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

Author:Martin Bowman [Bowman, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS027140
ISBN: 9781844684359
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Published: 2012-09-19T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

Star and Bar

In the summer of 1942, Colonel Elliott Roosevelt brought two squadrons of Lockheed F-4 Lightnings and a squadron of B-17F ‘mapping Fortresses’ to Britain. The President’s son was preparing his group for the invasion of North Africa and was to work with the RAF until ready. Given a Mosquito B.IV for combat evaluation, Roosevelt discovered that the aircraft outperformed his F-4s and had five times the range. The first of the Canadian-built Mosquitoes had already given demonstrations at Wright Field. It was so good, General Arnold ordered that no US aircraft were to be raced against the Mosquito, to avoid embarrassing American pilots! Arnold asked that Mosquitoes be obtained to equip all American photo-reconnaissance squadrons in Europe, almost 200 aircraft for 1943 alone! In 1943 thirty Mosquitoes were diverted from British production after the Canadian allocation of 120 for the Americans had been reduced to just sixty B.XXs because of RAF demands. These, plus eleven Canadian-built F-8 models, were delivered to the 802nd (later, 25th) Bomb Group at Watton in Norfolk. However, these were not as popular with the pilots and navigators as the British-built Mosquitoes and they were soon reassigned to a bomb group in Italy.

The 802nd, with the 7th Photographic Group, became part of the 325th Photographic Wing, which was commanded by Colonel Elliott Roosevelt. Many personnel who were transferred into the 802nd Bomb Group had to be retrained. Mechanics, who had never seen a Mosquito night bomber, attended a two-week course at the Rolls-Royce engine school in Derby. Others attended the airframe school at the de Havilland factory in Hatfield. Most of the aircrew, many of whom were P-38 Lightning pilots from the 50th Fighter Squadron in Iceland and who were used to the P-38’s contra-rotating propellers, had never experienced the takeoff and landing characteristics of the Mosquito bomber; especially its high landing-speed and tendency to swing on take-off. They had also to remember to open the radiator shutters just prior to take-off to prevent the engines overheating.

The 652nd Bomb Squadron was equipped with the B-17 and B-24 while the 653rd Bomb Squadron used Mosquito T.III and PR.XVI aircraft on meteorological flights, known as ‘Bluestockings‘, gathering weather information from over the continent. PR.XVIs used a two-stage, two-speed supercharger that would cut in automatically at altitude. The superchargers were independent on each engine and a small difference in adjustment caused one to change gears hundreds of feet before the other. The resulting bang and surge of power to one engine could wrest control from the unwary pilot and give the impression that the aircraft had been hit by flak. Several Airspeed Oxfords and three dual-control Mosquito T.IIIs were assigned for training. The 654th, or the ‘Special Squadron’, flew day and night ‘Joker’ photo missions and scouting sorties just ahead of the main bombing force, transmitting up-to-the-minute weather reports back to the task force commander to prevent him leading his bombers into heavy weather fronts. On Joker missions the Mosquitoes dropped 1,000,000-candlepower-type M-46 photo flash bombs

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.