He 219 W.Nr. 310316

[Roger Gaemperle]

Hello,

A recently sold photo at ebay showed the tail of a He 219 with the W.Nr. 310316.

According to my books, this W.Nr. is outside of the known W.Nr. blocks.

Is anything known about this wreck?

Cheers,
Roger

[he219research]

Hello Roger!

This is very interesting indeed - do you perhaps have a link to the auction or even the photo itself?

Acc. to my sources the neighbouring W.Nr. are 310312, 310313 and then a gap to 310322, 310323 onwards.
All Rostock-built A-7s.

Could this "new" He 219 (W.Nr.310316) perhaps belong to a missing W.Nr. block inbetween 310313 and 310322?

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Hello,

310316 fits perfectly in the final A-7 production batch running from 310311 up to 310330.

Best regards, Marcel

[he219research]

Dear Marcel,

Regarding your mentioning of the production batch 310311-310330: is this confirmed?

According to some of the modern-time sources (for instance, "Heinkel He 219 - A Research Paper" (3rd Ed.) by R. Francis Ferguson, Table 3, p.5), total A-7 production was approximately 63 machines, divided into the W.Nr. batches below:

310106-310120 , 15 A/C
310182-310192 , 12 A/C
310200-310215 , 16 A/C
310220-310230 , 11 A/C
310312-310313 , 2 A/C
310322-310328 , 7 A/C

The previously mentioned picture of the tail of W.Nr.310316 would indeed indicate larger and/or more production batches, but do we have any verification of (some of) the other "missing" machines (i.e. W.Nr.310216-310219, (310231-310311), 310314-310321, and 310329-upwards (310329, 310330))?

This would be truly great information, as it would imply that total He 219 production would surpass the generally accepted figure of about 300 A/C!

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Hello

I made a small mistake:
1th A-7 production batch = 310106 up and including 310115: 10 aircraft (not 15)
2nd A-7 production batch = 310181 up and including 310230: 50 aircraft
3rd A-7 production batch = 310311 up and including 310330: 20 aircraft

EHW produced 12 pre-production He219's, 106 (of 120 ordered A-0's), 15 A-2's and 5 D-1's >> 138 aircraft in total
EHR produced 15 A-0's, 80 A-2's and (at least) 80 A-7's >> 175 aircraft in total. Therefore the present known total production number is 313 Heinkel He219's. Because Rostock was not liberated before the end of April 1945 by Russian forces, the A-7 production might have continued a bit longer but this is purely speculation on my part. Due to the chaos in the Third Reich in these last weeks, surviving primary sources are nearly absent to confirm this hypothesis.

Best regards, Marcel

[RT]

Liberation or take-over of Rostock ??

Rémi

[he219research]

Thanks for your information, Marcel, this is really great!
When taking your numbers and comparing them with my own production summary, I get some differences, though (of course, my summary may absolutely not be entirely correct!):

For EHW I have a total of 137 aircraft produced:
11 pre-production
(190002-190012)

106 A-0´s
(190051-190075) 25 A/C
(190097-190131) 35 A/C
(190175-190194) 20 A/C
(190210-190235) 26 A/C

15 A-2´s
(420319-420333)

5 D-1´s
(420371-420375)

For EHR I have an estimated 186 aircraft produced:
1 pre-production
(190001)

15 A-0´s
(210901-210905) 5 A/C
(211116-211125) 10 A/C

85 A-2´s
(290001-290020) 20 A/C
(290054-290078) 25 A/C
(290110-290129) 20 A/C
(290186-290205) 20 A/C

85 (estimated) A-7´s
(310106-310120) 15 A/C
(310181-310230) 50 A/C
(310311-310330) 20 A/C

The main differences from your summary are 85 A-2´s produced by EHR (you list 80 aircraft), and the initial EHR A-7 production batch running from W.Nr. 310106-310120 (you list 310106-310115).
According to some sources W.Nr.310117 was found at Westerland/Sylt at the end of the war in Europe, which would imply that this initial production batch consisted of 15 aircraft.
Could this perhaps be a case of incorrect identification and hence the initial EHR A-7 batch indeed was only 10 aircraft (as opposed to 15)?

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Hello

I agree with the EHW-totals, the He219V-1 was indeed built in Rostock, whereas the following 11 pre-production He219's have been built in Vienna.

According to my list of known Werkenummer, the number of A-2's produced in Rostock was 5 less:
(290001-290020) 20 A/C
(290054-290073) 20 A/C, do you have a Werkenummer between 290073-290078?
(290110-290129) 20 A/C
(290186-290205) 20 A/C

About the first A-7 batch, I know of the discussion about the possible Werkenummer 310117, but as this 7 could be a 2 as well (which would better fit with known Stammkennzeichen), I keep the safe number of 10 A-7's for the first batch of A-7's.

Best regards, Marcel

[he219research]

Hi again!

Regarding the five “rogue” Rostock A-2´s (290074-290078): I have a note in my list for Werkenummer 290075, stating Stkz. CS+QV and that it belonged to 1./Fl.ÜG1 – but, as far as photographic evidence of its existence no, nothing.
It makes sence that the production batches would be similar in size, so I agree with you that the second production batch probably ran from Werkenummer 290054 up to and including 290073.

Regarding Werkenummer 310112/310117: I checked my references last night and in “Heinkel He 219 Uhu” by Marek Rys (AJ-Press, Aircraft Monograph 21) there is a (relatively) clear picture of this machine at the bottom of page 60 – IMHO the last digit is definitely a “7”, not a “2”.
I have attached a section of this photo here (taken with a digital camera from the book).
If you have access to this book, please take a look at the photo on page 60 as it is even more clear than my attached picture.

To sum up, all of this gives a total of either 313 or 318 He 219 produced, the difference being the last 5 A-7´s (310116-310120) of the first production batch.

Do you know if there exists a complete listing of all the individual aircraft found at Westerland A/B in May 1945?

[ZOLTAN190D]

According to this, Wk/Nr of the aircraft found in Denmark could be 310320. This is supported even by the engine type: DB-603 E