Mosquito: Menacing the Reich: Combat Action in the Twin-engine Wooden Wonder of World War II (13 page)

Although it was a tight squeeze in the bomb bay, by early 1944 suitably modified B.IV Mosquitoes were capable, just, of carrying a 4,000lb Minol bomb, which went by the more familiar names of ‘Cookie’ or ‘Blockbuster’. To accommodate this large piece of ordnance the bomb bay had been strengthened and the bomb doors were redesigned. Far from popular amongst ground and air crews, the bombs were unstable, prone to exploding if dropped accidentally while being loaded into aircraft. No.627 Squadron had experienced an incident when forming at Wyton with 139 Squadron. One lunchtime a Mitol bomb had been dropped accidentally at dispersal from an 83 Squadron Lancaster with tragic results.
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Apart from this, the Mk.IV Mosquito was ‘just’ capable of a take-off on a main runway with favourable wind and once in the air the aircraft handled sluggishly until ‘bomb gone’ when the altimeter unwound itself at an alarming rate. At takeoff time a fitter and rigger could be seen sheltering as soon as the aircraft taxied out for take-off.
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Benny Goodman adds:

Our CO announced that we were to fly the ‘Cookie-carrier’ as much as possible and the most experienced crews were detailed to take her on normal operations. The night arrived when Bill Hickox and I were ordered to try our hand with this new machine on a target in the Ruhr. The aircraft looked like a pregnant lady, because its belly was markedly rotund. Takeoff was not difficult, but quite definitely she was not a scalded cat. At 500ft, as her tail came up I pushed the throttles quickly forward to the gate (plus 9lb boost, 3,000 rpm) and then clenched my left hand over the gate catch releases and eased the throttles to the fully open position plus 12lb boost, 3,000 rpm). In ‘G-George’ this would have resulted in a glorious acceleration and a hop, skip and jump into the air. Not so with our pregnant lady. She waddled along and took most of the runway before she deigned to unstick. Moreover, the climb was a sedate affair and she took much longer to reach 25,000ft than with our usual steed; and when we arrived there she took a long time to settle to a steady cruise. However, we eventually sorted ourselves out and headed resolutely for the Ruhr.

In the target area I felt distinctly nervous. There we were, with the bomb doors open and Bill droning away with his ‘Left, left...right...steady’ and I just knew that every gunner in the Ruhr could see the enormous bomb we were carrying and was determined to explode it and blow us to smithereens. I looked at the bomb jettison handle in front of me, no delicate lever this; it was a solid bar of metal which, if moved, would manually release the massive catch holding the ‘Cookie’ and down the bomb would go. It the bomb doors had not been opened, that was hard luck, the ‘Cookie’ would still drop away and take the bomb doors with it! However, no such inglorious thing happened. Bill suddenly announced, ‘Bomb gone’ and as he did so the Mossie suddenly shot up like a lift. There was no delicate porpoising, as with four 500 pounders, the altimeter moved instantly through 500ft of altitude. I had never seen anything like this before. More importantly, as soon as I had closed the bomb doors our fat little lady became almost a normal Mosquito and accelerated to a fast cruising speed.

The B.XVI with its bulged bomb bay and more powerful two-stage 1,680-hp Merlin 72/76s or two 1,710-hp Merlin 73/77s, giving a top speed of 419 mph at 28,500ft, first flew operationally on 1/2 January 1944 when thirty-eight Mosquitoes attacked Hamburg, Witten, Duisburg, Bristillerie and Cologne. On this night Squadron 139 used H
2
S for the first time, marking the target for a raid by twelve Mosquitoes on Berlin. At this time 139, which had pioneered the use of Canadian-built Mosquitoes, was operating a mix of B.IV, IX, XVI and XXs. Also, Mosquitoes dropped ‘Blockbusters’ for the first time on Düsseldorf on the night of 23/24 February.

No.692 Squadron was formed at Graveley on 1 January 1944. In the 12 months January-December 1944 five more Mosquito squadrons joined 8 Group.
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Bennett wanted only experienced pilots with 1,000 hours total time for his squadrons. Group Captain T.G. ‘Hamish’ Mahaddie
DSO DFC AFC
, SASO (Senior Air Staff Officer) at Group HQ in Huntingdon, was tasked with recruiting volunteer aircrew from the Main Force bomber groups. Canadian pilot Terry Goodwin
DFC DFM
and his navigator Hugh Hay
DFC
on 692 Squadron had already completed two tours with Bomber Command. Terry Goodwin had flown a tour on Lancasters on 61 Squadron before completing a second, with 692. Hugh Hay had flown a first tour on Hampdens before converting to Manchesters and then Lancasters, flying sixty-three ops in all. This was at a time when loss rates were averaging 5 per cent so after ten trips you had used up 50 per cent of your chances. Twenty trips and they were all gone yet the tour was thirty. Incredibly, both men survived and they flew their first Mosquito operation on 8/9 February when the target for eleven Mosquitoes was Brunswick. Goodwin recalls:

