[Richard T. Eger]

Dear Roland,

St. Georgen an der Gusen, also known as Bergkristall, produced combined assemblies of the rear and middle fuselage of the Me 262. However, it had nothing to do with tail, nose, or wing production. Considering the completion state of the fuselages and wings found at Berglern and the airfield at Erding, I believe the most likely source of these was one of the forest final assembly facilities.

There are, in my mind, 2 types of rail cars that may have been used to transport these: stake cars or open cars. Your suggestion that these major components were unceremoniously dumped at Berglern to make room for a higher priority item, such as coal, bears some merit. The rail line at Berglern was privately owned by the local power company and coal was in extremely short supply at that time in Germany due to the destruction of the Reichsbahn and, in specific, its marshalling facilities. Thus, open cars could have had their contents dumped in favor of coal, although stake cars obviously couldn't be.

If one follows your logic a bit further, then, the cars may have been prized for their holding power, not their current contents, thus explaining why the cars were diverted from the Reichsbahn to the power company's rail lines. It is, however, a real stretch. Further, this doesn't explain the fuselages and wings already scattered along a taxiway at the airfield and exactly how they got there.

It's why I asked whether the Reichsbahn's yards in Erding had become unserviceable.

Regards,
Richard