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

[RolandF]

Slowly, gentlemen, slowly

Schlossbergtunnel may be the solution. But this building is just the beginning of an abandoned railway line leading from Wertheim to Lohr am Main.
Two further tunnels are joining north of Schloßberg, close to Wertheim but within the confineries of Kreuzwertheim; Kaffelsteintunnel and Bettingbergtunnel. Because of the same engineering the tunnels are quite similar:

http://home.arcor.de/bluejacket13/xs...hrerbahn2.html

This may not seem important but Wertheim is a "border"town, Kreuzwertheim being already on the Bavarian side of the river Main. So any sites north of the Main would be listed after the war under "Bavaria" for this tunnels, but the rest (like Schlossbergtunnel) under "Baden-Württemberg" or "Württemberg-Baden".
As we have seen, distance is no problem for airplane transport and there´s still the railway leading from any tunnel to Wertheim.
Fliegerhorst Wertheim is situated on a plateau above the city itself.

Why all this? Before we are thinking about how Bodenwöhr-Mappach or Cham-Michelsdorf worked we have to find out how Wertheim was linked to the Mtt system.
Otoh the equipment of Wertheim site might have been so poor that it hadn´t been listed in the reparation files.

Regards

Roland

Edit: The designation Kreuzwertheim may be interesting, too. As we have known, Nazi administration named the next-larger city and allied troops did not make any difference or did not notice it.

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Dear Carl,

Thanks so much for your W.Nr. input. Glad also to know you're working on an essay on this highly fascinating topic. Looking forward to read you, the sooner the better!

Dear Ouidjat,

on s'améliore avec le temps;-))). Getting better with time...

Servus Roland!

I closely checked the masonry work of the tunnel portal photographed in 1945 (Noro 2009, p. 102, pic #137). The layout of the stones of the three upper masonry courses above and right of the tunnel entrance are one and the same with the current photograph depicting the northern entrance of the tunnel of Kreuzwertheim.

From a stonework analysis point of view, a very common technique in my - archaeological - field, this settles the case: the three sets of Bf 109 wings depicted on pic #137 were discarded in front of the Northern entrance of the Kreuzwertheim Tunnel. A check of the masonnry of all the other tunnel entrances shown on this internet site do differ, sometimes radically.

Many many thanks for pinpointing this unknown assembly/repair site. Any possibility to have the GoogleEarth coordinates? As you rightly point out, the toughest remains to be settled: since when was there a link between Wertheim and Mtt Regensburg and how did it work?

Cheers
Marc

[RolandF]

Salut Marc,

it´s good to have the archaeologist´s eagle´s eye at hand!
So it is this tunnel:

http://home.arcor.de/bluejacket13/bi...ite1_dez90.jpg

But this is according to the railway web site the northern mouth of Schlossberg tunnel - here the Google coordinates:
49.759846,9.523902
49.755895,9.519868
Here we are standing on Baden-Württemberg territory. The tunnel is 617 m long and ends at the other side of the Schlossberg looking over the river Tauber crossed by an railway bridge out of use which is still standing:

http://www.geodaten.bayern.de/Bayern...ayer=TK&step=2

Click the button "Historische Karte" on this webpage and you´ll see the course of this railway. Crossing the Main the tracks reach a 2nd tunnel, the Kaffelstein tunnel (229 m long):
49.763568,9.526466
49.764281,9.529384

http://www.geodaten.bayern.de/Bayern...er=Hist&step=1

Click "Karte" to switch to a current map.

Not to mention the third tunnel some hundreds of meters to the east (Bettingberg tunnel). Though the tunnel is rather narrow ( no attachment of wings possible), this reminds me a lot of WNF´s Diana workshops near Tisinov, production site of the Bf109G-10/U4 (see Japo´s publication)

Is there any progress with the W.Nr.?

Regards

Roland

[masmar]

Hi guys,
thank you so much for that great stuff, good nose on finding that tunnel Roland. I love that pictures out of Hideki Noro's book, especially #138. Do that straight arranged fuselages have the same painting in any characteristic than the "Wertheim" ones. Never saw them before. And thank you Carl for that Werknummern.
Since they're fitting into the Cham Block I woundered if it isn't possible, that the K-4 where delivered to Wertheim airfield by Mtt. Cham to be brought into service.
By the appoaching of the U.S troops the airfield administration decided to evacuate the left equipment by train. The fighters where demounted and brought to places where they should get picked up.
That's just hypothetical and sorry if thats sounds stupid, but I just can't see, why they schould have build up a further assembly workshop so far away of the remaining supply chain. Does this make sence in any way?
By the way, I've been to Bodenwöhr today. For those who are interested, the pictures will be delivered tomorrow.
Keep it running folks!

