FW 190 production at Aslau (?)

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Hi there Gang,

I stumbled on a nice Fw 190 A-8 "Gelbe 15" I./JG ? pic which W.Nr is 350 210:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2305717...57610334641015

According to this website, this W.Nr. belongs to W.Nr. Block 350 151 - 350 300, built by Focke-Wulf at Aslau.
http://fw190.hobbyvista.com/werkn.htm

As I never heard of this plant, I would be very grateful for any further detail.
Thanks in advance
Marc

[Andrew Arthy]

Hi Marc,

Please see/bookmark the slightly updated FW 190 Werk Nummer listing found here: http://fw190.hobbyvista.com/werkn.doc. The htm version is outdated.


Cheers,
Andrew A.

Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Thanks Andrew,

I downloaded it. I did not find any new information on the Aslau plant though. Any thoughts on that one?

Cheers
Marc

[Andrew Arthy]

Hi Marc,

I just stumbled across some information in Luftwaffe Verband Issue Number 31, page 20. Nigel Moore, whose source was a book about Tempelhof airfield, states that Aslau was a plant of Weser Flugzeugbau G.m.b.H., and was established in 1943 for FW 190 production.


Cheers,
Andrew A.

Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com

[Seaplanes]

According to BA/MA RL3/4139 Kennziffer der Nachbaufirmen Fw 190, all W.Nr. beginning with the number 35 were Fw 190A-8 aircraft built by Arbeidsgemeindschaft WFG (Weser) Nordenham. The info from Nigel Moore should not be far from the correct version.

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Thanks Andrew and Seaplanes for your informations. Nordenham I can find, which wasn't the case for Aslau (probably now in Poland...)

Cheers
MArc

[Nick Beale]

After a quick Google search, it seems to be Osła in Poland: there's a large (disused?) military airfield south west of the village.

Longitude: 15° 45' 0" East
Latitude: 51° 19' 0" North

[Larry deZeng]

Aslau (GER) (51 18 24 N – 15 43 08 E)
General: operational airfield (Einsatzhafen) (today Osla) in Silesia in SE Germany, 32 km SSE of Sprottau, 32 km WNW of Liegnitz (Legnica), 12 km ENE of Bunzlau and 1.6 km SW of the village of Aslau (Osla). History: constructed between 1935 and 1938 as an Einsatzhafen I. Ordnung; first in use 1938-39. Used by school units throughout the war, but operational units not based there after September 1939 until October 1944. Dimensions: 1,100 x 825 meters. Runway: good grass surface with a perimeter taxiway encircling the landing area. Probably equipped for night landings. Infrastructure: had 1 very large assembly hangar (233 x 41 meters), 4 more very large hangars and 1 large repair hangar, all of which were fronted by concrete aprons and connected to the taxiway. A group of workshop and stores buildings were located in the hangar area, and there was a further group of workshops at the SE corner of the landing area. A small barracks complex was situated to the rear of the assembly hangar, and a block of admin buildings was along the airfield’s SW boundary. The Berlin-Breslau Autobahn paralleled the S boundry of the landing area at a distance of less than 1 kilometer and a branch rail line served the hangar area. Dispersal: none noted (8 Apr 44). Defenses: none noted (8 Apr 44). Remarks: major development and building construction during the war for use as a factory and repair airfield. Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-8 and A-9 production there by Weser Flugzeugbau GmbH beginning in 1943 to January 1945. Sub-camp Aslau of Koncentrationslager Gross-Rosen may have provided inmate labor at the airfield.
Air Units: (go to Google and enter: Aslau site:ww2.dk ). Also: III./KG z.b.V. 1 (Sep 39); KGr. z.b.V. 9 (Sep 39).
School Units: Arbeitsplatz for FFS C Sprottau, FFS C 4 then FFS B 4 (Nov 39 – Jan 45).
Erg./Ers. Units: 4./Erg.JG 1 (Nov 44 – Jan 45).
Station Commands: Fl.H.Kdtr. (E) 38 then Fl.H.Kdtr. E Aslau (Aug 39 – c. Feb 40); Fl.H.Kdtr. E 18/IV (c. Feb – Apr 40); Fl.Pl.Kdo. A 8/IV (1941 – Mar 44); Flugplatzkdo. of Fl.H.Kdtr. A(o) 8/VIII Liegnitz (Apr 44 – Apr 45).
Station Units (on various dates): none identified.

L.

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Nick,

Thanks for the pointer!

Larry,

You made my day; everything is tied down now!
Thanks to all

Sincerely
Marc

[INM@RLM]

A word of caution: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Roland and Con-Aslau were two completely different organisations with final assembly plants at the opposite ends of Germany. Both are indeed documented as Endmontagewerke for the Fw 190 but that is all they have in common.

The first was a co-operative enterprise managed by Weserflug, the second was a rapidly extemporised parallel operation managed possibly by Focke-Wulf. There would have been some sense in FW developing a Plan B as the front line moved significantly closer to their eastern plants of Marienburg, Cottbus, Sorau and Posen during the summer of ‘44.

