Bodenwöhr Waldwerk - Mtt Bf 109 K-4 assembly lines 1944 - 1945

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Roland,

here goes the scans of the pics published by Hideki Noro:

Image1: Noro 2009, pic. 135
Image2: Noro 2009, pic. 136
Image3: Noro 2009, pic. 137
Image4: Noro 2009, pic. 139
Image5: Noro 2009, pic. 138

Cheers
Marc

[Karl]

Dear all,

a very interesting thread! The railway tunnel in the bw photo scanned by Marc very strongly resembles the “Schloßberg-Tunnel, Nordportal, vom Bahnhof Kreuzwertheim,” as found on the website for which RolandF picked out the link!

Karl

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Hi there Karl,

I concur: Schlossberg-Tunnel, Nordportal.

Roland, you did it! Hooray!

Cheers
Marc

[Karl]

here another photo of the tunnel nowadys with a bit more of the enviroment:

http://home.arcor.de/bluejacket13/bi...eite_dez90.jpg

Today the tunnel is a parking garage:

http://www.bkffm.siemavisuart.de/bunker/wertheim.html


Karl

[Charles Bavarois]

Gentlemen,

great disscusion indeed with a lot of new information on late war production.

As for the “Wertheim” debate: US-Forces found quite a few Bf 109 K-4s at Wertheim :early in April 1945 and reported them as Werknummern 334.060, 334.063, 334.067, 334.070, 334.071, 334.082, 334.084, 334.087, 334.099, 334.101, 334.102, 334.108, 334.112 and 334.114. (AI-report A331). Also Flugkaptän Anton Riediger had an acceptance-flight with 3334.066 at Wertheim Airfield on 23.03.1945.

These Werknumern fit neatly into a limited Werknummern-range, so this is not mere coincidence. Aircraft within the Werknummerblock 334.0xx and 334.1xx belong to the Cham-Airfiled final-assembly complex. With accepance-dates around late March 1945 so the a/c at Wertheim were new ones. When comparing the camouflage we have to look on a/c from Cham, not Wertheim.

At the moment I am working on an essay on late war production of Bf 109s which perhaps with some luck may be published in the future . AFAIK Wertheim never was integrated into Messerschmitt-Regensburgs infrastructure, original Messerschmitt documents are quite clear on this. On the other hand – there is a simple reason why this a/c were found at Wertheim and not at Cham. Please let me have some more time to fix this.

HTH

Carl

[ouidjat]

Hello,

Frankly, it's the first time I get the feeling something happens in these forums. And it's clear to read. Thanks gentlemen.
Franck.

[RolandF]

Slowly, gentlemen, slowly

Schlossbergtunnel may be the solution. But this building is just the beginning of an abandoned railway line leading from Wertheim to Lohr am Main.
Two further tunnels are joining north of Schloßberg, close to Wertheim but within the confineries of Kreuzwertheim; Kaffelsteintunnel and Bettingbergtunnel. Because of the same engineering the tunnels are quite similar:

http://home.arcor.de/bluejacket13/xs...hrerbahn2.html

This may not seem important but Wertheim is a "border"town, Kreuzwertheim being already on the Bavarian side of the river Main. So any sites north of the Main would be listed after the war under "Bavaria" for this tunnels, but the rest (like Schlossbergtunnel) under "Baden-Württemberg" or "Württemberg-Baden".
As we have seen, distance is no problem for airplane transport and there´s still the railway leading from any tunnel to Wertheim.
Fliegerhorst Wertheim is situated on a plateau above the city itself.

Why all this? Before we are thinking about how Bodenwöhr-Mappach or Cham-Michelsdorf worked we have to find out how Wertheim was linked to the Mtt system.
Otoh the equipment of Wertheim site might have been so poor that it hadn´t been listed in the reparation files.

Regards

Roland

Edit: The designation Kreuzwertheim may be interesting, too. As we have known, Nazi administration named the next-larger city and allied troops did not make any difference or did not notice it.

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Dear Carl,

Thanks so much for your W.Nr. input. Glad also to know you're working on an essay on this highly fascinating topic. Looking forward to read you, the sooner the better!

Dear Ouidjat,

on s'améliore avec le temps;-))). Getting better with time...

Servus Roland!

I closely checked the masonry work of the tunnel portal photographed in 1945 (Noro 2009, p. 102, pic #137). The layout of the stones of the three upper masonry courses above and right of the tunnel entrance are one and the same with the current photograph depicting the northern entrance of the tunnel of Kreuzwertheim.

From a stonework analysis point of view, a very common technique in my - archaeological - field, this settles the case: the three sets of Bf 109 wings depicted on pic #137 were discarded in front of the Northern entrance of the Kreuzwertheim Tunnel. A check of the masonnry of all the other tunnel entrances shown on this internet site do differ, sometimes radically.

Many many thanks for pinpointing this unknown assembly/repair site. Any possibility to have the GoogleEarth coordinates? As you rightly point out, the toughest remains to be settled: since when was there a link between Wertheim and Mtt Regensburg and how did it work?

Cheers
Marc

[RolandF]

Salut Marc,

it´s good to have the archaeologist´s eagle´s eye at hand!
So it is this tunnel:

http://home.arcor.de/bluejacket13/bi...ite1_dez90.jpg

But this is according to the railway web site the northern mouth of Schlossberg tunnel - here the Google coordinates:
49.759846,9.523902
49.755895,9.519868
Here we are standing on Baden-Württemberg territory. The tunnel is 617 m long and ends at the other side of the Schlossberg looking over the river Tauber crossed by an railway bridge out of use which is still standing:

http://www.geodaten.bayern.de/Bayern...ayer=TK&step=2

Click the button "Historische Karte" on this webpage and you´ll see the course of this railway. Crossing the Main the tracks reach a 2nd tunnel, the Kaffelstein tunnel (229 m long):
49.763568,9.526466
49.764281,9.529384

http://www.geodaten.bayern.de/Bayern...er=Hist&step=1

Click "Karte" to switch to a current map.

Not to mention the third tunnel some hundreds of meters to the east (Bettingberg tunnel). Though the tunnel is rather narrow ( no attachment of wings possible), this reminds me a lot of WNF´s Diana workshops near Tisinov, production site of the Bf109G-10/U4 (see Japo´s publication)

Is there any progress with the W.Nr.?

Regards

Roland

[masmar]

Hi guys,
thank you so much for that great stuff, good nose on finding that tunnel Roland. I love that pictures out of Hideki Noro's book, especially #138. Do that straight arranged fuselages have the same painting in any characteristic than the "Wertheim" ones. Never saw them before. And thank you Carl for that Werknummern.
Since they're fitting into the Cham Block I woundered if it isn't possible, that the K-4 where delivered to Wertheim airfield by Mtt. Cham to be brought into service.
By the appoaching of the U.S troops the airfield administration decided to evacuate the left equipment by train. The fighters where demounted and brought to places where they should get picked up.
That's just hypothetical and sorry if thats sounds stupid, but I just can't see, why they schould have build up a further assembly workshop so far away of the remaining supply chain. Does this make sence in any way?
By the way, I've been to Bodenwöhr today. For those who are interested, the pictures will be delivered tomorrow.
Keep it running folks!

Best regards
Matthias