[schwarze-man]

With the introduction into production of the DB 605 A/B engines in the spring of 1942, the 5 digit serial number system continued in use, effectively picking-up the numbering, although it is unclear quite how tightly the number sequence was maintained in the changeover of engine type. As described in my post #107, the 5-digit numbering continued for about one year, until the new 8-digit serial numbering was introduced in early 1943. In this first year of DB 605 production, approximately 11,000 DB 605 A/B engines were produced. The range of serial number blocks is around about 20,000 numbers available where there is evidence of numbers being used in any block of 1,000. Additionally, the main blocks with no engines listed total about another 33,000 unused numbers and are; 42xxx-49xxx, 52xxx-59xxx, 82xxx-89xxx and 91xxx-99xxx. Some of these gaps can be presumed to align with planned production and plants that failed to reach expectations or simple pre-planned number allocations for other possible production, as it is known that several other engine plants had their planned production types changed. The overall situation with these 5-digit engine numbers in this period is, that about 11,000 DB 605 A/B engines were built and numbered in about 20 known to be used number blocks and another 33 number blocks were not used at all.
For completeness here, I will mention that the early DB 601 numbers 12xxx, 13xxx and 15xxx-19xxx also have very few or no representation (in the data that I have).
The DB 605 high numbers blocks 50xxx and 100xxx are represented in reasonable numbers with losses in 1943, but I am unable to identify the production plant(s).


DB 605 A/B. Known production blocks with 5 Digit numbers. All, 1942 to early 1943 Production DB 605.

NIMO, Brunswick.
25xxx, 26xxx, 27xxx, 28xxx.

Henschel, Kassel.
35xxx, 36xxx, 37xxx.

Weiss, Budapest.
40xxx, 41xxx.

Not Known.
50xxx.

Genshagen.
73xxx, 76xxx, 77xxx, 78xxx, 79xxx, 80xxx, 81xxx.

Steyr-Daimler-Puch.
90xxx.

Not Known.
100xxx. This is an unusual 6 digit block but has representation.

Overall, these various posts cover the available data that I have. The pattern and details of the serial number allocations are clear to any researcher. There are some unknowns and a very few strange numbers in the data but, the information given is as accurate as I can make it.
I apologise for the information being presented in different sessions. However, the whole picture can be found by carefully reading the different entries. I hope that this information will help anyone wishing to study this subject in future.

Cheers for now,

Chris Starr (SM)