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Roland was also variously known as Arbeitsgemeinschaft Roland (WFG); Arbeitsgemeinschaft Weserflug; Arb.Gem., WFG, Nordenham and usually abbreviated as Arb.Gem. (at least for the earllier part of its existence). This was a cross-company industrial venture organized to harness for fighter production a chunk of the resources freed in the two smallest licensees as mass production of the Ju 88 & 188 bombers was run down. Although this underlying rationale does not receive a mention the Arb.Gem. is otherwise explained fairly well and fully in the volumes of Marc Deboeck, Eric Larger, Tomáš Poruba: ‘Focke-Wulf Fw 190D Camouflage & Markings’. [Briefly on page 24 of Part 1, JaPo 2005, and at considerable length on pages 215/6 of Part 2, JaPo 2o07.]

The evidence is that Arbeitsgemeinschaft Roland assembled the Fw 190 A-8 with W.Nr. prefix 35, Fw 190 D-9 W.Nr. prefix 40 and had started assembly of the Fw 190 D-13/R11 using W.Nr. prefix 83.

Con. Aslau existed for a much shorter period, was responsible for assembling only a very few Fw 190 and so far this operation is not well documented. What follows are a few fragments only. In addition to the management company there appear to have been three other entities involved.

First would seem to be Concordia, Bunzlau (as it is described in the FW document dated 8-Dec-44 reproduced on page 439 of Peter Rodeike’s ‘Focke Wulf Jagdflugzeug FW 190 A, FW 190 "Dora", Ta 152 H: “Aufstellung der Firmen für Grossbauteile Fw 190 und Ta 152”). The fuller name was ‘Concordia Spinnerei und Weberei’, a significant textile manufacturer with works in Marklissa, Bunzlau und Friedersdorf, all in Silesia. This firm came late to armaments production and although at least the Bunzlau plant would have been assigned a Fertigungskennzeichen (für Waffen, Munition und Gerät) what this was is now unknown.

Second was the Concentration Camp, Gross-Rosen. By this period of the war like many other concentration camps Gross-Rosen controlled a vast sprawl of smaller outlying sub-camps each providing labour to a particular plant, mine, quarry etc. reckoned to be important for the war effort. According to http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/grossrosen.html
Gross Rosen maintained significant sub-camps at Bunzlau (Bunzlau I & Bunzlau II) as well as at Aslau.

The third party, of course, was the airfield at Aslau.

The Con.Aslau name seems to have either been an abbreviated concertinaing of Concordia Spinnerei und Weberei, Bunzlau, or, and perhaps more likely given the position of the full stop in the abbreviation: Concordia, Aslau. (In which case one has to wonder why Bunzlau and not Aslau is used in the FW document.)

The reason there was probably no connection between Con.Aslau and Weserflug is because three of the five Endmontage listed at the foot of the 8-Dec-44 document include Weserflug in their name whilst the remaining two: Mimetall, Erfurt and Concordia, Bunzlau are listed without any other affiliation.

Based on the rather slim source below:
http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/article/boleslawiec/13,places-of-martyrology/4590,concentration-camps-in-gross-rosen-al-bunzlau-i-and-al-bunzlau-ii/
and a little extrapolation and cleaning up the available evidence suggests that the Bunzlau II sub-camp was set up in Oct-44 to manufacture aircraft Grossbauteile in the works of the ‘Concordia Spinnerei und Weberei’ at Bunzlau, Silesia. (Fw 190 wings are specified for Concordia, Bunzlau in the Fw document mentioned above.) These along with major sub-assemblies (Grossbauteile) from other sources were then fed to the airfield at Aslau for final assembly using, at least in part, labour from the Gross-Rosen Aslau sub-camp. Evacuation of Bunzlau II to Nordhausen and the Dora works is recorded as beginning on 11-Feb-45 following the Soviet Army breaking into Silesia. Doubtless a similar transfer began from Aslau around the same time. So deliveries of Fw 190 from Con. Aslau probably only began in Dec-44 and ended by force majeure shortly after the first ten days of Feb-45.

I have yet to track down the OKL delivery reports for Dec-44 and the Feb- to April-45 period. However, reported Fw 190 deliveries in reports shared with me are summarised in the attached Excel 2003 file. Con.Aslau deliveries are clearly and separately distinguished. They only show 10 x Fw 190 A-8 and 14 x D-9 being delivered from Con.Aslau in Jan-45. Not as mythic as the proverbial hen’s teeth but rare beasts indeed with currently no W.Nr. identified so far as I know.

In these figures what is slightly intriguing is that no Arb.Gem. deliveries are shown for Jan-45, but there are 20 x D-9 from WFG which probably relate to the same final assembly source as that previously listed as Arb.Gem.

Also included in the attachment are the Fw 190 W.Nr. sequence prefixes by final assembler so far as I think are accurate. If Seaplanes was able to post or share directly a copy of BA/MA RL3/4139 Kennziffer der Nachbaufirmen Fw 190 that would be wonderful and most gratefully appreciated. It may also throw some light on what Werk-Nummern prefixes were actually allocated to Con.Aslau.