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

April 1945 when a daylight attack was made on the U-boat base, the airfield and the town by 969 aircraft – 617 Lancasters, 332 Halifaxes and 20Mosquitoes. Bombing was accurate and the target areas were turned almost into crater-pitted moonscapes. Ninety-five per cent of all the houses on Heligoland were destroyed leaving 2,000 civilians homeless. Fifty German soldiers were killed and 150 injured. Three Halifaxes were lost. ( via Derek Patfield )

Banff Mosquitoes attacking Leirvik harbour on 15 January 1945 when a formation of thirteen strike Mosquitoes, one Tsetse and two 333 Squadron outriders, led by Wing Commander Maurice Guedj commanding 143 Squadron were despatched. The Mosquitoes destroyed two merchantmen and an armed trawler and left them burning and sinking before they were jumped by about thirty Fw 190s of III./JG 5. Five enemy fighters were shot down but five Mosquitoes, including the one piloted by ’Maury' Guedj, were also lost. ( via Andy Bird )

On 17 March two ships lying in the inner harbour at Ålesund and fourmore just outside were repeatedly strafed by thirty-one FB.VIs of 235 Squadron after they had been led in overland south of the harbour by two Norwegian crews in 333 Squadron. Twelve Mustangs flew escort, flak was heavy and two aircraft were lost but the Mosquitoes fired their cannon and RPs to deadly effect, leaving three of the ships sinking and three others crippled. One ship was holed thirty-two times with 14 below the waterline and another thirty-seven times, 31 of them below the waterline. ( via Andy Bird )



Ground crew loading rockets on to FB.VI PZ438 of 143 Squadron. ( Charles E. Brown )

Group Captain Max Aitken DSO DFC points out a spot on a map of Norway. Far right is Wing Commander G.D. Sise DSO DFC, a New Zealander commanding 248 Squadron. Wing Commander R.A. Atkinson DSO DFC*, Australian CO 235 Squadron (KIA 13 December 1944) is to Aitken’s right. ( via G. A. B. Lord )

‘…For those of us who flew the Mosquitoes the memory of their versatility and their achievements will always remain. It would be impossible to forget such an experience as the thunderous din of twenty aircraft sweeping across the hangars as low as possible, setting course like bullets in tight formation for the enemy coast. The whole station would be out watching and each leader would vie for the honour of bringing his formation lower across the aerodrome than anyone else. Nor would it be possible to forget the sensation of looking back over enemy territory and seeing your formation behind you, their racing shadows moving only a few feet below them across the earth’s surface; or that feeling of sudden exhilaration when the target was definitely located and the whole pack were following you on to it with their bomb doors open while people below scattered in every direction and the long streams of flak came swinging up; or the sudden jerk of consternation of the German soldiers lounging on the coast, their moment of indecision, and then their mad scramble for the guns; or the memory of racing across The Hague at midday on a bright spring morning, while the Dutchmen below hurled their hats in the air and beat each other over the back. All these are unforgettable memories. Many of them will be recalled also by the peoples of Europe long after peace has been declared, for to them the Mosquito came to be an ambassador during their darkest hours…’
    Wing Commander John de Lacy Wooldridge DSO DFC* DFM,
author of Low Attack

CHAPTER FIVE
    Fast Night-Striking Force
    Q uite late on New Year’s Eve 1944, eighteen crews in 692, 571 and 128 Squadrons were called to a briefing for details of a raid starting at first light on New Year’s Day. At Oakington, five crews in 571 Squadron were briefed, as Flying Officer Douglas Tucker DFC , one of the pilots, recalls:
    Until we were called to the briefing room, everything had been very hush-hush. No one seemed to know anything definite or even if there was to be a raid at all.