German
industry, Me-109 production for 1944 reached 14,212. In addition to the
Messerschmitts produced in Germany, Hungary built about 700 Me-109Gs under
license at Budapest and Györ until September 1944. Romania also began licensed
production in the IAR plant at Brasov, but completed only 16 Me-109G-6s and assembled
30 others from German-delivered components before its facilities were destroyed
by bombers of the U.S. Fifteenth Air Force on May 6, 1944.

#

In March, 1939, Hungary
joined in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia,
supplying air support to its ground units. The air contingent carried out
bombing, recon, and patrol missions, but met no aerial opponents.

By December, 1939, Hungary had grown the Royal Hungarian Air Force into
the following:

By April, 1941, the RHAF had upgraded to:

In June, 1941, Hungary
sent a field army to Operation Barbarossa. Hungary’s Air Force was composed as
follows:

Predictably enough, Operation Barbarossa took a big bite out of these
aircraft. They were replace by German aircraft, and Germany began to set up aircraft
factories in Hungary
to produce components and assemble aircraft.

In October, 1942, Germany gave Hungary 50 Bf109F-4s, which were used to
re-equip Re.2000 units. 40 Ju87D-1s, 30 Ju87D-5s, 6 Bf110G-4s, and 160 Me210s
(which the Germans were happy to get rid of) were added to the Hungarian Air
Group to be used on the Russian Front.

By May, 1943, 50 Bf109G-2s re-equipped 2 squadrons armed with F-4s. By
May, 1944, 4 squadrons on the Russian Front and 6 for home defense (against
British and American bombers based in Italy) were armed with G-6s. By
December, 1944, The Russians were at the door step of Budapest; all 9 remaining squadrons were
armed with G-6s. a few surviving squadrons retreated with the Germans and
continued to fly G-6s until May, 1945.

Aircraft used by the
Hungarian Air Force

Arado Ar 79

Arado Ar 96

Avia B.534

Banhidi Gerle

Breda Ba 25

Breguet Bre XIX

Bristol Type 142M
Blenheim

Bucker Bu 131
Jungmann

Bucker Bu 181
Bestmann

Caproni Ca. 101

Caproni-Begamaschi
Ca. 135

Caproni-Begamaschi
Ca. 310 Libeccio

Caudron C. 600 Aiglon

Caudron C. 630 Simoun

de Havilland D.H.60
Moth

DFS 230

DFS Kranich

Dornier Do 17

Dornier Do 23

Dornier Do 215

EMESE EM-29

Fabian Honved

Fabian Levente

Fiat CR.32

Fiat CR.42 Falco

Fiat G.12

Fieseler Fi 156
Storch

Focke Wulf Fw 56
Stosser

Focke Wulf Fw 58
Weihe

Focke Wulf Fw 189

Focke Wulf Fw 190

Fokker C.V

Fokker D.VII

Gotha Go 145

Gotha Go 242

Heinkel HD-22

Heinkel He 45

Heinkel He 46

Heinkel He 111

Heinkel He 112

Heinkel He 170

Hirtenberger HS-9

IAR 37

Ilyushin Il-2

Junkers Ju 52

Junkers Ju 86

Junkers Ju 87

Junkers Ju 88

Klemm L 25

Klemm Kl 35

Loczy Hungaria

Manfred Weiss WM
10/13

Manfred Weiss WM 16B
Budapest

Manfred Weiss WM 21
Solyom

Meridonali Ro 37

Meridonali Ro 41

Messerschmitt Bf 108
Taifun

Messerschmidt Bf 109

Messerschmidt Bf 110

Messerschmidt Me 210
C1

Messerschmidt Me 210
Ca1

Nardi FN.305

Nardi FN.315

North American NA-57

Polikarpov PO-2

Potez 25

Potez 63.11

Praga E-39

P.Z.L. P.11

Reggiane Re.2000
Ariete

RWD 8

Savoia-Marchetti
S.M.75 Marsupiale

Savoia-Marchetti
S.M.79 Sparviero

Siebel Si 204

Varga Kaplar

Yakovlev UT-2

Yakovlev Yak-4

Zlin XII

Zlin 212