Me 262 Production Log release date?

[Dan O'Connell]

Now you've got me blushing :-) Thank you Dave!

[Richard T. Eger]

Overall, this is an excellent work, but then again, I must admit to a bit of bias due to my heavy involvement in its gestation. Without a doubt, this work exceeds anything ever attempted before along this vein on a Luftwaffe aircraft, i.e., to the best of my knowledge, although aircraft with far fewer production numbers, say, for instance, the Do 24, may have been covered as well.

Because of Chevron’s status as an editing organization, rather than as a publisher, profit constraints have dictated that a book not exceed 224 pages. At the same time, Dan was absolutely insistent that the text dealing with the specific aircraft, as well as the references, remain intact. That has been done. What remains is a very tightly presented book with very, very little free space. Pictures have been limited, although the book would have benefited by more, but it was the information, not the photos, that was of prime importance. Somewhat to my surprise, Eddie Creek was able to compile the references in 2-1/2 pages. Even in this, it appears that he saved a page by dove-tailing them in with the 1-1/2 page Glossary and Abbreviations, which may explain the unusual location for the references, as these would normally be at the rear of a book. Pictures of those supporting this work, were also skipped, again apparently to save space for the text. As one can see by referring to page 224, the book is crammed to the very end. Also, in contrast to Chevron’s usual liberal use of blank space, a flip through the pages of this book shows that none was allowed, save for the Contents and Preface. That’s it, folks. The purchaser has definitely gotten his money’s worth.

In a 3-way working arrangement among Dan, Manfred Boehme and myself, Manfred and I supplied a great deal of material for the book. Ironically, Manfred provided much of his explanations in English, whereas my material, much of it obtained through the NASM’s archives, was in German. Dan, who is not all that fluent in German, spent laborious hours – thousands of them – toiling through the process of translating tidbits of information from many, many original German documents. As Dan notes, others also were of great help with the book. It was, in the end, up to him to make the contacts to pull all of this together, then spend the thousands of hours needed to pull this off. Just read any of the larger aircraft text examples and realize that every single line presented had to be teased out of a source or supplied perhaps a bit easier in English. This work is the result of a single-minded obsession. I’m not sure anyone will ever attempt something like this again.

Eddie Creek, too, is to be credited with his tight editing. I marvel at the amount of information that Eddie was able to "stuff" onto page 13, some of which I supplied in tabular form, along with the footnotes. Never before have the Stammkennzeichen been listed for the Me 262’s. How Dan pulled that off, I still don’t understand. One regret I do have as a result of the space limitation was that the original 5-page planned Werknummer list for Augsburg administered Me 262 production and the single-page planned Werknummer list for Regensburg administered Me 262 (Me 609) production could not have been presented. This latter, also, is not really well-defined in the book, so here it is in more specific detail:

Baulos - Aufteilung Me 609, Regensburg, 11.8.44.

The discovery of the code designation Me 609 was one of those Eureka moments for me at the NASM’s Garber archives. It opened the door to a number of additional documents. Digressing a bit, it appears that the code "709" was used at Kahla, but, alas, no documents on this have yet to be found at Garber.

Okay, enough of the "good stuff". Here are some points on specific things presented in the book:

Page 9: The Glossary heading "Other" could have gone on for many pages.

Page 12: I am left to wonder as to the source of the map at the bottom of the page.

Page 20: No date is given for the 258th flight of the Me 262 V8. I see the incident Dan reports in Erprobungsbericht Nr. 50, 28.9-16.10.44, but no date.

Page 22: I think the Me 262 V10 was used to test the need for ammunition heating. It was also used to test external fuel tanks.

I read through the first 10 prototypes and was impressed with the detail. However, to avoid presenting a completely lopsided history with too much on the prototypes, Dan elected to cut a bit short on some of the testing that had been done with these aircraft. The reader can find more details in the 4-volume Smith & Creek Me 262 opus.

Page 131: The photo was taken at the Scheppach (Burgau) Waldwerk.

Page 139: This photo, too, was taken at the Scheppach (Burgau) Waldwerk.

Page 145: Photo credit should ultimately go to a Mr. L. Slattery, who donated the photo to the Air Force Museum.

Page 156: This would have been a good place to present the Baulos - Aufteilung Me 609 Werknummer table, or at least provided some description of it.

Page 176: Photo credit should ultimately go to Rocky Kyle, who was kind enough to provide me a copy of it in 1999.

Page 183: The explanation that the numbers presented might be Kahla sequence production numbers lacks a critical piece of clarification: The numbers presented were found in Fw. Ernst Büchner’s Flugbuch and were listed only by the last 4 numbers. The prefix 10 or 11 is pretty much conjecture. Manfred Jurleit, in his book Strahljäger Me 262 im Einsatz, added the 10, whereas another ferry pilot, Gerhardt Mittelstädt, showed 3 different Werknummern beginning with 11 in his Flugbuch.

Page 200: The photos were taken at Stauffen, a Waldwerk near Obertraubling airfield.

Page 206: I concur that the photo was taken at Giebelstadt airfield. The aircraft is W.Nr. 110748.

Page 221: The top photo was taken at Stauffen, a Waldwerk near Obertraubling airfield. The location, at least as far as I know, of the bottom photo has not been determined, although it could well be at Leipheim. I would love to have this confirmed. Leipheim, however, is not in the Czech Protectorate.

Page 223: Per Les Avions Allemands aux Couleurs Francaises, Tome II, p. 40, this photo is of a postwar French Me 262 being refurbished to flight status by SNCASO. The person who supplied the photo is a Col. Marchand.

Page 224: The top photo was taken at Stauffen, a Waldwerk near Obertraubling airfield.

Regards,
Richard

[Dan O'Connell]

Thank you for the kind words Richard, it's appreciated, along with the incredible help you gave me over these many years! Dan

[Dan O'Connell]

I'm curious if any one in North America has received a copy yet?

[leonventer]

Hi Dan,

Got my hardcover copy last month for $50 via an Amazon Marketplace purchase. Thanks for the unique and invaluable resource!

For anyone else wanting to skip the 5-month wait for the softcover edition, just do this:
- go to www.amazon.co.uk
- search for "262 production log"
- click on the "Used & New" or "More Buying Choices" links
- at the present time, two of the listed sellers ship from the US, so shipping is just $3.49 to the lower 48.

Regards,
Leon Venter

[edwest]

The book is not yet available in the U.S. to my knowledge. Specialty Press has it listed for availability in November so I will order one on Monday.

The beauty of the internet is that one can offer errata for download. In one of the Classic series of books on the Me-262, about four lines of text had been left out. They offered the missing text on their web site, I printed it off and slipped it into the book at the page in question.

And thank you, Richard, for all of that information.



Regards,
Ed West

[Dan O'Connell]

Thank you Leon and Ed. My research will never stop, so as I continue to find new information I will eventually put together an errata section some where. So far I havn't seen any glaring errors in the published version.

[robert_schulte]

I'd like to add one tiny error
On page 12 the airfields Achmer and Hopsten are mixed up (I am living near Achmer). However, great stuff!
Regards
Robert

[Dan O'Connell]

Thank you Robert.....I really am not omnipotent ;-) I'll fix that in my data base. Dan

[Jaap Woortman]

I have not read it all but found till now two, I think, typo's.

Page 215. 19/05 (second from the top) baleing must be baling or bailing?
Page 194. Date 26/10 in between all 26/11.

Jaap