Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 of Jagdgeschwader 3

In May 1943, I.Gruppe / Jagdgeschwader 3 (JG 3) began receiving the first new Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 fighters to replace its existing equipment, Bf 109 G-2s and G-4s. Conversion to the new type took the entire summer of 1943. Like the earlier Bf 109 G-2 and G-4, the G-6 could be equipped with two 20-mm cannon beneath the wings through the use of Rüstsatz R6. Many fighter pilots did not like to fly machines fitted with the externally-mounted cannon because of the resulting loss of speed. This photograph depicts on such machine, or “Gunboat” as the pilots often called them, after delivery to I./JG 3 somewhere in the Reich. The only airfields used by the Gruppe in the summer of 1943 were München-Gladbach and Bönninghardt, from where it flew missions over the Reich and the Netherlands. The aircraft wears the standard gray camouflage scheme with gray mottling on the fuselage sides. The spinner is painted in four colors. Behind the red tip are black-green and black segments covering two-thirds of the spinner. The remaining segment is white with a fine black-green line. The Bf 109 in the background has a yellow spinner tip. Also note the spoked wheel rims, which were very rarely seen on aircraft of the G-6 series. The second aircraft also has these rims. The standard production G-6 was filled with disc-type rims. The long antenna masts suggests that this is one of the first G-6s built in the spring-summer of 1943 with the Werknummer blocks 15200, 16300, 18000 and 19000. Photo by Hauptmann Rolf Schödter

Source :
  "Luftwaffe im Focus", Spezial No.1 - 2003