Mosquito: Menacing the Reich: Combat Action in the Twin-engine Wooden Wonder of World War II (37 page)

New crews replaced those lost. Among them was Flight Sergeant John R. Smith, a navigator in 248 Squadron and his pilot, Flight Lieutenant Peter McIntyre, whom he had teamed up with at the OTU at East Fortune in the autumn of 1944 on one of only two Mosquitoes (the rest were Beaufighters).
¹⁹⁷
Smith recalls:

The first day on the squadron we were not flying and so I went on the roof of Flying Control to see the ‘famous’ formation of three Mosquitoes take off on the runway at the same time. Group Captain Max Aitken was watching too. He turned round and said to me, “They are a beautiful sight, aren’t they?” He added, “You’re new at the Banff Wing?” I said I was. He then said he believed all pilots and navigators should be commissioned officers, as in the American air force and would recommend me if I went and saw him after I’d done a few operations.

April dawned and on 2 April the Mosquitoes flew an operation to Sanderfjord. Navigator Frank Hawthorne relates the details:

Flight Lieutenant Bob Golightly and I were briefed and set course from Banff on a reconnaissance flight to South West Norway. Our flight plan was to cross the coast where the anti-aircraft site, as we knew, was equipped with lesser armament than our Mosquito. In the event we crossed the Norwegian coast heading directly towards the anti-aircraft site, menacing them with our cannon and machine guns. This elicited no response until we were practically overhead when they opened fire and caught us with their first burst; very commendable deflection shooting considering we had increased speed for the transit. We hurriedly vacated the area heading westward over the coast to the North Sea where we tried to evaluate the damage. It appeared we had been hit in the fuselage, fortunately aft of the cockpit, but Bob discovered he had to hold the stick back to maintain level flight. I gave him a course for Banff but in these circumstances he felt his arms would not cope satisfactorily in landing the aircraft and we should change seats (as we had done frequently on previous occasions) and I would fly the aircraft back to base. On our arrival at Banff, we changed seats and Bob set about landing the aircraft. However on selecting undercarriage down, only one leg came down, the other remaining stubbornly retracted in spite of Bob doing manoeuvres to shake it down. Use of the emergency hand pump proved fruitless in bringing one leg down or pumping the other leg up. So we were committed to this asymmetric attitude for landing. Tightening our straps. As we approached Bob selected ‘undercarriage up’, bounced the one leg at the beginning of the runway, sending it to the retracted position and we settled down to an orthodox belly landing. Hitting the runway with a thud it seemed to me that something fell to the floor of the cockpit. We skidded along the runway to a halt and fortunately there was no fire. Bob and I exited through the top escape hatch and jumped down onto the runway. Checking later I found that the starboard propeller had ripped through the side of the fuselage, flicked my trouser leg and exited again. Just another day?

On 5 April thirty-seven Mosquitoes escorted by Mustangs flew across Denmark to attack a widely spread out and heavily-armed convoy in the Kattegat. Every ship in the convoy was left on fire and sinking and an estimated 900 German soldiers were lost. One
Sperrbrecher
sank with all hands, 200 bodies being recovered by Swedish vessels. An escorting Mustang was shot down over Denmark and a Mosquito crash-landed with the crew picked up by the Danish Underground.

With the war almost over the Mosquito crews had yet to obtain a confirmed U-boat ‘kill’ all to themselves. All that was about to change on 9 April when thirty-one rocket-projectile FB.VIs of 248, 143 and 235 Squadrons led by Squadron Leader Bert Gunnis
DFC
with five others as fighter cover and DZ592, a 2nd TAF photo-Mosquito were despatched to Norway on the look out for enemy shipping. Flight Sergeant John R. Smith recalls:

