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

[RolandF]

Gentlemen,

I´d like to add a map of the Vilseck-Heringnohe and Vilseck/railway complex with the landing strip upper left and the main railway tracks running north - south. The landing strip and the surroundings are not accessible: (US training ground Grafenwoehr)

http://www.geodaten.bayern.de/Bayern...ayer=TK&step=4

Here you see the airfield railway joining the main tracks:

http://www.geodaten.bayern.de/Bayern...yer=DOP&step=2

The tracks nowadays have been removed but the curved dam is still visible, ending in a huge dam used by the still existent main railway line Weiden-Nuremberg. The railway visible on the horizon of the flickr - photos runs on a dam, too. The building style looks a lot like the Upper Palatinate...

Not lying far from the tracks I think the fuselages had been hastily "emptied" from railway wagons including the damaged Bf109s and the Me 262. Those IMO were destined for a "Zerlegebetrieb" or being repaired

The DB 605 trolleys in Wertheim are not intended for use in the open but on assembly tracks. Schmoll shows photos of DB 605s on such trolleys running on a "Feldbahn" in "Waldwerk Gauting" (= Hagelstadt).

It does not seem improbable to me whole parts of the Bodenwöhr-Cham and Flossenbürg-Vilseck production including tools and machinery were brought to Wertheim for the final assembly there.

Regards

Roland

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Hi there, Matthias,

You're most welcome! As for the pile of unfinished fuselages discarded along a railway line, I can only hope that Roland might shed some more definitive light as to its precise location. Here for the sake of commodity within this thread this pic, originally uploaded on Flickr by WW2vet on 16 July 2009, with no location given.

And the direct Flickr link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4036184...38498/sizes/o/

When blown up, you will notice above and to the right of the fuselages in the foreground at least two files of railroad wagons, with quite a big building emerging beyond. Those are tell-tale signs for a railway station; maybe this clue will be enough to pinpoint the place, probably photographed between late November 1945 and March 1946 (look at the stark naked trees in the background..).

For developping our discussion, I also hope soemone will find and publish photos of the Bodenwöhr assembly line as found by US troops; those must surely exist, as they do for Flossenbürg or Augsburg....

In the meantime, have all the best possible...Monday morning;-))

Cheers
Marc

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Hallo Roland,

Thanks to your maps, everything fits in perfectly! Taking a close look on the other two pictures taken at the same time and at the same place, we can exactly pinpoint the dumping place of the Bodenwöhr camouflage patterned fuselages.

Here is the link and pic for the partially dismantled Bf 109 K-4 W. Nr unknown, "< 5" IV./JG 53, taken next to the unfinished K-4 fuselage pile of the above picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4036184...7622070197999/

The second picture shows the wrecks of two Me 262's and in the background the front of the same Bf 109K-4 "<5" of IV./JG 53:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4036184...7622070197999/

Now please, note two elements:

- first the discarded wings of a Ju 88 G. Having this in your mind, check out the K-4 fuselages pile, and you will see on the left a lone Jumo 213 lying among them. This engine might stems from the same machine.

- The background is paramount here: the railroad main line on its dam is very obvious, it's direction given by the same two very long freight trains we see in the background of the piled-up Bodenwöhr Bf 109K-4 fuselages. They station on side tracks which still exist nowadays (see the "Bayernwiever" link just posted by Roland). Now, following the line of the railway dam above the upturned Ju 88 wing, we notice that the main railway line remains on a strait line, as indicated by the wagons disappearing in the distance whilst a railway embranchment, also set on an earthen dam, takes a wide curve to the left. Taking also in account the houses seen in the background, this exactly situates the aircraft dump in the meadows along the main Weiden - Nuremberg line, just after Vilseck, where the former embranchment to Heringnohe airfield left the main line.

With this photographic evidence, we can position the Bf 109 K-4 "<5" and the two Me 262 fuselages a bit further to the south then the Bodenwöhr Bf 109 K-4 fuselages, dumped a bit further north, as evidenced by the first of the three trees planted along the curved railway dam leading towards Heringnohe airfield, which shows in both pictures. Hooray!!

Roland, thanks again for your invaluable help in anchoring geographically this set of three pictures, a big asset in pinpointing the trail left by the Bodenwöhr K-4 fuselages!

And now,gents, let's hope some new photographic evidence might show up from the Cham municipal administration! And let's not forget the Flossenbürg camouflaged K-4 fuselages parked along this "location unknown" Holzrückerweg...

Cheers
Marc

[masmar]

Hey Roland and Marc,

great work on analyzing those pics and comparing with those modern aerophotos.I think the analogies are really big enough, that we can see that scene as proven. So, I think we can close the next case great!

I hope I'll find some time to have a look on that archiv collection in Cham.
The office hours are a bit unfavorable, so unfortunately it won't go there withing the next weeks. - I'll keep you guys informed.