We got to our cruising height of 28,000ft over the North Sea. There was no cloud at all and the full moon made it like daylight. Night-bomber crews like Hugh and me were not comfortable in such clear air. Gee was still working but could only give us a fix to a point because it operated on VHF, which meant line of sight. Our Gee set was behind the pilot and could be read by the navigator by turning to his left. Past the Dutch coast, cloud formed with tops to 10,000ft, which made the moonlight even brighter. On every trip Hugh had to do his navigation on a little clipboard on his knee. Suddenly ahead of us I saw a condensation trail from one then more of the other Mossies, which meant that we could be seen the same way. But there ahead at 2 o’clock was a thin white vapour-trail heading in towards those other Mossies. But then Jerry broke off to the left, 11 o’clock, 10 and then 9 as he turned back on reciprocal track to ours. Our throttles were full open at this altitude. As Jerry went past the wing-tip where he could judge our speed and turn in to attack from the rear I pushed the prop controls ahead to maximum continuous climb setting of 28,500ft. Hugh called, ‘He’s right behind us!’ I pushed the rpms right up to take-off 3,000ft. The manifold pressure jumped because of the ram effect and the Mossie jumped like a scared rabbit. I still don’t know how close Jerry had been, nor why he broke off; unless he had been beyond his control block.

Flying Officer Grenville Eaton, a 105 Squadron pilot, flew his first Mosquito operation, in A-Apple, an Oboe-equipped B.IV on 1/2 March 1944 when 557 aircraft of the Main Force went to Stuttgart. A-Apple was one of eighteen Mosquitoes that flew diversion operations to airfields in Holland. Eaton recalls:

Venlo, the target, was a German fighter aerodrome on the Dutch border near Aachen (The first few trips were usually to ‘less difficult’ targets, but they were certainly no less important in countering the threat of fighters). With a full load of bombs, four 500 pounders and of petrol, it took, perhaps, one hour following carefully planned and timed ‘legs’ all over East Anglia until setting course from Orfordness to the Dutch coast. Then, at the operational height of 28,000ft we flew towards the waiting point where the track to the target extended backwards for a further 5 minutes and there, at the precise appointed time in order to hear the call-in signal in Morse, we switched on Oboe.
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I had to find the beam and keep on it for perhaps 10-15 minutes to the target. Thanks to Gee, Jack Fox’s navigation was spot-on and we had a good run to target. His signals gave him our distance to target and finally, the bomb release signal, like the BBC time signal, five pips then the sixth, a dash, to press to release the bombs. We had a clear run. Holding steady for some seconds after bomb release to photograph the bomb explosions, we turned smartly on to the planned course home, keeping our eyes skinned for fighters, flak and searchlights, around 360° above and below. A gentle, slow dive at top speed and we arrived at the Dutch coast around 20,000ft and the English coast at 12,000ft. We landed at 0330 hours. So, Jack’s 31st, and my first ‘op’, took 3 hours 25 minutes. A simmering feeling of incipient fear throughout had been kept in check by being fully occupied. Now, home, we felt a tremendous feeling of relief and achievement, especially when we were told at debriefing that we had achieved a ‘Nil’ target error on this, our first Oboe trip. Finally, a heavenly operational aircrew breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, rum and coffee. Smashing!

Our second operation was on 7/8 March. The target was Aachen, an important road and rail junction just inside Germany. I was feeling more confident. Crossing Holland at 28,000ft with a clear sky, we could see the distant Zuider Zee. We switched on Oboe, found we were early, so guided by the navigator, I wasted a precise number of minutes and seconds until finding and settling into the beam towards the target, about 15 minutes’ flying time away. We noticed we were leaving long white contrails behind us (frozen water-vapour crystals in the exhaust of each engine). Suddenly streams of cannon-shells and tracers enveloped us from the rear, hitting us in numerous places, but luckily missing Jack and me and the engines. I immediately dived to port, then up to starboard several times, then resumed height and regained the beam. The only protection was a sheet of steel behind my seat. Most instruments seemed to work, so we continued. Half a minute later, a second and noisier attack from the rear, so again I took evasive action, more violent and longer and again regained height and beam. Now there was considerable damage to dashboard, hydraulics and fuselage. Shells had missed us, truly by inches. However, engines and Oboe still worked, so being so near we had to continue to target, deliver the load and turn for home, changing course and height frequently and assessing the damage as far as we could. Certainly, hydraulics, flaps, brakes, ASI and various other instruments were smashed, but we were okay.

