This Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4 was manufactured in Germany by Erla Maschinenwerk in 1942 for the Luftwaffe. In August of that year, the aircraft was damaged during aerial combat and crash-landed near the Arctic port of Murmansk in the Soviet Union. The pilot survived.
Little is known about the aircraft after this point. It was eventually crudely restored for display in a Soviet museum. In the mid-1990s, it was acquired by Aero Vintage Ltd., a British restoration organization, and refinished in its original colours. The original bullet holes were not repaired, and remain visible.
The Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4, which belonged to Mr. Jeet Mahal, was acquired through exchange with Aero Vintage Ltd., England, for one of the Museum's two Messerschmitt Me 163B Komet rocket fighters. A Canadian Forces aircraft delivered the Bf 109 to the Museum in the early part of June 1999, where it was reassembled and put on display.
