Can you believe?

 In the late 1940's the new nation of Israel was created and immediately began an un-ending fight for life.

In one of the supreme ironies of war they were able to obtain almost four dozen Czech built Messerschmitt fighters to go up against the Egyptian Spitfires. Due to the unavailability of  the original Daimler engine (a Junkers Jumo lashed on), the 109's as supplied were not satisfactory.  P-51's were a much better, more easily serviced bird so the Israeli Messerschmitt experiment ended quickly.

Just one more on the 109, Spain continued the 109 in service into the late 50's...using a different power plant as well. Their choice was a locally built version of the Spitfire engine from Rolls! There are several movies where these English/Spanish hybrids are painted up as Luftwaffe equipment.