Regards
Matthias

[RolandF]

Hallo Matthias and Marc,

as local resident one tends to emphasize evidence in favour of the local sites. So it´s good to have one´s assessments confirmed by some neutral Swiss "authorities".
Vilseck was my main contender for the site of this photos from the beginning. I´ve been on site several weeks ago (25km from where I live) but unfortunately only on bike - the only way to follow the traces of the airfield tracks, btw. Due to menacing rainfall I wasn´t able to take parallel pics. I want to catch up on that to get the final proof.

Until that, here´s an aerial view of Vilseck-Heringnohe airfield with the course of the former airfield railway visible just below. Somewhere in the area left of the curve the pile of the K-4s must have been placed in spring 1945.

http://home.arcor-online.de/alois.la...te/vilseck.htm

Regards

Roland

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Hallo Matthias and Roland,

Without daring to talk of "neutral Swiss authorities", it's a real and extraordinary pleasure to pinpoint collectively locations of our recent Past. Teamwork is best!

As a lifelong biker, I do feel with you Roland;-)))

Back to the link you give us and the picture it contains, I would contend all depicted airframes were closer to where the secondary line meets the main railway line and thus beneath the lower edge of this picture; they must have been actually quite close to the road which travels on the lower left of your aerial picture.

Matthias, Roland, if I snatch a few days leave, I would love to pop over to your part of Bayern! Of course AFTER having checked with the opening hours of the Cham municipality!

Cheers
Marc

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Hallo Roland,

For the sake of completeness regarding your post #31, here is the link to the Flossenbürg assembly shop photo showing the front half of the already engine equipped Bf 109 K-4 fuselages:

http://www.flossenburg.be/historischefotob.html

And the same interior shot with a better resolution; just above an overview of the assembly barracks:

http://www.cjvma.org/e/albums/kleinmann/069-080.html

Caption: The Messrschmidt factory in Flossenbürg, and the interior of this factory where Peter worked assembling engines. (KFF Archives; Interior, courtesy Stanley S. Marcus)

Cheers
Marc

[RolandF]

Thanks, Marc for these websites.

I already know those photographs, but the resolution of the Bf109K pic is excellent!

The photo of the assembly barracks is captioned wrongly concerning the assembly of wings or fuselages - they´re much too small at all. This assembly took place elsewhere. Maybe the pre-assembly of components took place in these barracks or the fabrication of Me 262 parts towards the final months. I haven´t found photos of the Nazi-era depicting Mtt assembly halls - seems to be the urge to keep it secret. Even on official KZ photos you can see some halls faintly in the background of one pic. Most photos come from the US - maybe they´re still filed as "Mtt Regensburg"

Another pic from the 50s-60s show a train passing Altenhammer. The gap left of the engine marks the site of the Mtt assembly hall already torn down at this time.

I´m quite sure the archives of EADS (successor of MBB and/or Mtt) contain photos of those secret production sites. IMO they´re not revealed because it would not be PC to draw any connections to a wartime production of the company based on slave labour. And the KZ Flossenbürg archives understandably are mostly interested in the suffering of the people and not in their products.

Regards

Roland

[Fliegerhorst]

Wertheim was connected to Bavaria/Kreuzwertheim Würzburg via railroad via Lohr.
Schlossbergtunnel closed meant either stop at Kreuzwertheim and ca. 1km by road.
The road with the engines seems to be "Eichelsteige". The railroad was abandonned in 1976. The tunnel still exists.
Eichelsteige is very close to the tunnel´s entrance, ca. 50m .
as a child I was told that Messerschmitt airplanes had been built beside Eichelsteige.
The other two railroad connections, still existing is from the south, Stuttgart, also to Odenwald (Neckarelz area) and via Miltenberg beside the main river also to Odenwald via Amorbach.
Thus parts could have been delivered to the other tunnels´s entrance, if not via Kreuzwertheim.

There is one photographer having many pictures from Wertheim´s history.

There is Staatsarchiv in Kloster Bronnbach, part of Wertheim.

There are stories that a guy of Wertheim made a Stuka flight under the bridge
to the tunnels entrance.

Come to Wertheim and I organize a meeting.

Would be a pleasure

[Fliegerhorst]

also very interesting, got to know today, there was ca.
10-max 15 km another Luftwaffe Airport. did not know.
Höpfingen, called Dornberg

this might also have been a reason to assemble airplanes in Wertheim


Dornberg: Einsatzhafen 1. Ordnung, Arbeitsplatz für Wertheim. Flugplatz nach 1945 aufgegeben, seitdem landwirtschaftliche Nutzung, nur noch wenige Spuren vorhanden: Ehemaliges Liegeplatzgebäude jetzt bäuerliches Anwesen (Ferienhof), einige Bunker (Mun- Depot) im nahegelegenen Wald. Landstraße nach Dornberg folgt dem Verlauf der ehemaligen Fliegerhorstringstraße. In letzter Zeit hat sich der Heimatverein Höpfingen um eine Aufarbeitung und Dokumentation der Geschichte des Platzes bemüht.