He-219 ”Uhu”s found at the end of the war

[INM@RLM]

Re my post #37 and the words "So the reality of what happened at EHFW with the A-2 bore almost no resemblance to what had been planned. Rather people were now making it up as they went along, grabbing whatever was available in terms of resources and sub-assemblies already built (or mostly built) and using those to the best effect still possible."

Having slept on it, these two sentences needs a little rebalancing and tighter phrasing. So, first, it is more accurate then to say "almost no resemblance to what had been planned by the RLM's GL/C Amt."

This was a time of steep transition, and it was now that the Jägerstab that was in the driving seat, their reach steadily expanding through the summer of 1944, culminating in the formation of the Rüstungsstab on 01-Aug-44.

So there was actual official force behind the continuation of He 219 production at Schwechat but that impetus came from the competing authority of the up-and-coming Jägerstab.

A couple of the short-term projections created by the Jägerstab survive in the RLM 1435 papers. The latest of these is dated 19-Jul-44 (so just a few days after LP 226/2 was issued showing that all He 219 A-2 production was now to come from Rostock). The Jägerstab document shows this for expected He 219 deliveries from Wien-Schwechat:

Jul-44 Soll/Plan = 4 real = 4 [Last of the He 219 A-0 deliveries from Wien]
Aug-44 Soll = Nil real column left blank [Actual Wien deliveries were indeed Nil in Aug-44]
Sep-44 Soll = 5 real column left blank [Actual Wien deliveries were 5 A-2s in Sep-44]
Oct-44 Soll = 5 real column left blank [Actual Wien deliveries were 3 A-2s in Oct-44 followed by the final 3 A-2s in November.]

Since the document is dated in July the real abbreviation here clearly indicates realistisch = realistic expected outturn (rather than reality, meaning actual).

So He 219 production at Wien was deliberately being continued but only to a very limited extent, and this was on the instructions of the Jägerstab.

Hence "Rather people were now making it up as they went along,.." would be better rephrased as "Rather the pragmatists of the Jägerstab were now making it up as they went along, grabbing whatever was available in terms of resources and sub-assemblies already built (or mostly built) and using those to the best effect still possible."

A suggestion regarding the list: when a Stammkz is relatively certain to have been assigned to a particular airframe, but was not actually marked on that airframe at the end of the war, perhaps place the Stammkz. in brackets?

Where the markings are uncertain then maybe brackets with a ? inside the final bracket?

(So those left unbracketed will be the airframes actually known to have been still carrying their Stammkz. markings at the eow.)