This was my most memorable day. It began with the morning briefing for a wing sweep through the Skagerrak and Kattegat, looking for enemy shipping to attack. We were told that our Mosquito, Q-Queen was unserviceable, but as our new Wing Commander, Jackson-Smith, wasn’t flying that day, we were told we could have his K-King, a brand new aircraft. When we prepared for take-off it refused to start for some minutes. When we were finally ready, all of the others were airborne and heading for Peterhead to get in formation. We had some difficulty getting off the runway, nearly removing the top deck of a passing bus! We flew flat-out to catch up and take our position in the formation. We went through the Skagerrak without seeing anything and were heading back to Banff when we saw three U-boats
¹⁹⁸
line astern on the surface of the Kattegat, coming from Denmark and heading for Norway. We did not hear any order to attack
¹⁹⁹
but when the leading aircraft in our formation attacked the leading U-boat, Peter decided to attack the middle one with our rockets and cannon. He scored direct hits and the U-boat blew up. We normally flew at about 50ft to beat the German radar but we were well below this; probably only about 20-25ft. As we passed over the U-Boat, straight into the explosion, some debris hit us and it knocked out our starboard engine.
²⁰⁰
We had been told that in the event of serious trouble, not to try to get back to base but to make for neutral Sweden. So we announced over the wireless we were making for
Brighton
, code-name for the day for Sweden. We did not hear any reply. It would seem we were transmitting all right, but our receiver was out of order.

We set off for Sweden on a course I had given and managed to gain several hundred feet. We passed over what I believed to be the Swedish coastline when some anti-aircraft guns opened up. It brought immediate panic from Peter and even though I had been pretty sure I knew where we were, I began to worry a little. He shouted, “This isn’t Sweden; it’s Norway! And you know what the Germans are doing to PoWs.” (It was rumoured that they were castrating Allied aircrew.) It was Sweden. The Swedish AA gunners must have been practicing, as the shells did not burst near us. We limped on and some minutes later I recognized a viaduct that was marked on my map. It gladdened my heart, for I knew we were spot-on course for an airfield I had headed for. Peter immediately brightened up and told me to get rid of the ARO, which was secret.

We came upon the airfield and he made a perfect one-engined landing far superior to the practice ones he had made at home. I pressed the two small buttons on my right, which destroyed the IFF and Gee box. When we got out of the aircraft, Peter got down on his knees and kissed the ground. He got up, put his arm around me and said, “Good old Smitty. You knew where you were all the time, didn’t you?” I didn’t say anything. A Swedish Air Force officer with a revolver in his right hand wasn’t taking any chances, but he shook hands with us with his left. “Welcome to Sweden,” he said, in perfect English.
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On 11 April thirty-five Mosquitoes made another attack on Porsgrunn. Bf 109G14s shot down two, although the remainder left four merchantmen sinking. Next day an FB.XVIII of 248 Squadron, one of five Tsetses sent on detachment to 254 Beaufighter Squadron at North Coates, attacked a U-boat in the North Sea. The Tsetse detachment was used primarily for operations against midget submarines and U-boats, with Spitfire XXIs for cover. Two Tsetses found five U-boats on the surface on 18 April. The XVIIIs got off just one round each before the submarines crash-dived. On 19 April the FB.VIs at Banff sank U-251 in the Kattegat. On 21 April forty-two FB.VIs of 235, 248, 143 and 333 Squadrons led by Wing Commander Christopher Foxley-Norris, CO, 143 Squadron, engaged eighteen Junkers Ju 88s of KG26 inbound from Gardermoen, Denmark to attack convoy JW66, which had left the Clyde three days before. Twenty-four Mustang escorts missed the mêlée, having sought and gained permission to return early for a party at Peterhead! The Mosquitoes shot down five Ju 88A-17 and four Ju 188A-3 torpedo carrying aircraft. Two of the Ju 88s were shot down by two 333 Squadron crews, Lieutenant Thorlief Eriksen and 2nd Lieutenant Johan Hansen-Just and Flight Lieutenant ‘Bob’ Golightly and Flying Officer Frank Hawthorne. Hawthorne remembers:

We approached from the port quarter. Bright flashes emitted from the Junkers machine gun positions and Bob returned fire with a three-secondburst and these ceased. On our firing again the Ju 88 exploded at 15ft above sea level. Debris embedded itself in the plywood as we took avoiding action.

