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

[masmar]

Hi guys,
in addition the promissed pictures of the Bodenwöhr Waldwerk remains. There's not much left beside some transportation tacks in crossed arrangement, grooves in the ground where kind of conveyers might have been installed, a helmet left by a guard, some barbwire, the former shooting range is still visible and a lot of 13mm bullets can be found at it's end. The areal is pretty big. From it's center you can go 300 metre before reaching the border. Assembly stand can be identified by relics which are still in the ground. This has nothing to do with the Wertheim assambly, but might be interesting as well.

Thousand thanks to Kess for making that picture available and thank you Marc for posting it. I demonstrate respect for how you all fixed that pieces of the puzzle together.
So, Wertheim is proven as a further chain link in this end-war Messerschmitt production complex.
Questions which are still open are:
- In which degree was produced and when did it start?
-Why are the in Wertheim found fuslages within the Cham Werknummern-block?
- Was there a sub-assembly as well or did they recieve the finished wings an fuslages for final assy. That's especially important on the question where this "snake-painting-style" came from and where is the link to that pictures with the heap of K-4- fuslages?
-Who delivered the devices?
-Where they integrated into Mtt. Regensburg
Perhaps this might be the next steeps, now that we see the Wertheim situation much clearer. I know that's no easy task, but i would wish, that we can find some more details, maybe at least fractional.

Matthias

[RolandF]

Hi Marc,

I didn´t forget my offer. My scanner is in my office, so I´m able to scan the pics tomorrow.
All I can say up to now is - the fuselages wear classic Flossenbürg-style camouflage. Sprayed on all its surfaces with RLM 76 on the belly, RLM 83 as background for the Balkenkreuz, the rest segmented in RLM 75.
The difference to the "snaked" version seems to me the absence of RLM 76 for the belly, thus showing bare aluminum. The "snake" is a spray of RLM 76 to raise the division line outside of the Balkenkreuz for unknown reasons.
According to Schmoll producers for fuselages were
- "Gauting"-Hagelstadt
- KZ Flossenbürg
- KZ Mauthausen-Gusen

Interestingly Gusen delivers to
- Bodenwöhr-Mappach
- Vilseck-Heringnohe
- Obertraubling
but also to
- "Gauting"-Hagelstadt
- KZ Flossenbürg
Where the paintjob was done, is very confusing, the photographs being contradictory to Schmoll´s statements. Schmoll speaks about camo being applied in Vilseck, but I have almost fully-camouflaged Bf109s standing at Flossenbürg railway station. KZ prisoner Jan Szopa tells about spraying jobs in Flossenbürg. So Vilseck may have added only some corrections after having attached the wings. This may point to where such "snake"-painting may have been done...

It seems to me some parts of the final assembly originally located at Obertraubling, Cham-Micheldorf and Vilseck-Heringnohe was externalized to Wertheim.

Regarding this the "Gauting"-Hagelstadt/Obertraubling line is the main suspect for me because they were eagerly involved into the changeover towards Me262 production.

The Bf109G-14 and G-14/AS have been produced in Cham, too until March 1945. Was the Bf109K-4 final assembly taken out to Wertheim?

Considering this arguments this is my hypothesis:
-The full-camo fuselages originate from Flossenbürg and were almost completed at Vilseck and the semi-completed parts sent by rail to Wertheim for final assembly.
-The "snake" camo fuselages originate from Bodenwöhr-Mappach and were almost completed at Vilseck etc.etc.
-The pile of fuselages are roughly completed fuselages from Bodenwöhr intended for semi-completion at Vilseck. The landscape has many similarities with the countryside between Vilseck and Heringnohe. The railway on a dam at the horizon may be the Weiden-Nuremberg line passing Vilseck.
-With a certain probability you can exchange "Gauting" for Bodenwöhr.

Any corrections are welcome.

Regards

Roland

Nice photographs, Matthias. Here you can see what´s left of this "Waldwerke" after 64 years...