Best regards
Matthias

[Karl]

Hi gents,

I remember to have seen another photograph showing a GI standing along a row of DB 605 engines still mounted on their trolleys at Wertheim. I have to check my books...

Karl

[masmar]

Hi there,

another idea, wherever this assembly line was, labor force would have been needed. So, we could try to check if there was any listed camp or branchlet of a narrow concentration camp. As far as I remeber Bodenwöhr and Vilseck were listed as Flossenbürg outposts for examble. May that be a point where we could start? I checked the terrain of the Wertheim ambit. Especially the pictures with that "heap" of fuselages won't fit into that area,
where's no 100 meter of flat field.
I would like to see what this GI is seeing when looking into that tunnel.

regards

Matthias

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Dear Karl,

Your mention of DB 605D's stacked on trolleys sent me spinning once more through my bookshelves, and there I found them:

Hildebrandt, C. (1988), Broken Eagles 2, Bf 109G/K, Fighter pictorials, p. 9.

I scanned as a whole both published pictures - the DB 605D's and the wing sets in front of the northern Schlossberg tunnel entrance. Thanks for all your excellent data, Roland, they help so much to get a correct picture of the Wertheim scene. As you can see, Hildebrandt's caption also clearly states a "near Wertheim" location for the DB 605D's. Analysing the surrounding on this photograph, one notices they are parked on quite a steep street amdist partly damaged houses. Checking on GoogleEarth, I do see a possible location immediately east of the Schlossberg tunnel northern entrance: a steep road with buildings matching the position of the ones seen on the 1945 photograph. The closest trolley would be next to the grouped buildings standing between the road following the Main bank and the steep street.

Masmar, your query is very much to the point, your scenario interesting. Obviously, a lot did happen in supply channels between March and April 1945... I would be of course highly interested to see your current Bodenwöhr pictures!

Cheers
Marc

[RolandF]

Hello gentlemen,

the engines are standing here (Google coordinates):

49.760023,9.525061

Watch the slanted building and the road slightly running uphill.

The trolleys almost certainly had been equipment meant for factory use and not for use in open air. Looks like a makeshift application of the whole thing and might have something to do with clearing of production areas due to the beginning of the Me 262 production in full scale. The placement of production into subterranean facilities was common practise of this time.

Matthias might not be wrong concerning the Waldwerk "Gauting"-Hagelstadt production of the Bf109. Schmoll quotes that "at least a part of the Bf109 production was moved to Bodenwöhr and Cham in September/October 1944".
A newspaper article mentions air attacks on Nittenau and Bodenwöhr-Mappach on 28, December 1944:

http://www.mittelbayerische.de/index...5&pk=12924&p=1

Cham-Micheldorf was attacked on 4, November 1944. Maybe the reason to get underground...

Regards

Roland

Btw, I´ve identified different photographs in common publications frequently captioned as "Bf109K-4s from Mtt Regensburg" as showing KZ Flossenbürg facilities. Anyone interested?

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Hallo Roland,

Excellent, we're getting really in a great team work here! Engines and wings are now precisely located, now I'm getting real curious as to in which forest patch were the wingless and engineless fuselages dispersed... Logically, they should be further east in the forest where the steep road leads, but no precise clue can be gathered from the three pictures we have to work with (Noro 2009, pics #135 - 136; Poruba and Mol 2000, p. 40).

And yes! I would love to see your Bf 109K-4 photographs in KZ Flossenbürg facilities.

Cheers
Marc

[masmar]

Hi all,
hi Marc, thank you for the picture with the DB 605 engines mounted on their tolleys! For me that's really the most convincing picture when proving an assembly line and not only fragmented airplanes. I starting to belive you guys
It's interesting that the engines are already sub assembled. The lower engine coping with the oil cooler flap and possibly the regulation devices which don't belong directly to the engine are already mounted. That's very uncommon. Normally this happend, when the engine was allready mounted to the fuselage.
Roland, me too! I would love to see that pictures!

Regards
Matthias