The Mosquito Story E-Book

Martin W. Bowman

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Leseprobe

The Mosquito Story

Martin W. Bowman

First published in 2011

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2014

All rights reserved

© Martin W. Bowman 2011, 2012, 2014

Martin W. Bowman has asserted his moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 8530 0

MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 8529 4

Original typesetting by The History Press

CONTENTS

Milestones

The Wooden Wonder

Photo-Recce

Bomber Command

Night Fighting

The Banff Strike Wing

Air Defence of Great Britain and 2nd Tactical Air Force

Post-War

Appendix I Total Mosquito Production

Appendix II Export Sales

Appendix III Mosquito Specifications

MILESTONES

1940

25 November

W4050, the prototype, flies for the first time.

1941

16 January

W4050 outpaces a Spitfire at 6,000ft.

10 June

W4051, the PR prototype, flies for the first time.

13 December

First Mosquito fighter squadron in Fighter Command.

15 May

W4052, the night-fighter prototype, flies for the first time.

17 September

W4055, a PR.I, makes the first operational Mosquito flight.

19 July

W4050 attains 433mph at 28,500ft.

16 November

Mosquito bomber enters RAF service.

1942

27–28 April

First AI Mk.V radar-equipped NF.II patrol.

13 June

First operational Mosquito intruder squadron formed.

2 July

Six B.IVs bomb the U-boat yards at Flensburg in the first mass low-level strikes by Mosquitoes.

4 August

First diplomatic flight to Sweden by a Mosquito.

19 September

First daylight Mosquito raid on Berlin.

25 September

Four Mosquitoes bomb Gestapo HQ at Oslo.

6 December

Ten B.IVs take part in Operation Oyster daylight raid on the Philips works at Eindhoven.

20–21 December

Oboe used for first time when six B.IVs bomb Lutterade power station, Holland.

31 December–1 January 1943

Sky-marking using Oboe tried for the first time by two Mosquitoes of 8 Group (PFF).

1943

27 January

Nine Mk.IVs make daring low-level raid on the Burmeister & Wain diesel engine works at Copenhagen.

30 January

Mosquitoes bomb Berlin and disrupt live enemy broadcasts.

27 May

Final large-scale daylight Mk.IV raid in 2 Group, an attack on the Zeiss Optical factory and the Schott glassworks at Jena.

24–25 July–2 August

During nine days of Operation Gomorrah, the ‘Battle of Hamburg’, Mosquitoes fly 4,472 sorties, with the loss of just thirteen Mosquitoes.

3 October

First operation by FB.VIs of 2nd TAF.

1944

18 February

Operation Jericho: Amiens Prison bombed by FB.VIs of 140 Wing.

23–24 February

First ‘Cookie’ to be dropped by a Mosquito is released by a Mk.IV during a raid on Düsseldorf.

25 March

Commander Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown lands and takes off from a carrier in a Mosquito, the first twin-engined aircraft to do so.

25 March

Tsetse Mosquitoes become first Mosquitoes to sink a U-boat.

25–26 March

The Lyons engine factory marked by 8 Group Mosquitoes.

11 April

Gestapo HQ in The Hague destroyed by FB.VIs.

18–19 April

Juvisy railway marshalling yards, Paris, marked at each end by seven Mosquitoes, bombed so effectively that the yards are not brought back into service until 1947.

14 July

Bonneuil Matours barracks destroyed by FB.VIs of 140 Wing.

6 August

First Mosquito fighter squadron moves to France.

19 August

Fifteen FB.VIs destroy Egletons SS barracks.

17 September

138 Wing FB.VIs attack barracks at Arnhem and Nijmegen ahead of Operation Market Garden.

26 October

Banff Strike Wing Mosquitoes use RPs for the first time.

31 October

Twenty-five FB.VIs destroy the Gestapo HQ at Aarhus University, Denmark.

31 December

Twelve Mosquitoes dive-bomb the Oslo Gestapo HQ.

1945

22 February

Twenty-one Mosquitoes lost and forty damaged during all-out attacks on enemy transport system in Operation Clarion.

21 March

Operation Carthage, Gestapo HQ Shellhaus building in Copenhagen bombed in daylight precision raid by eighteen FB.VIs.

9 April

Banff Wing Mosquitoes sink three U-boats.

17 April

Six FB.VIs of 140 Wing destroy the Gestapo HQ at Odense, Denmark.

2–3 May

Final Bomber Command raids are made and involve 179 Mosquitoes from Nos 8 and 100 Groups.

1950

15 November

VX916, an NF.38 built at Chester, is the 7,781st and final Mosquito.

1955

15 December

PR.34A of 81 Squadron at Seletar makes the final operational flight of a Mosquito in the RAF, a Firedog sortie over Malaya.

THE WOODEN WONDER

In the 1930s, the streamlined low-wing monoplane DH.88 Comet racer ultimately was to play a significant role in the development of the Mosquito, just as the Supermarine S6B influenced the design of the Spitfire, after the seaplane’s success in the Schneider Trophy races. In 1934 Grosvenor House, one of the three Comets entered in the Mildenhall to Melbourne race, won first place. Less than seven years later the Mosquito, or the ‘Wooden Wonder’ as it was known because of its predominantly wooden construction, was serving with distinction in all theatres of the war. One RAF officer summed up the success of the aircraft, saying:

The Mosquito represents all that is finest in aeronautical design. It is an aeroplane that could only have been conceived in this country and combines the British genius for building a practical and straightforward machine with the typical de Havilland flair for producing a first-rate aeroplane that looks right and is right.

The concept of a bomber built almost entirely of wood with two crew, a pair of Rolls-Royce Merlins and no gun armament, relying on speed as the bomber’s only defence, was not new. In the First World War the DH4 unarmed bomber was faster than the fighters of the day. War with Germany was declared on 3 September 1939 and the Air Ministry remained unconvinced that an unarmed high-speed bomber was realistic, but Geoffrey de Havilland found an ally in Air Marshal Sir Wilfred Freeman, the Air Council’s member for Research and Development. He was in favour of having no armament but he doubted that the unarmed wooden bomber could carry a 1,000lb bomb load for 1,500 miles and at a speed faster than the Spitfire. On 1 January 1940 DH received an order for a single prototype of the unarmed bomber variant with a level speed of 397mph at 23,700ft and a 1,480-mile range at 24,900ft on full tanks. By July 1940 a contract for fifty DH.98 (Mosquito) aircraft was received.

Did you know?

Subcontractors included many well-known furniture companies and detail parts were manufactured by numerous other small companies, including bicycle manufacturers and a firm of craftsmen used to making ecclesiastical ironwork, while in homes, garages and church halls the length and breadth of the country, women ranging from ‘duchesses to charladies’ made everything from simple parts to small components. The smallest contractor was located in a garden shed in Welwyn!