At Marham, landing in pitch darkness was a problem, but for safety I landed on the grass, by feel I suppose, at about 150 knots with no brakes. We hurtled across the aerodrome, just missing two huge armament dumps, straight on through hedges and violently into a ditch. Jack was out of the emergency exit like a flash. I could not move, could not undo the safety belt. Jack leapt back, released me and we scampered away to a safe distance in case of exploding petrol tanks but emergency services were quickly there. Debriefing was interesting, as not only was our run ‘seen’ on the CRT, but our bombing error was precisely calculated and we wondered whether all operations were to be like this one! Incidentally, we never saw the attacking fighter. Our aircraft was a write off.
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Mosquito bombers flew a series of operations to German cities in March. Flight Lieutenant John E.L. Gover
DFC
of 692 Squadron at Graveley, near Huntingdon, who flew thirteen operations to Berlin in 1944, flew his most unusual operation on 15/16 March, when the idea was for the Mosquito squadrons to attack Stuttgart after the four-engined heavy bombers had been there.

Unfortunately my oxygen equipment was unserviceable and as we used to fly at 28,000ft I needed it. It took an hour to transfer the equipment from the reserve aircraft so my navigator and I were all on our own when we got to the target. This normally led to disaster, but luckily for us did not do so on this occasion. There was a sheet of low cloud over the target area and the heavies had bombed through it, but the heat from the fires that had been started had dissipated the cloud by the time we arrived. We had a grandstand view of two great holes in the cloud through which the fires could be seen burning. This was one of the few occasions on which I felt sorry for the enemy.

On some nights, including 18/19 and 22/23 March, when Frankfurt was raided by the heavies and Berlin on 24/25 March, the Mosquitoes acted as diversions for the Main Force effort with raids on German night-fighter airfields. The night of the 30th/31st fell during the moon stand-down period for the Main Force but the raid on Nürnburg, destination of 795 RAF heavy bombers and thirty-eight Mosquitoes, went ahead as planned. The Met forecast indicated that there would be protective high cloud on the outward route when the moon would be up. A Met Flight Mosquito carried out a reconnaissance and reported that the protective cloud was unlikely to be present and that there could be cloud over the target, which would prevent accurate ground marked bombing, but the raid went ahead. Flight Sergeant (later Pilot Officer) Jim Marshallsay in 627 Squadron at Oakington was aloft in a Mosquito this night as a ‘Window Opener’ for the heavies with navigator Sergeant (later Pilot Officer) Nigel ‘Nick’ Ranshaw by his side as usual. Nestling in the bomb bay were four 500lb bombs. By the time the two airmen had joined 627 Squadron in November 1943 they had flown fourteen LNSF trips on 139 Squadron, beginning with the big Hamburg raid of July 1943. Marshallsay recalls:

Sometimes just a handful of Mossies would set out for the big German cities, usually in the ‘moon period’ when it was much too bright for the ‘heavies’. If, on these trips, the weather was cloudy, it was possible to take off, climb into cloud, travel to Germany, bomb the target on ETA and return to base, having seen nothing but the runway lights at base on take-off and landing. If however the night was clear, with moonlight and stars, then you could get a hot reception from predicted flak and from the massive searchlight cones, especially at ‘Whitebait’, the code-name for Berlin. If you saw one of the attacking Mossies coned over the target, you took your chance, slipped in, bombed and slipped out again while the poor unfortunate in the cone was dazzled and blasted. When you got back for interrogation, if you had been the one in the cone, you got no sympathy from the other crews, just a lot of banter like, ‘Brave lads, taking the flak from us.’

The 30 March operation had started quite normally. We were airborne at 23.00 hours. ‘Window Opening’ meant that we had to be over the target before the first of the Marker aircraft and scatter Window to confuse the radar defences. The Lancs of 7 Squadron had taken off from Oakington about half an hour before us. The track to the target was past Brussels, then almost East between Koblenz and Bonn, on the so-called ‘long leg‘, then south to Nuremberg. As we turned onto this long leg we realized that something was going badly wrong. The moon was much too bright for the heavies. The expected cloud cover was not there.
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The Main Force was leaving persistent condensation trails, so there was a great white road in the air, leading into Germany. Combats soon broke out below us. As this was our 38th trip we knew what was happening to the heavies. First a long burst of tracer from the night fighter, then a ripple of flame from the wings of the Lanc or Halifax. A short interval, then a massive explosion and fire on the ground. Nick logged the first few crashes, but after we had seen sixteen go down in 6 minutes, he stopped, preferring to use his time and eyes searching for fighters. We later learned that over fifty heavies had gone down on the long leg.
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Nuremberg, when we reached it, was covered in cloud.
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We threw out our Window, dropped our bombs and circled to watch the attack develop, but little could be seen except for a few Wanganui flares. Nick said ‘we’re going straight home’ and that is what we did. We turned the aircraft’s nose towards Oakington and left at a great pace, landing at base at 03.17 hours, a trip of 4 hours 17 minutes. After interrogation we had our operational egg and as we left the mess to go to our beds, the first of the 7 Squadron Lancs were circling to land. The cloud base had lowered and there were flurries of snow in the air. Whereas we had taken the direct route to base from Nuremberg, the heavies were routed North of Paris, to Dieppe, Selsey Bill and home. The difference in flying times shows how fortunate we were to be operating in Mosquitoes.
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