Messerschmitt Bf 109 11 July 1938 when Erhard Milch finally allowed Willy Messerschmitt to acquire the company. All Messerschmitt aircraft that originated after that date, such as the Me 210, were to carry the "Me" designation. Despite regulations by the RLM, wartime documents from Messerschmitt AG, RLM and "Luftwaffe" loss and strength reports continued to use both designations, sometimes even on the same page. All extant airframes bear the official "Bf 109" designation on their identification plates, including the final K-4 models. The aircraft was often referred to by the folk-designation, 'Me 109', particularly by the Allies. The aircraft was often nicknamed "Messer"
Messerschmitt Bf 109 operational history was credited with over 10,000 victories, chiefly on the Eastern Front. Hans-Joachim Marseille, the highest scoring German ace in the North African Campaign, also claimed all of his 158 victories flying the Bf 109, against Western Allied pilots. The Bf 109 was also used with good results by non-German pilots, such as the Finnish fighter ace Ilmari Juutilainen with 94 victories, the highest-scoring non-German fighter ace in World War II, Romanian fighter ace Alexandru Şerbănescu with 47 victories, Croatian fighter ace Mato Dukovac with 44 victories and Hungarian fighter ace Szentgyörgyi Dezső with 29 (+1 German) confirmed and six unconfirmed