Werk Number question

[Broncazonk]

You have to completely change the way you are thinking about this subject. Full stop.

1) Combat aircraft are complex machines with many thousands of moving parts that operate under harsh conditions.

2) Combat aircraft get worked on (maintained) every single day, and sometimes many times during a day, and sometimes all night and all day.

3) Parts frequently fail or are damaged, and sometimes parts were upgraded, meaning almost everything on the aircraft was removed and replaced after a short while.

4) On many combat aircraft of that era, the only 'original' parts left on the aircraft *after only a few weeks of combat* were the bare fuselage, bare wings and the clock.

5) Most Luftwaffe aircraft did not stay intact for very long. Many went to depots and were rebuilt using used parts from literally dozens of different previously wrecked aircraft.

6) The Luftwaffe had a barely functional 'new replacement part' supply system. Most operational aircraft were maintained by stripping used parts out of older aircraft sitting on the airfield.

7) The Werk Number refers to the bare, stripped fuselage and sometimes the bare, stripped wings, i.e. Fw-190D series. (And on the Fw 190 and Bf 109 not even the wings.)

8) Literally every other part on the aircraft had its own serial number system.

All my Best,

Bronc