Fw 190 A-8, W.Nr. 172(56)5?

[Roger Gaemperle]

Hello,

A Fw 190 A-8 control stick in my collection is marked with the aircraft's serial number and I am trying to find out more about its history. It was removed by a US tank commander of the 717th Tank Battalion that was active in Europe only from March to May 1945.

The W.Nr. is not fully readable, but appears to be:

• W.N. 172(56)5

where 5 and 6 could have been another number. Another possibility is

W.N. 172(5)55

I have attached a photo of the number on the stick so that you can make up your own mind about the two figures that are not well readable.

Since the aircraft was probably produced in spring 1944, I am sure it saw operational use until May 1945 and it may have appeared in some lists.

Cheers,
Roger

[Roger Gaemperle]

PS: Just found a more refined production block table according to which the 4th digit could only have been a 3, 6 or 9. The 5th looks like a '6' which would only leave '6' and '9' for the 4th digit as there was no 172365 according to the table. That leaves

172665 or 172965

as the most probable ones. Looking at the marking, I'd say it was 172965.

Anything know about this one? I noticed that JG 2 received severals in the 172xxx range.

[RT]

Block for these numbers are probably 172300 to 170399, then probably 172600 to 172750, then 1729xx maybe not complete

172965 damaged with II.JG26 i. july 1944 40 %, seems that JG26 accepted the plane in July, so good chances that bird has been damaged on the field used by II.JG26, nd stay there !

Rémi

[Roger Gaemperle]

Hi Rémi

Thank you for the information. The following digits seem to be sure: 172..5 Assuming that the 5th digit was 6 or 5 and when I look at the W.Nr. blocks you indicated, the following W.Nr. could be possible:

...355 -- lost 14.1.45, 12./JG301, Egon Straub, 14.1.45
...365 -- ?
...655 -- ?
...665 -- lost 24.8.44, Helmut Jäger, 2./JG 26
...955 -- ?
...965 -- 40% damaged II/JG 26 1.7.44

Only 4 of them could be possible incl. 965. Do you know where this one was damaged? The 717th tank battalion didn't get anywhere near Paris, but went via Caen F and Belgium to Germany.

Another lead could be a photo of the tail of 173035 that was in the album of the veteran that may well have been found at the same location than the stick.

Regards
Roger

[Roger Gaemperle]

Attached is a photo of a Bf 109 that was probably found at the same location like the Fw 190 from which the veteran removed the stick.

Although the likelyhood is small maybe someone can recognize this Bf 109 from other photos.

I will post a picture of the route that the 717th tank battalion took through Europe.

[Roger Gaemperle]

A nap of the route the 717th tank battalion took.