The next day 404 ‘Buffalo’ Squadron RCAF flew its first operation from Banff since replacing its Beaufighter Xs with Mosquito VIs in March. They sank a Bv 138 flying boat at her moorings but the squadron had little time left to make an impression as the war in Europe was now drawing to a close. However, on 2 May, a strike by twenty-seven Mosquitoes in the Kattegat resulted in the sinking of U2359. On 4 May Wing Commander Christopher Foxley-Norris
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led forty-eight Mosquitoes of 143, 235, 248, 333 Norwegian and 404 ‘Buffalo’ Squadrons, escorted by eighteen Mustangs on the last large-scale shipping strike of the war to the Kattegat. Three ASR Warwicks with airborne lifeboats were available should they be needed. The Mosquitoes sighted a very heavily armed convoy, which they immediately attacked at low level. Flight Lieutenant Gerald Yeates
DFC
* with his navigator Flight Lieutenant Tommy Scott of 248 Squadron attacking a German destroyer flew so low that they carried away, in the nose of their Mosquito, the top of the mast of the destroyer complete with pennant. The wing had its last loss when Flight Lieutenant Thorburn
DFC
failed to return. This final, massive, battle was the end of the shooting war for the strike wing but patrols for U-boat crews who might be inclined to continue the fight, went on until 21 May, when four Mosquitoes of 143 and 248 Squadrons found only passive E-boats.

The Banff Wing provided escorts for the King of Norway as he sailed back to his country under heavy naval escort. Days later a schnorkel was seen and attacked by a single Mosquito from 404 ‘Buffalo’ Squadron RCAF. By 25 May the rapid run down of the anti-shipping wing had begun. No.489 Squadron RNZAF converted from the Beaufighter Mosquito FB.VI in June when the war was over and disbanded at Banff on 1 August 1945.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Star and Bar

I
n 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 (PFBs) to illuminate and obtain evidence of enemy troop movements and bridge construction conducted under the cover of darkness.
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American Mosquitoes were also used on Skywave long-range navigation missions using LORAN. Daylight missions code-named PRU, using still and motion picture photography and H
2
X ‘Mickey’ flights. Mosquitoes brought back bomb-approachstrips, or target run-ups, which were used to brief the key radar navigator-bombardier of the bomber mission and to sight the bomb target through the overcast during the actual bombing. Three Mickey sorties flown at night failed to return and later, four P-38 Lightnings were assigned to escort the H
2
X missions going in at high altitudes.

The date for the D-Day invasion was determined by intelligence gathered on ‘Dillies’ (night photography missions of coastal defences). A local storm front, forming suddenly east of Iceland on 5 June and monitored by the Bluestockings, postponed the invasion for one day until 6 June. On D-Day a Mosquito flown by Lieutenant Colonel George O. Doherty, the 25th Bomb Group CO and Major John C. Walch flew a morning photography mission over the Normandy beachhead. Later that day the 25th Bomb Group suffered its first Mosquito loss when Captain Walter D. Gernand and Sergeant Ebbet C. Lynch, an 8th CCU cameraman, were killed returning from a photo reconnaissance mission to the beachhead and beyond when they hit a hill in darkness near High Wycombe. A month later, on 6 July, 1st Lieutenant John J. Mann and 2nd Lieutenant William L. Davis were lost over the Channel on a weather scouting mission for the 1st Bomb Division. In August another weather scout Mosquito was lost when a PR.XVI failed to return from the last leg of the 8th Air Force Russian Shuttle mission from Italy to England. (Light Weather Squadron PR.XVIs fitted with LORAN accompanied the two 8th AF Frantic shuttle bombing missions to the Ukraine).
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Lieutenant Ralph Fisher, who had flown a 653rd Squadron Mosquito on the first shuttle mission, briefed 1st Lieutenant Ronald M. Nichols and 2nd Lieutenant Elbert F. Harris, who would fly scout on the second. Nichols had flown a tour of missions on Fortresses and the shuttle mission would be his 57th mission. For Harris it was his 20th. Seventy-six Fortresses escorted by sixty-four P-51s were to bomb the Focke Wulf plant at Rahmel in Poland
en route
to the Ukraine and later fly home via Italy and France. A US Navy team arrived at Watton prior to departure and installed the LORAN receiver in their PR.XVI and checked Harris out on the equipment. He recounts his experiences:

