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

[Marc-André Haldimann]

[/quote]
One last point to take into account when thinking on this "near Wertheim" typical camouflage pattern. I perused all published Bf 109K-4 pictures available to me and found at least three operational machines with this same camouflage pattern:

- Bf 109 K-4, W.Nr. unknown, "Black 1" of 10. /JG 51, Ronne stadium, 4th May 1945 (Poruba and Mol 2000, 70 - 73).
- Bf 109 K-4, W. Nr unknown, JG 52 (?), Ceske Budejovice, May 1945, (Poruba and Mol 2000, 63).
- Bf 109 K-4, W. Nr unknown "White 8", JG 52 (?), May 1945 (Poruba and Mol 2000, 46 - 47). This one is illustrated by stills of a colour fim shot by the US Army; the film can be seen on Youtube.


[/quote]


I at last found again this youtube movie showing extensively "White 8"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA94O...eature=related


Cheers
Marc

[masmar]

Hi all,

I'm digging out this old threat again, because i finally managed to get a better scan of the tail section, showing the Bf109K-4 WNr. Have a own look, but I think it's way closer to a "5" than a "6".
Even so it's very interesting. Correct me, but this is the highest WNr known on a K4??? The Bodenwöhr-Cham production line was the last one in business building K4s. This fighter might straight come out of the final assembly in Cham (The workshop was placed on the aisle in the background, but is already removed in the picture) and would consequently be one of the last or perhaps the last Bf109 produced in WWII.

regards
Matthias

[John Beaman]

Forgive me for being stupid Mathias, but since the last 4 digits of the WNr typically appear on the fuselage side, and in this case is 6141, wouldn't make the full number 336141? Am I missing something?

[masmar]

Well of course it would be. If that's a "6141" but for me it's a "5141" on the fuselage as well as on the fin top. It's still hard to say Maybe someone has a picture showing that numbers 6 and 5 as Luftwaffe stencils on another fuselage, so that we could compare.

regards
Matthias

[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

[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

[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

[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.