Kuno AG Werk I

[Full title: Waldwerk Kuno AG Werk I - Die Endmontage der Messerschmitt Me 262 und die Rolle des KZ-Aussenlagers Burgau - Fakten und Hintergründe zur NS-Rüstungsindustrie und Zwangsarbeit im ländlichen Schwaben] Martina Wenni-Auinger, Verlag Martina Wenni-Auinger, Burgau, Germany, 2022, ISBN 978-3-00-072621-7. Illustrated, hardcover, published in German.

Cover image © by Verlag Martina Wenni-Auinger, 2022.

In October 2020, this blog reviewed Alexander Kartschall's truly fascinating and important book Messerschmitt Me 262 - Geheime Produktionsstätten [Messerschmitt Me 262 - Secret Production Facilities]. The review noted, not least, Kartschall's willingness to examine not just the historical, technical and archaeological aspects of the topic, but also the crucially significant (and yet frequently ignored) subject matter of the slave labour system associated with German late war aircraft production.

In her new book Kuno AG Werk I, Martina Wenni-Auinger focuses on one of the aforementioned secret Me 262 production facilities, the forest assembly factory that lends the book its name, located near Burgau in Bavaria. By dedicating the entire book to this one facility, Wenni-Auinger is able to investigate both relevant history and operations in much greater detail, and the book's narrative by necessity seamlessly and meticulously interweaves information on Messerschmitt's company-internal machinations, the construction and operation of the forest facility and the affiliated Burgau concentration camp, the extensive use of slave labour, and many details regarding the Me 262.

Kuno AG Werk I is indeed a well-made and absorbingly detailed publication. Its full title translates to Forest Factory Kuno AG Werk I - the final assembly of the Messerschmitt Me 262 and the role of the auxiliary Burgau concentration camp - facts and background about the national-socialist armament industry and forced labour in rural Swabia. Given that the book's scope transcends the mere technological side of the topic at hand, it also presents extremely distressing and sombre facets. At a format of 30 x 21 cm and with 272 printed pages (containing, thankfully, a generous number of photos and illustrations, both in black/white and colour), it provides plenty of room for a thorough examination into all aspects affiliated with the Kuno facility still researchable today.

The author is a local historian in the very city of Burgau; she served as the head of the Burgau City Archive and of the Museum of the City of Burgau (where she curated an exhibition on the Kuno facility in 2017) and currently is the deputy mayor of Burgau. The book is based on extensive archive research and thus makes abundant use of primary sources. Intriguingly, numerous of the original contemporary documents consulted are also reproduced photographically in the book.

Kuno AG Werk I starts with a description of the late-war situation in Swabia, namely the political and governmental structure and its rather complex interplay with the Messerschmitt firm. The deficiencies, misuse and manipulation encountered in Messerschmitt's company-internal organization as described here are staggering. This introduction is followed by a look at specific efforts to disperse some of Messerschmitt's aircraft production to Burgau, resulting in the establishment of the Kuno Werk I.

But the book's most poignant and significant content is, in my view, the subsequent comprehensive section on the Burgau concentration camp, the facility that provided the slave labour force needed for the assembly of the Messerschmitt jet fighter. In this, Wenni-Auinger sheds light on the establishment and operation of the camp, on its Jewish inmates, on the harrowing conditions encountered by the inmates during excruciatingly long transport journeys to the camp in railroad freight wagons, and on details regarding the concentration camp guards and their utterly brutal conduct towards the slave labour inmates.

These 70-odd pages of the book are crucial, and, unsurprisingly, they are utterly distressing to read. Even the plain act of perusing the sample inmate inflow lists reproduced therein is devastating. Somewhat unusually for a book on the topic of German late-war aircraft production - and thus commendably - the author also attempts to transcend mere numbers and accounts by providing personal biographical details for a number of representative inmates, some of whom suffered agonizing deaths and some of whom survived against all odds.

Having thus established the traumatic reality endured by Kuno Werk I's slave labour workforce, Wenni-Auinger next describes the construction and operation of the factory, the significance of the adjacent Autobahn, and the forest assembly and nearby testing of the Me 262. Thankfully, this also includes a list of the Werknummern of the aircraft completed there. Wherever possible, this list is illustrated; unsurprisingly, this list is, due to the nature of events at the end of the war, vastly incomplete. The book further provides uncounted photos of the jet fighters found at this location, and it also includes an unexpected amount of technical details regarding the aircraft itself.

The narrative is concluded by an account of the arrival of US armed forces at Kuno Werk I as well as a look at the remnants of the factory as they can be found today. The final pages of the book are dedicated to a list of primary and secondary sources as well as abundant footnotes providing various further details, not least regarding the photos included.

In spite of minor nitpicks (some of the photos would have benefitted from an indication of the year they were taken, e.g. on page 208), Kuno AG Werk I is an extremely important effort to complete the history of the Messerschmitt Me 262. Martina Wenni-Auinger must also be commended for the extent of her research and her dedication to provide the reader with a frank and comprehensive account of the staggering human cost associated with the frantic German endeavour to stem the inevitably turning tide of the war by means of advanced aviation technology. Highly recommended.

Der Feldflugplatz Brunnthal

[Full title: Der Feldflugplatz Brunnthal. Ausweich- und Schattenplatz der Luftwaffe 1944-1945] Norbert Loy, Verlag Veit Scherzer, Bayreuth, Germany, 2016, ISBN 978-3-938845-64-6. Illustrated, hardcover, published in German and English.

Cover image © by Norbert Loy/Verlag Veit Scherzer, 2016.

Many years ago, in what now seems like another life, I was romantically involved with a German woman who lived outside of Munich, in a village south of the Hofoldinger forest. I therefore made numerous return trips between Munich and her home on what is now the southbound Bundesautobahn 8 [German federal motorway 8] and once was the Reichsautobahn [Reich motorway] Munich to Salzburg.