We took off on schedule, flew parallel to the bomber stream going to Berlin, caught up with our task force and proceeded to the target area. The weather was clear over Germany and Poland; no problems. We spotted four fighters slightly above and some distance to the right, but they didn’t come after us. We waited in the area for the bomb drop and were pleased to report an excellent pattern on the target. Shortly after, we left and passed the bombers and fighters on our course, which took us 75-100 miles to the west of Warsaw. The Germans were suppressing the Polish underground uprising and the city was being destroyed while the Soviets sat idly by on the outskirts of the city. Most of the city seemed to be in flames. There was a huge plume of smoke rising to about 30,000ft, which could be seen from 200 miles away on our course. Our orders were to drop to 6,000ft at Kiev and to remain at this altitude to Poltava. Lieutenant Fisher told us about the tendency of the Soviets to fire AA and the Soviet fighters to attack American planes and since we believed we were the lead plane contingent, we were most apprehensive during our descent. As it turned out, the other Mosquito arrived slightly ahead of us and there were no incidents. We received good reception on the LORAN from Britain till we let down to 6,000ft at Kiev. The Italian chain signal was good at first. Then it became intermittent until we lost it over Poland. Since the weather was good, I could cheek against both Gee and pilotage, finding good agreement between the fixes. We landed at Poltava and were guided to a parking spot. Our fuel was low but not critical when we arrived.

The B-17s arrived and flew a bombing mission later against a Polish synthetic-oil refinery. Nichols and Harris flew scout for the mission, which was uneventful and the bombing pattern excellent. Then, on 8 August, the shuttle force took off for San Severo, one of many B-17 bases in the Foggia area of Italy, bombing two Rumanian airfields
en route
. On 12 August the force flew back to Britain on the last stage of their shuttle, bombing the French aircraft complex, Avion Sud and the adjacent Francazal airfield at Toulouse
en route
. Nichols and Harris flew ahead scouting the weather, reporting back to the bomber leader. At about 11.45 hours, north of the target area, their PR.XVI was attacked by P-51s of the 357th Fighter Group who mistook the Mosquito for a Ju 88. Harris recalls:

Tracers passed above us. Nick began evasive action but too late. The next burst was in and around the right engine and we were on fire. The tracers kept coming around and into the Mosquito. I was wearing a chest chute harness. As I leaned down to pick up my chute pack, the Mosquito tilted and I was thrown violently against the floor. I strained to push myself up but couldn’t move. The Mosquito had gone into a high-speed stall and followed with a tight spin. Nick was fighting the controls but the Mosquito wasn’t responding. A sheet of flames extended from and along the trailing edge of the right wing, caused by gasoline pouring from the right wing-tank. As I shoved my escape kit into my shirt front I was considering my alternatives: bale out the top hatch and be killed by the tail stabilizer, or go out the bottom, catch fire and be burned to death. Judging that there was little time left before the aircraft exploded, I decided to take my chances on the tail. I pulled the release for the top hatch and it flew off. I climbed out and pushed out and down. Before closing my eyes I glimpsed fierce flames under the fuselage. There was a roaring sheet of flame from under the right wing with streamers of fire. I was hit by the horizontal stabilizer, bounced off it and fell away spinning…

The Mosquito went out of control into a spin and crashed at Pujaudran, a small village 15 miles west of Toulouse. Elbert Harris, who had burns and a bullet wound in the shoulder, survived but Nichols was killed. Harris was picked up by Yves Busquère and Denise Gaby, who rendered first aid, gave shelter and then passed him to the local French Underground. Harris was picked up by a 161 Squadron Hudson on 5 September and flown back to England where he called ‘Nick’ Nichols’ fiancée, a dietician in an army hospital near Plymouth.

American Mosquitoes accompanied Project Aphrodite and Anvil pilotless drone operations using war-weary B-17s and PB4Y-1 Liberators respectively. Each aircraft was packed with 18,000lb of Torpex, a nitroglycerine compound and was flown to a point over the English coast or North Sea where the pilot and copilot baled out. The drone would fly on and be directed onto its target (normally a V-1 or V-2 site) by remote control via a Ventura ‘mother ship’. Strike analysis depended upon the films brought back by the accompanying Mosquitoes to determine the success, or failure, of the mission. Each Aphrodite and Anvil mission was preceded by a Bluestocking weather reconnaissance flight over the target by a 653rd Bomb Squadron Mosquito. After the drone was airborne, a Mosquito in the 654th Bomb Squadron joined the mission carrying an 8th Combat Camera Unit (CCU) crewman. The mission was to fly close to the drone and photograph its flight and its effects. These photographs were used to analyze all angles of the flight and to improve methods and equipment used on such missions. Some of the 8th CCU cameramen came from the Hal Roach Studios in Hollywood, where they trained alongside movie stars making training films, such as Ronald Reagan (the Administrative Officer), Alan Ladd, Van Heflin, John Carroll and others.

