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

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Hi there Matthias and Roland,

No hurry, Roland; after having settled together so many issues this week-end about known or unknown Waldwerke, I will certainly be able to catch some sleep tonight...

Thanks also to you and Matthias for summing up the questions remaining around the RLM 76 snake against bare metal issue. Your location proposal for the fuselages pile makes me feel confident this will also be solved in the near future.

Matthias, thanks for your Bodenwöhr pictures; I especially appreciate the Holzrückerweg shot, as one reflexively wonders why no airframes show on them like on the pic posted by Carl...before remembering 60+ years have now elapsed. And thanks also for your praise; but pleasse, remember you are the one to be praised for this thread: you started it all with your question over at LEMB.

By Googling, I did find quite a few websites delving with other Mtt production places like:

Eschenlohe: http://www.herbert-thiess.de/Ente/
Oberammergau: http://www.herbert-thiess.de/Laber/

Eschenlohe production unit's plan is quite fascinating, being nested in two road tunnels: http://www.herbert-thiess.de/Ente/Tunnelplan-X1200.png

Measuring the wealth of documents remaining to be published, I wish you guys unite your knowledge for accomplishing this publication which will be definitely fascinating. I will be always at the ready for any further help at analyzing surroundings shown on your pictures

Cheers
Marc

[RolandF]

Okay, guys, here we go:

- Workshops showing fuselages in different states of main assembly - watch the machine-guns and instrument board ready to be fitted and Erla-Hauben already attached
- fuselages outside the workshop, the western hall of two Mtt assembly halls, to the left the road down to the railway station, to the right the way to the quarry. The building has disappeared, the plateau still existent with an apartment building erected on the southern part.
(source JaPO: Bf109K-camouflage and markings)
- fuselages stored at Flossenbürg railway st., in the background Flossenbürg castle with the KZ right at the foot of the hill
the hall to the left is part of the station, the hall to the right is the Mtt "Zerlegebetrieb". Area is now occupied by a factory processing light alloys.
(source EE: WOTBC 1)
last pic: workshop interior
(source web)

Regards

Roland

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Hallo Roland,

Thanks so much for sharing those pictures; I didn't know the last two ones and am very glad to have them now. They show excellently the Flossenbürg camouflage pattern.

On my side, I bring also in this thread this already often published picture documenting unpainted Bf 109K-4's fuselages found at the Plauen railway station by advancing US troops in April 1945. Source: US Air Force picture, put online on www.footnote.com:

http://www.footnote.com/image/37222738/Plauen/

From which producer were there shipped? No camouflage pattern on those ones to help us along... Any ideas on your side, Matthias, Carl and Roland?

For the sake of having a complete Wertheim file, here comes the alst known to me picture taken on 2 April 1945 (Source: Flickr)

Thanks for your continued and most appreciated contributions! I do feel thought that Peter Schmoll's book will be under the Christmas tree at my home ;-))

Cheers
Marc

PS: Carl, any other pictures of those Flossenbürg camo pattern K-4 fuselages neatly stacked along a Holzrückerweg? Those shots are very interesting.

[RolandF]

Salut Marc,

Plauen seems a bit far off concerning the Mtt Regensburg facilities. Maybe this is already part of the Erla web?

Regards

Roland

[masmar]

Servus Roland,
Thank you for the Flossenbürg pictures. I never have seen one of those before.Really geat!
Your hypothesis from #30 sounds pretty plausible to me. In large parts that's my basic thought as well.
Do you have any idea how the fuselages from Bodenwöhr could have been brought to Vilseck? Was there any direct connection?

Hi Marc,
Just Yesterday I stumbled over the Plauen picture again and thought that this might be a further issue for our round
My first idea was that they're ones of the limited K-4 production in Erla Leipzig. That would fit geographically. What do you think?

regards
Matthias

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Servus Roland and Matthias,

OK, I didn't think of Erla until now. Plauen isn't that close to Leipzig, or is it? No other thoughts right now, I will ponder on that one tonight....

And one last thought for tonight: were all Bodenwöhr - Cham airframes dispatched to assembly areas with this unique feature of having a snake-like RLM 76 pattern on the unpainted bottom of their fuselages? Is there any known variation for this producer? Beyond the W.Nr. blocks in the 334 0xx range mentionned by you, Carl, any other known W.Nr blocks?

Cheers
Marc

[D.B. Andrus]

The Plauen photo shown is the one I posted to LEMB regarding re-confirmation of Erla K-4 production. The black arrows indicate areas of note.


http://www.luftwaffe-experten.org/fo...showtopic=8540

Best Regards,

D.B.

[Charles Bavarois]

Gentlemen,

for this discussion the following infos might be of interest:

Final-acceptance for K-4s was done in Vilseck only for Blocks 330.xxx, 331.xxx and 332.xxx. For certain reasons some a/c of the last block were accepted at Regensburg-Prüfening, which was not a regular location for this.

