Erla Bf109E-3 Werk Nummer 1116

[Peter Cornwell]

Can anyone provide substantive information on the unit allocation and/or eventual fate of this aircraft please ? Many thanks.

[Jochen Prien]

Peter,

unfortunately there is little more to be said about this a/c - like you said it was a pre-war production Bf 109 E-3 from the Erla factory. Although most of the surrounding WerkNr. are documented - many of them with multiple entries over the years -, 1115 and 1116 are blanks, most likely because they were lost before the loss returns - GQM and WASt. - began to include the WerkNr. on a regular basis as of August 1940, so that it is not possible to trace them now.

The unit allocation of the surroundng a/c doesn't offer any clues either - WerkNr. 1114 belonged to Stab II./JG 53 in September 1939, whereas WerkNr. 1117 was registered with II./ZG 141 before the outbreak of war.

I know it's precious little I have to offer; perhaps some other member of this board can shed some more light on this matter.

Kind regards

Jochen

[Peter Cornwell]

Thank you Jochen. Leastways I can now be sure that I haven't missed anything obvious. My interest is prompted by this number being found on wreckage during excavation of a Bf109E in France in June 2004. Anyone have further information on this ?

[Andy Saunders]

Peter

I thought that number sounded familiar!

It might be worth your while talking to Mark Kirby who had some ideas as to the identity. As far as I recall, Mark had found some kind of "match" to a loss in your BOFTAN lists in terms of a date, location and pilot fatality that all fitted. It may be as vague and imprecise as that, or it may be more than a theory without any real substance. I simply don't know....but it may be worth the ask?

[Peter Cornwell]

Thanks for the steer. I don't hold out much hope of positively identifying this one but it was worth a punt.

[Seaplanes]

Unfortunately I do not have a lot of info on this aircraft but I did find the following: Bf 109E-3 W.Nr. 1115 and 1116 wings only for repair at Amme-Luther-Seck GmbH, Wien-Atzgersdorf received on 24.4.1940 and 8.4.1940 respectively. No mention of parent unit.

[Peter Cornwell]

Thank you Seaplanes.