Mosquito: Menacing the Reich: Combat Action in the Twin-engine Wooden Wonder of World War II by Martin Bowman Page A

moment, a second burst of gunfire hit them and the aircraft went into a dive. Cork got out. Sadly, Hodge didn't. Cork’s parachute opened and one of his highly prized pre-war fleece-lined all-leather flying boots fell off. He was angry – those boots were a mark of seniority! (Latecomers had to make do with canvas legged boots!) Cork was picked up and transported back to England. ( A.J. Cork DFM )

A 4,000lb bomb being released by B.XVI MM200/X of 128 Squadron. During the final months of the war, Mosquitoes of the Light Night Striking Force were the scourge of the battered German cities, especially the Reich capital. Berlin, suffered severely at the hands of 4,000lb Cookie-carrying LNSF Mosquitoes. These ‘nuisance’ raids culminated in a devastating series of 36 consecutive night visits against Berlin, beginning on 20/21 February 1945. Of 1,896 sorties flown, only 11 Mossies failed to return from the ‘Big City’. MM200 overshot landing on one engine at RAF Valley, Wales on 27 August 1945. ( Graham M. Simons )

Aftermath of the raid on the Dortmund-Ems canal at Ladbergen on 4/5 November 1944. Three Lancasters from the 174 dispatched by 5 Group failed to return from the raid on the canal. On 6/7 November when 235 Lancasters and seven Mosquitoes of 5 Group again attempted to cut the Mittelland Canal at Gravenhorst, crews were confronted with a cold front of exceptional violence and ice quickly froze on windscreens. The marking force had difficulty in finding the target due to low cloud and the bombers were told to bomb at low level. Only 31 Lancasters bombed before the Master Bomber abandoned the raid due to low cloud. Forty-eight Mosquitoes dispatched to Gelsenkirchen on a ‘spoof’ raid to draw German night fighters away from the Mittelland attack and a 3 Group raid on Koblenz, had better luck. Gelsenkirchen was still burning as a result of that afternoon’s raid by 738 RAF heavies. Ten Lancasters FTR from the Mittelland debacle. ( via Derek Patfield )

128 Squadron B.XVIs of the LNSF (Light Night Striking Force) taxi out at Wyton fitted with 50-gallon underwing drop tanks for another visit to Berlin. Mosquitoes flew so often to the ‘Big City’ that its raids were known as the Berlin Express and the different routes there and back, as platform one, two and three. LNSF Mosquitoes raided Berlin 170 times, 36 of these on consecutive nights. ( via Jerry Scutts )

Flight Lieutenant D.W. Allan DFC, navigator and Flight Lieutenant T.P. Lawrenson, pilot, in front of B.IX LR503 GB-F of 105 Squadron on the occasion of its 203rd operation. LR503 eventually set a Bomber Command record of 213 sorties but was lost on 10 May 1945 along with the crew Flight Lieutenant Maurice Briggs and John Baker, when it crashed at Calgary during a goodwill tour of Canada. ( via Norman Booth )

Flight Lieutenant Leicester G. Smith RNZAF, a B.XVI pilot in 128 Squadron at Wyton, who with his RAF navigator Warrant Officer Bill Lane completed 52 operations October 1944-April 1945. Twenty of these ops were to Berlin. ( Leicester G. Smith )

B.Mk.XVI ML963 K-King. ML963 was assigned to 109 Squadron on 9 March 1944, transferring to 692 Squadron on 24 March, before becoming8K-K in 571 Squadron on 12 April and which flew this Squadron’s first sortie on 12/13 April 1944, to Osnabrück. On 1 January 1945 it wasflown by Flight Lieutenant N.J. Griffiths and Flying Officer W.R. Ball on the precision raids against the railway tunnels in the Eiffel regionduring the Battle of the Bulge. Their 4,000lb delayed-action bomb totally destroyed a tunnel at Bitburg. On 20-24 March 1945, now coded ‘F-Freddie’, ML963 flew six consecutive ops to Berlin. On 10/11 April 1945, having flown 87 ops, ML963 failed to return from Berlin following anengine fire. The ‘Cookie’ was jettisoned and Flying Officer Richard Oliver and Flight Sergeant Max Young, who baled out near the Elbe,returned safely. ( Charles E. Brown )

The bombing of the small island of Heligoland on 18