New Bf109K-4 pictures

[RolandF]

Unfortunately I don´t have any information about a Bf109 assembly at Wertheim. None of my reference material is listing this site. At least it is not included within the Messerschmitt-Regensburg production web. WNF Vienna seems to be too far for being incorporated. Maybe someone knows about an Erla connection of this site which would lead us on another track.

Is somebody able to identify the aforementioned identical parts on the Bf109K-4 pics? Are they Bf109 or Me 262 parts? I´m asking this because Flossenbürg was intended to produce Me 262 parts in the final months of the war...

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Originally Posted by RolandF

Unfortunately I don´t have any information about a Bf109 assembly at Wertheim. None of my reference material is listing this site. At least it is not included within the Messerschmitt-Regensburg production web. WNF Vienna seems to be too far for being incorporated. Maybe someone knows about an Erla connection of this site which would lead us on another track.

Is somebody able to identify the aforementioned identical parts on the Bf109K-4 pics? Are they Bf109 or Me 262 parts? I´m asking this because Flossenbürg was intended to produce Me 262 parts in the final months of the war...

Hallo Roland,

Just back from holidays, I discover your input. Regarding the issue of an eventual Bf 109 K-4 production line in Wertheim, the just released book of Hideki Noro "LO+ST", published by Dainippon Kaiga, contains three photos of a camouflaged production area labelled "near Wertheim" (p. 100 - 102, photos # 135 - 137). Photo 135 is the often published three quarter left view from the rear of a Bf 109 K-4 standing in a forest, with this now obvious wawy RLM 76 line sprayed alont the lower fuselage camouflage. The second one shows another Bf 109 engineless fuselage standing on its landing gear amidst, according to the caption, the same forest, shot from three quarter right from the front. As this fuselage is covered by a tarpaulin, onle the RLM 76 wawy line gives some kind of an indication this might be also a K-4 fuselage.

The third (picture 137) photo is the most interesting as it shows the entrance of a railroad tunnel with a makeshift wooden door, and six Bf 109 wings either stacked along the siding walls of the tunnel entrance, or fallen on the track. The tunnel entrance is also surrounded by the same forest. If the location is ascertained, this would be a very relevant element for identifiying a production site for Bf 109 K-4's, and as you ask for, for an Erla production.

Interestingly enough, two more pictures (#138 - 139) do probably shed some more informations although their location is not mentionned precisely. The first, (p. 103, # 138) shows at least six Bf 109K-4's fuselages, complete with engines all in-line under the cover of an unfortunately unprecised forest.
The second is a piled up scrap of Bf 109K-4 fuselages, already scanned an posted by Etraro over at LEMB:
http://www.luftwaffe-experten.org/fo...showtopic=8421

After checking the Flickr pic with the one published in "LO+ST", IMHO, I would assume they depict the one and same scrap pile, captionned in Flickr as being depicted in Wertheim.

Where are we now? For my part I would venture the educated guess an assembly line of Bf 109K-4's was put up near Wertheim in a railroad tunnel, like the similar DIANA line operated by WNF near Tisnòv for producing Bf 109 G-10's. As to whom may have operated it, I, like you, Roland, am hoping for more informations.

As for the second part of your question, I do only recognize a lone Jumo 213 (?) engine among the piles of Bf 109K-4 fuselages, and, on the right, another fuselage segment stemming from an unidentified plane....

Cheers
Marc

[Rasmussen]

Originally Posted by Marc-André Haldimann

If the location is ascertained, this would be a very relevant element for identifiying a production site for Bf 109 K-4's, and as you ask for, for an Erla production.

There isn't any known connection between Erla and Wertheim. Erla and the shifted factories were concentraded in Saxonia/Thuringia.

Best wishes
Rasmussen

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Originally Posted by Rasmussen

There isn't any known connection between Erla and Wertheim. Erla and the shifted factories were concentraded in Saxonia/Thuringia.

Best wishes
Rasmussen

Thanks Rasmussen. So which company did operate this final assembly line? I found more pictures of the assembly line in Carl Hildebrandt's Broken Eagles, vol. 2, devoted to the Bf109 G/K's, part one (Fighter pictorials, 1988, p. 9).

Cheers
Marc