Marshalling yard at Erding

[Richard T. Eger]

Dear All,

Another arcane, but pretty interesting mystery subject.

Me 262 fuselages, complete from nose to tail save for rudders and horizontal tail components, and wrapped in protective tarps, were found at the end of the war at the airfield at Erding and along the Industriebahn at nearby Berglern. I have found out that these fuselages, and also wing sets at both places, were sent to the airfield at Erding for final assembly.

The Luftwaffe had its own rail line running into it from Erding, which then begs the question as to why fuselages and wings in the identical condition found at the airfield at Erding were also found along the Industriebahn at Berglern.

One possibility for this odd circumstance is that, presuming Erding had a marshalling yard, this had been so badly damaged by Allied bombing that it could no longer service the airfield's needs. It's a conjecture on my part, so I'm looking for some sort of supporting evidence or explanation of this odd state of affairs.

Again, my thanks for any thoughts offered.

Regards,
Richard

[drgondog]

I know that the First Task Force/1BD, escorted by 355 and 357FG's bombed, Erding, then Landberg and Oberpaphenhofen to go after Me 262 and DO 335 (they thought) assembly facilities... April 24, 1944.

[Richard T. Eger]

Dear drgondog,

If the attack on Erding took place on Apr. 24, 1944, there certainly would have been ample time to make repairs. My thinking, if there was an attack that disabled the marshalling yard at Erding and resulted in displacement of the Me 262 fuselages and wings to Berglern, it would have had to have been much closer to the end of the war.

Regards,
Richard

[RolandF]

Are you sure, Richard, Messerschmitt put up a Me 262 assembly line at Erding a/f for, how it seems, semi-finished jet planes? For the Bf109K-4 we know this was done also on different airfields including some strange sites such as Wertheim.
On the other hand - as you can see, Erding is situated halfway at the railway connection between the fuselage-producing sites Gusen close to KZ Mauthausen via Mühldorf-Mettenheim (also some Me 262 fuselages lying around) and the traditional assembly sites Waldwerk Kuno west from Munich?
My impression is those parts have been thrown from stake cars to gain transport space for other purposes. Not unimportant during the last days of WW2 imo.
Just one thought...

Regards

Roland

[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

[RolandF]

Dear Richard,
I´ve just had a look into my ref source Peter Schmoll: "Die Messerschmittwerke im Zweiten Weltkrieg" and his production diagram for the Me 262 for March 1945. It depicts Gusen only for fuselage-parts, indeed.
The fuselage assembly took place at Passau-Obernzell according to this source. From here an arrow points direction Munich-Augsburg ("Rümpfe an die Waldwerke "Kuno I und II"). Two other arrows direct to Waldwerk "Stauffen" and to Budweis.
Again I´d like to draw your attention to the photograph on p.2 of WotBC 7, depicting Mühldorf-Mettenheim airfield. Numerous Me 262 fuselages are stored here, carefully lined up. Mettenheim is somewhat 75 km east of Munich just in between Passau and Erding. Neither Erding nor Mettenheim have direct connections to the Messerschmitt distribution system; Erding is mentioned as "Luftwaffenschleuse und Einflug", Berglern was a dead-end station. South from Erding a railway line is running east-west via Waldkraiburg, Mühldorf, Braunau, Ried, Schärding to Passau. West it runs from Marktschwaben via Munich, Augsburg, Gessertshausen to Scheppach.
I think this was the lifeline for the "Kuno" Me 262 production. For whatever reason a train with those fuselages was diverted to the Berglern railway branch and the stake cars were emptied here.
Maybe because of the same reason the Me 262 fuselages were stored at Mettenheim a/f.

Regards

Roland

Regards

Roland

[Richard T. Eger]

Dear RolandF,

I sent you a PM regarding WOTBC Number Seven, which you can ignore, as I was able to see the image of page 2 that you mentioned via a Google search.

The photo on that page shows bare metal Me 262 fuselages side by side as you described, but these are only the combined rear and mid fuselages typical of what would have been manufactured at, say, St. Georgen an der Gusen, code name Bergkristall. The fuselages seen at Berglern and the airfield at Erding were different, as these were complete assemblies from nose to tail, only lacking rudders and horizontal tail surfaces and, further, were wrapped in tarps, which the rear/mid fuselages seen on WOTBC Number Seven, page 2, were not.

I do thank you for the WOTBC alert and also thank you for the other information, which I will now investigate. As for WOTBC Number Seven, I just ordered it from Eagle Editions. I can see from their description why I never ordered it, as there was nary a mention of the Me 262. I'll jot them a note about this oversight and, hopefully, their descriptions will be more complete in the future.

Regards,
Richard

[RolandF]

Thank you Richard, for the headsup - I was just preparing to scan p.2 in my office.
Concerning the Erding/Berglern fuselages - is it possible those depict the semi-assembled status achieved at the Passau-Oberzell assembly factory? Oberzell lies in between Gusen and Erding very close to the main railway connection.
I just want to draw your attention to another small detail of the WOTBC 7 photograph, which has nothing to do with the Me 262, but might be an indicator for the situation in 1945 and especially for Messerschmitt.
Several damaged Bf 109 fuselages and wingpairs can be seen, also neatly lined up for further use. (The fuselages come from a heavy air raid on EJG 1 not long before) Designations "Flossenbürg" and "Pocking" have been chalked on ist, whereas KZ Flossenbürg (BF 109K-4 production) had a Zerlegebetrieb and Pocking airfield seems to have some sort of repair facility which seems not to be known very well.
I don´t want to exclude some stop-gap facilities which have been established in the last war days, all of them connected to Messerschmitt´s production spider-web across South-East Germany and always in connection with railway tracks (think of Wertheim).
Similar to Pocking - why shouldn´t Erding have been one of this production - or better assembly - sites?
One feature though - every such site had connection to forced labour camps. I don´t know whether Erding had such camps.
Coincidence wants it that I´m attending a conference in Erding this weekend. Having some good friends in the city administration who I´m going to meet then I might be able to ask some questions.

Regards

Roland