On 4 August 1944 of four Aphrodite B-17s, or ‘Babies’, despatched to No-ball sites in the Pas de Calais, one crashed in England, killing its pilot: the second refused to dive over the target and was destroyed by flak; the third overshot and the fourth undershot. On 6 August two Aphrodite drones crashed and exploded. The missions were photographed by Staff Sergeant August ‘Augie’ Kurjack and 1st Lieutenant David J. McCarthy in 25th Bomb Group Mosquitoes. Kurjack ran about 50ft of movie film of the crash in England. McCarthy’s Mosquito, flown by 1st Lieutenant Robert A. Tunnell, an American from Eureka, California, who had enlisted in the RCAF in 1941 and then joined the USAAF in 1943, picked up some flak and flew home on one engine. The US Navy’s first Project Anvil mission went ahead on 12 August. Some 21,170lb of Torpex was distributed throughout the PB4Y-1 Liberator, together with six demolition charges each containing 113lb of TNT. The pilot for the Anvil mission was Lieutenant Joseph

P. Kennedy Jr, at 29, the eldest son of Joseph Kennedy, the former US Ambassador to Britain and who had flown a tour of missions from Dunkeswell with VB-110. ‘Bud’ Willy was co-pilot. Their target was a secret weapon site at Mimoycques, which concealed a three-barrelled 150-mm artillery piece, designed to fire 600 tons of explosives a day on London.

A Mosquito flown by Tunnell, with McCarthy in the right-hand seat, followed behind the formation of two Ventura ‘mother ships’, Kennedy’s Liberator, a navigational B-17, a P-51 Mustang and a P-38 Lightning. The mission proceeded satisfactorily to Blythburgh when, at 1,500ft, two explosions ripped the Liberator asunder. McCarthy reported:

We had just decided to close in on the ‘Baby’. I was flying in the nose of the plane so that I could get some good shots of the ‘Baby’ in flight ahead of us. The ‘Baby’ just exploded in mid-air. As we heard it I was knocked halfway back to the cockpit. A few pieces of the ‘Baby’ came through the Plexiglas nose and I got hit in the head and caught a lot of fragments in my right arm.

McCarthy crawled back to the cockpit and lowered the wheels. Tunnell concludes:

I didn’t get a scratch but I was damn near scared to death. The Mosquito went up a few hundred feet and I didn’t get any response from my controls. I was setting to reach for my parachute but decided to check the controls again. This time they responded and I decided to try and make a landing. One engine was out and the other was smoking. We were near a field so I headed straight for it. We made a good landing and then the second motor cut out. I had just enough speed left to get the Mosquito off the runway, but I couldn’t taxi onto a hardstand. I’m sure glad that the pictures of our previous mission were good because I don’t think we’re going to get that close to the ‘Baby’ again.

A dozen drone missions were flown before the British advance overran the Pas de Calais area. Several attempts were made to convert Mosquitoes into ‘mother ships’ but they were not used operationally.

On 13 August 1st Lieutenant Dean H. Sanner and Staff Sergeant Augie Kurjack filmed the flight paths of Disney glide bombs released from under the wings of B-17s at U-boat pens at Le Havre, France and photographed any damage to the submarine pens. Captain Edward Terrell RN had invented the 18ft long, 2,000lb bombs, powered by a rocket motor in the tail and they were designed to pierce 20ft of concrete before exploding. The first was not going to hit anything, so Sanner broke off the pursuit and climbed back to follow the second glide bomb. At the Initial Point the second bomb was released and he zigzagged back and forth considerably to hold the faster Mosquito behind the slower glide bomb. As Sanner flew over the bomb it exploded. The blast blew him out of the aircraft. His cameraman was killed. Sanner suffered a broken leg and injuries to his right arm and was captured within the hour. He finished the war in
Stalag Luft
I.