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Messerschmitt BF 109

Production

Total Bf 109 production was 33,984 units; wartime production (September 1939 to May 1945) was 30,573 units. Fighter production totalled 47% of all German aircraft production, and the Bf 109 accounted for 57% of all German fighter types produced. A total of 2,193 Bf 109 A–E was built prewar, from 1936 to August 1939.

Messerschmitt Bf 109 production line.
Messerschmitt Bf 109 production line.

In January 1943, as part of an effort to increase fighter production, Messerschmitt licensed an SS-owned company, DEST, to manufacture Bf 109 parts at Flossenbürg concentration camp. Messerschmitt provided skilled technicians, raw materials, and tools and the SS provided prisoners, in a deal that proved highly profitable for both parties. Production at Flossenbürg started in February. The number of prisoners working for Messerschmitt increased greatly after the bombing of Messerschmitt's Regensburg plant on 17 August 1943. Erla, a subcontractor of Messerschmitt, established Flossenbürg subcamps to support its production: a subcamp at Johangeorgenstadt, established in December 1943, to produce tailplanes for the Bf 109, and another subcamp at Mülsen-St. Micheln which produced Bf 109 wings, in January 1944. The Flossenbürg camp system had become a key supplier of Bf 109 parts by February 1944, when Messerschmitt's Regensburg plant was bombed again during "Big Week". Increased production at Flossenbürg was essential to restoring production in the aftermath of the attack.

Messerschmitt Bf 109G production line.
Messerschmitt Bf 109G production line.

After the August 1943 Regensburg raid, some Bf 109 production was relocated to Gusen in Austria, where the average life expectancy was six months. In order to make the new production facilities bomb-proof, other prisoners were forced to build tunnels so that production could be relocated underground. Many died while performing this hazardous duty. By mid-1944, more than a third of the production at the Regensburg factory originated in Flossenbürg and Gusen alone; only the final assembly was done in Regensburg. Separately, Erla employed thousands of concentration camp prisoners at Buchenwald on 109 production. Forced labor at Buchenwald produced about 300 Bf 109 fuselages, tails, and wings before the end of the war.

Some 865 Bf 109G derivatives were manufactured postwar under licence as Czechoslovak-built Avia S-99 and S-199s, with the production ending in 1948. Production of the Spanish-built Hispano Aviación HA-1109 and HA-1112 Buchons ended in 1958.

Sources:
Gunston, Bill - The Encyclodepia of the Worlds Combat aircraft, 1976, Chartwell Books, Inc., New York
Brown, Eric, Captain - Wings of the Luftwaffe, 1979, Airlife Publishing Ltd., Shrewsbury
Gunston, Bill & Wood, Tony - Hitler's Luftwaffe, 1977, Salamander Books Ltd., London
Donald, David - The Complete Encyclopedia Of World Aircraft, 1997, Brown Packaging Books Ltd., London
Scutts, Jerry - Messerschmitt BF109: The Operational Record, 1996, Airlife Publishing Ltd, UK
Wikipedia - BF 109

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