None of these trips was ever ordinary to me, for a reason. In spite of the fact that the modern Bundesautobahn has been massively expanded with regard to infrastructure and width when compared to the original configuration of the 1930s and 40s, it still passes the hamlet of Brunnthal in a perfectly straight routeing and, north and south of the hamlet, is still flanked by woods. It is thus easy even today to imagine Luftwaffe aircraft hidden between the trees just beyond the shoulder of the Autobahn and using this very motorway for take-offs and landings. For the fields and the Reichsautobahn around Brunnthal served as an improvised auxiliary airfield during the last, desperate months of the war.

Numerous photos have been printed here and there throughout the years of Luftwaffe bombers, destroyers, nightfighters, and jets either concealed in the forest next to the motorway or on the immediate post-war aircraft scrapyard that Brunnthal airfield became after the cessation of hostilities. Some of these pictures were properly identified. But many weren't, and the story behind them, more often than not, was either told in mere fragments or left to misinformation or even obscurity. It is far easier to bemoan this situation, however, than to actually research the history of the Brunnthal airfield and collect the vast and widely scattered photographic evidence in order to compile a chronicle and properly integrate and connect all these pieces of the puzzle. Thankfully, local historian Norbert Loy has undertaken the effort, and the result is magnificent.

We had to wait for years for this beautiful book to appear. There were glimpses at photos and information in various publications, for decades. David E. Brown had written about some of the aircraft found at Brunnthal on an online specialist discussion forum in 2008, for example. And Norbert Loy himself published a comprehensive article on Brunnthal airfield and its few months of operations in German magazine Jet & Prop 4/2010. The information and photos provided therein were extraordinarily interesting. A footnote at the end of Loy's article announced the forthcoming publication of a full book of the author's findings. Given the article's content, it was clear that this had the potential to become an important and deeply intriguing work.

But years passed, and nothing happened. In fact, an initial announcement of the book subsequently disappeared again, indicating, perhaps, that it actually might never see publication. But in 2016, Loy finally released the results of his comprehensive research, under the title of Der Feldflugplatz Brunnthal. Ausweich- und Schattenplatz der Luftwaffe 1944-1945 [Brunnthal Airfield. Auxiliary And Shadow Field Of The Luftwaffe 1944-1945]. It is quite a massive book, at 392 pages and a format of 23 x 28 x 5 (!) cm, with 40 colour photos, 178 black & white photos, plus uncounted facsimile documents, colour profiles, listings/charts, and maps. Moreover, the book is thankfully published with both German and English text, a decision that should be applauded.

Loy's publication is indispensable for anybody seriously interested in late-war Luftwaffe aircraft and activities. Although new information regarding the Brunnthal airfield occasionally continues to surface (and the book's existence actually serves as one of the catalysts in this regard), Der Feldflugplatz Brunnthal is without question a requisite benchmark publication. Loy has structured the book very methodically. He commences with the establishment of the airfield in may/June 1944 and then details various components of the airfield's operations, such as anti aircraft installations, local aircraft maintenance, or the use of the Autobahn as one of the airstrips. All of this is expanded upon by means of recollections by period eyewitnesses, interspersed throughout the book.

Loy also makes extensive use of US sources regarding the discovery of the airfield and the resulting attacks on it. These operations form a significant and essential part of the narrative and serve to complete the understanding of the airfield's day to day subsistence. Allied wartime aerial reconnaissance photos of Brunnthal are analyzed and captioned in detail, which helps the reader to further visualise the relevant contents of the very detailed text.

But perhaps the most interesting part of the book, at least from the vantage point of this blog's author, is the collection and examination of all available photographic material in order to provide an exhaustive overview of all Luftwaffe aircraft that were located at Brunnthal airfield at the end of the war. This is the book's most substantial and most fascinating section. The mixture of aircraft types assembled at this rather makeshift auxiliary airfield is astounding, regardless of whether these aircraft had still flown active missions or arrived there by way of retreat from Allied troops advancing on other airfields. Quite a number of these aircraft were subsequently intentionally destroyed as Germany surrendered.

Loy identifies 57 different aircraft and attempts to put them into proper context, if possible, using markings, Werknummern, wreckage, and other evidence. There is the enormous Junkers Ju 290 A-7 9V+AB, for example, photos of which have appeared in a variety of past publications. There are various Junkers Ju 88 G-6 and Messerschmitt Bf 110 G-4 nightfighters, due to their equipment among the most modern aircraft in existence at the time. There are large and small transports, such as Siebel Si 204s and Ju 52s, there are Heinkel He 111 and Junkers Ju 88 A bombers, as well as Messerschmitt Me 410s, Junkers Ju 188s, and Junkers Ju 87s. And, perhaps most intriguing, there are numerous Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighters and individual Jumo 004 jet engines.

Many of these aircraft are documented with as many photos as Loy could find, and these photos are fortunately often reproduced across full pages or even double-page spreads. Photo reproduction, on matte paper, is quite good. It must be repeated here, this book's photographic content is spectacular for any student of this topic. The final part of Loy's work provides a glossary of aircraft unit codes, a number of very nice colour profiles, further facsimile documents, flight logs, and colour photos of surviving artefacts recovered on site.

This is truly a book that cannot be recommended highly enough. It is a near inexhaustible source of diligently and internationally researched and appealingly presented material. The author must be commended for the immense effort he put into this publication. Upon seeing the scope of this book, it is easy to understand the delay in its publication. The waiting time was undoubtedly worth it.

Post script: Loy followed the publication of his book with a further article in Jet & Prop 2/2017, this time focusing solely on the Me 262 jet fighters found at Brunnthal at war's end.