Blocks 334.xxx and 335.xxx were shared between Vilseck and Cham.

The fuselages at Pauen railroad-station are for Erla-Leipzig. I do not have access to my documents, but I think I remember Plauen as location of fuselage-pre-assembly.


And now for Wertheim:

According to AI-report A-331 US-Forces found not 25 but 34 Bf 109s (and a Me 262) at Wertheim. Looking at the Werknummern of these 16 were newly built K-4s, the rest were older G-6 and G-14s. So what?

Wertheim was not part of the well documented production facilities of one of the three main producers. Wertheim was part of the Bf 109 repair-industries under supervision of Fertigungskreis F2 (which was headed by Messerschmitt AG). Repair was done there by Flumann GmbH („Flugzeugwerke Mannheim“) at least from summer 1944 onwards. Flugkapitän Anton Riedinger did some acceptance-flights there. Flumann had a BAL at Wertheim airfield, which is very near to the Schlossbergtunnel. Output perhaps was around 35 to 50 a/c a month. There was a „Zivillager“ for workers at Wertheim. The German „Zivillager“ points towards a camp for foreign-labour-workers, not for POW or KZ-prisoners.

Why then new K-4s at Wertheim? Due to weather conditions, short daylight periods and soaked airfileds during Dezember 1944 to February 1945 there were piles of finished Bf 109s standing around waiting for acceptance. Marauding allied fighters did not make things easier. To get rid of this problem, „repair-industries“ temporarily was charged with doing some acceptance-flights for Messerschmitt. We have to assume, that small numbers of finished airframes were carried to Wertheim (and elsewhere?) by rail, completed and flown in. So Wertheim for a very shot time did some work for Messerschmitt, but actually never was part of the Messerschmitt infrastructure.


HTH


Carl

[RolandF]

Thanks Carl, for this striking explanation of the Wertheim Bf109 production - or let´s better say "final assembly"
This explains why Flossenbürg-camoed K-4s appear here, the "snake"-sprayed 109s coming obviously from Bodenwöhr. The winter season can be very hard in our part of Germany and I remember a picture of W.Nr.332 707 standing in heaps of snow.
But something else must have happened in the Vilseck - Amberg-Schafhof area in this months. A/B 43 and A/B 121 ceased to train pilots in January 1945 and from mid-February on IV./SG 151, 7./SG 151 and 10./SG 151 took their base at Schafhof, thus changing to an operational airfield. Not a good place for acceptance flights.
But the K-4s standing on the "Holzrückeweg" look as if the engines had been removed in Wertheim or on the way there. Bad weather conditions on transport? As the production pictures show, the Bf109K-4 fuselages left Flossenbürg with completed engine units. Are there any explanations?

Matthias, there´s a direct railway leading from Bodenwöhr to Vilseck via Schwandorf junction (heavily bombed on April 17, 1945) , Amberg(passing Schafhof airfield) and Neukirchen.

Regards

Roland

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Hi D. B.,

Both thanks for bringing back to my memory the origin of the uploaded pic, much lighter the the Footnote one, and sorry if this caused any annoyance to you. I'm also thankful for having the Erla K-4's peculiarities brought back to my memory. I just wonder how many other pics showing elements or half finished Erla K-4's do exist in the US Army files. Would love to have some research time in front of me, but alas... gallo-roman archaeology and Museum life are a relentless issue...

Carl,

I can only concur with Roland about your masterful answer! Thanks fro sharing your knowledge wich gives us the global dimension and organization of the Wertheim assembly area, especially as discovered by the US troops on 2 April 1945. I do also appreciate very much the insight you give us about the breaking down of W.Nr blocks by production places, and the known fly-in activities.

Roland,

Thanks for settling Matthias's question; all is then very logical, and it will certainly help for pinpointing the photographed location of the Bodenwöhr snake-pattern K-4 fuselages heaps (posts #9 and #11).
As for the engineless Wertheim airframes confronted to the Flossenbürg pictures showing only airframes complete with DB 605 engines and cowlings, this is not a unique occurrence. Think of those two pictures (Noro 2009, 103 #138, and the one posted by Carl, post #27) showing a line of six+ engineless fuselages with Flossenbürg - camouflage pattern neatly stacked in-line along a "location unknown Holzrückerweg". The sunny atmosphere does contrast with the Wertheim serie of pictures, this Holzrückerweg being much closer to open space then the Wertheim one. So you have at least a second location with the same issue: engineless K-4's fuselages completely camouflaged... What might be the cause of this discrepancy? I would suggest a breakdown of the DB 605 D supply chain to some of the Flossebürg affiliated Waldwerke, leaving no option but to send the airframes to locations where waiting engines could be mated (like in Wertheim?). Let's hope that further photographic evidence remains to be discovered either at the NARA or at the PRO, giving us more factual information illustrating those fascinating issues.

Cheers
Marc