Hi Max that is a good looking leg, I picked one up last week with W.Nr.5365 seems to have been on the Eastern front and shot down in 1941.
I have some great reference books and will look into your W.Nr. tonight.
I see from your photobucket albums that you are into Kubelwagens. i have one for sale if your interested.

Hi Drew, yes I know you and your car from the vw166.com forum 😉

Though I can appreciate the expertise…I have owned 6 sets of gear legs from known wrecks (E though late G models), and NONE of the numbers on the gear legs ever matched the aircraft they were from – and the numbers on each leg were all different.

They did occasionally “paint” or faintly stamp the last 3 digits on the legs of later aircraft, but stamping them in full as stated in this thread cannot accurate.

Currently, I have a G6 model gear leg in front of me that is stamped with a prominent “54236”, which is certainly not any known production block, of any Me109 type.

I have also confirmed this with a friend who has restored 3 Me109’s, has been involved with numerous Me109 restorations for over the last 20 years, and owns another 5 sets of legs, knowing “exactly” what aircraft they came from – never did he find out that any of the numbers on the legs numbers matched the werk number of the aircraft.

I also confirmed this with colleagues at another restoration company.

Stating the numbers are 9/10 from the actual MAIN werk certainly cannot be accurate, as none of the 11 sets I am referring to match any known werk numbers, nor matched the aircraft werks.

Yes & no. Pre-war 109s (as other German types) were carefully made machines, and -in the most typical German tradition- most major components were numbered with the a/c WrNr, and that from cowlings, to hatches, u/c legs etc. That changed during the wartime for obvious reasons. If this was a pre-war machine (as the Wr Nr points) then is definitely the WrNr of the machine this leg was made to. Later wartime-produced Me 109s did not carry Wr Nrs at all in the strut, just a part s/n. Concerning your restorer friend (I know him very well, I sold him many parts in the past) I can not understand how he can tell you now that no identity is engraved in the u/c tops, since that is the feature he used to identify one well-known 109E wreck found in a beach in France in 1988. (Actually, litte more remained from the wreck than both legs -with WrNr-, main spar and wing sections. I remember very well, -I was fortunate to see it in situ, I still remember the French guy who found it cutting pieces of the wing skin with an electric saw to have access to the internals-. It is crazy see it flying now)

Anyway, the problem is that a leg itself provides no identification as legs were commonly exchanged on the field. But is still a clue to explore, that’s the reason of my post here. Thanks anyway.

No, Oxford Ness was a false clue (I understood it wrong at the phone). The leg came from a (I think well known by some of you) scrapyard owned and operated by somebody called Richard Duce in Cambridge. The owner told at that time that after the war, he had gone around to various Defence establishments (airfields, stations, etc.) collecting unwanted aluminium scrap for recycling. The only specific name which he was able to give was Orford Ness.

The number is definitely the WrNr, it was a common practice to engrave it there on early Me 109s, sometimes even mentioning the a/c type (for example “Me 109 E1” and the number). Nothing to do with part s/n as in minor assemblies and spares.

Anyone?? No Crashed Enemy Aircraft Report for this aircraft or any other clues or guessing? Heeelp!!