[schwarze-man]

As I indicated in my PS to my post #106, I made a mistake in including some engine production figures from other plants producing the DB 603. I have now reviewed the data. There are now allowances made for the change-over to production of the DB 605 D engine at two plants, first at Henschel where the DB 605 D is estimated to have started production properly in Aug '44 and at Genshagen where DB 605 D production may have started at the beginning of Nov '44. These changes reflect on the dates for the various estimated start of 8-digit engine serial numbering due to the correlation of the engine loss data and the BIOS report engine production figures. In addition, I have tried to improve the accuracy of the figures given.


Daimler-Benz Motoren GmbH (Genshagen Kreis Teltow)
Factory code hsq
Engine serial numbers:
00700001
First in data 00700207. Last in data 00711041. Production data 11,200.
Series started estimate 5/43, Finished 10/44.

Henschel-Flugmotorenbau GmbH (Kassel)
Factory code hsr
Engine serial numbers:
01100001
First in data 01100209. Last in data 01105056. Production data 5,250.
Series started estimate 6/43, Finished 7/44.

Niedersächsische Motorenwerke GmbH (NMW) "NiMo" (Braunschweig-Querum)
Factory code hss
Engine serial numbers:
00200001
First in data 00200084. Last in data 00205995. Production data 6,500+.
Series started estimate 5/43. Finished 3/45 (but figures relate to 12/44).

Steyr-Daimler-Puch A.G. (Werk Steyr)
Factory code bnz
Engine serial numbers:
01900001
First in data 01900030. Last in data 01901868. Prod data 1,900.
Series started estimate 2/43, Finished 12/44.

Donau-Flugzeugbau (Csepel-Budapest) (Weiss)
Factory code kwn
Engine serial numbers:
00400001
First in data 00400055. Last in data 00400780. Prod data 1,200.
Series started 4/43, Finished 9/44.


Pleasingly, this analysis of the 8-digit serial numbered DB 605 engines in the loss record data and the BIOS production report is very satisfactory. To illustrate how it fits, the BIOS report shows approx 34,700 DB605 engines built in '43 + '44. The engines built in early 1943, before the 8-figure serials, were approx 4,300, that leaves approx 30,400. Then, there are the engines from Henschel and Genshagen that were produced as DB 605 D, total 3,700 leaving approx 26,700 as the gross production figure of DB 605 A/B/AS (and MW50 after 5/44) engines in the 8-digit serial blocks till 12/44. If we take just the highest recorded 8-digit serial numbers from loss reports, that is 24,740. That shows a figure of over 92% which is very good. If the estimated production figures are used, the correlation is over 97.5%.
The value of this analysis is, I think, that anyone with a copy of the BIOS report monthly production figures can take almost any 8-digit DB 605 serial number and identify both the manufacture plant and the date of manufacture, accurate to possibly one week. If anyone has an 8-digit DB 605 serial number, they can try me here and I will refer to the BIOS data and give a reply.

Cheers

SM