Switch/Circuit breaker - Bf 109

[Antoninus]

A switch or circuit breaker, presumably from the cockpit of a late war Bf 109. With the "P" still visible on top I hope I can find out it's purpose and if the plane was identified correctly. The site is not far from my parents home and it is one of two crash sites near my home village where I am researching the events behind these wrecks. The other one is another Lancaster bomber.

A friend send me a video of this part from the crash site of a German single engine fighter. If the plane is identified correctly, it was a Bf 109G-14/AS from IV./JG 53 that went down there on March 23rd 1945. Other parts found on the site are more ubiquitous and include empty shells of MG151/20 ammunition, a part of a MG131/13 machine gun and a corresponding bullet.

Based on the small size and general look I suspected a heavily coroded part of one of this circuit breakers, found installed in many Luftwaffe planes:
Fl.E 5000 01 Selbstschalter 6A, 19-5000 A-3 | Deutscheluftwaffe

But they seem completely standardized, without individual markings.

 

[Engineman]

Hi,
That small relic might be part of a circuit breaker, but it is differently marked with a P and I don't think that it is conclusive as it stands. Overall, circuit breakers, the MG151/20 and MG131 ammo could all be from many aircraft, so more definite Bf109 identification parts would be good to see.
Your quote of a Bf 109 G-14/AS and IV./JG53 seems to be a very specific identification, such that it is strange that you speculate the id at all? Where does the id come from, certainly not that rusty relic.

Cheers

Eng

 

[Antoninus]

Yes, indeed. My identification is basically based on this chain of evidence:
- Eye witness accounts, collected around 2000, mentioning the crash of a Bf 109 at the end of March 1945
- The entry in the diary of a local priest, describing that he buried a Luftwaffe Unteroffizier on his cemetery on March 29th, who had crashed in broadly the right area of the forest.
-Further research revealed that this pilot was Werner Dettman, date of death March 23rd 1945, his field post number was used by IV./JG 53 at this time.
- IV. JG 53 was equipped with Bf 109G14/AS and K4 at this time. Since empty shells of MG 151/20 ammunition can be found at the crash site, I concluded that it had to be the former type, since a K4 should have carried a 30 mm cannon.
- On March 23rd 1945 IV./JG 53 was involved in attacks against the American bridgehead at Oppenheim, where General Pattons army had crossed the Rhine the previous night.
- Priens book about JG 53 includes a Pilot report of a member of IV./JG 53 describing the morning attack against the bridgehead that ended in dogfights with P-51s in broadly the right area.

So far everything seem conclusive, but there is a level of uncertainty if this really was Werner Dettmanns plane. Two Luftwaffe reports via radio, intercepted by British intelligence, mention that 149 sorties were flown against the bridgehead on that day alone, with 24 aircraft lost or missing. From the Rhine crossing until the end of the Battle of Aschaffenburg in early April there was more and continuous Luftwaffe activity with several more known crash sites in the region.
The eye witness accounts, collected over 50 years after the events, are obviously not longer fully reliable and full of conflicting details. Things like Hitler Youth being present at the crash site, but also that the plane was shoot down by American AAA from a nearby ridge. That the pilot bailed out successfully and disappeared with borrowed civilian clothes.
Thus the people were maybe talking about different crashes, maybe just days apart, or things that were only (incorrect) rumors in 1945 were by then considered facts.
However, if everything is true, there have to be two Bf 109 crash sites nearby, Werner Dettmanns plane on March 23rd and another one shortly after March 29th, when American forces occupied the area.

Also the crash site of another Lancaster from fall or winter 1944 is just 1500 m away which adds to the confusion. Some of the questioned people were clearly mixing up facts from the bomber crash, transferring them to the other site.