Mosquito: Menacing the Reich: Combat Action in the Twin-engine Wooden Wonder of World War II (62 page)

Chapter 9

232
Other neighbouring buildings were also taken over, including the offices of the Association of Engineers (Ingeniorhuset), which formed the northern continuation of the east wing of the
Shellhaus
. Its longest facade faced south along Kampmannsgade and there were two shorter wings, one facing west on Nyropsgade and the other facing east on Vester Farimagsgade. On each of the corners on Kampmannsgade there were two huge glass windows giving light to the main staircase.

233
and
234
Assisted by experts of specialist departments and a large staff the
Gestapo
began to assemble files about the resistance movement. Card index systems were used to store names, descriptions, and photographs. aliases and every other known detail of all Danes suspected or wanted by the
Gestapo
. Prisoners were kept in cells in the Vestre Fængsel (Western Prison) and brought to the
Shellhaus
for interrogation. At first the cellars were used to torture uncooperative captives so that their screams would not disturb the staff working above but later interrogations and torture were carried out on the fourth and fifth floors. A number of Danish
Nazis
assisted the
Gestapo
and others received training at the
Shellhaus
to infiltrate the resistance and inform against their compatriots. Not many prisoners passed through
Gestapo
hands without being tortured. The underground operated on the rule that if a member was arrested all code-names, addresses and meeting places were immediately changed. Consequently. the interrogations were usually most severe in the first 48 hours after capture because any information obtained later would most likely be out of date.
The Shell House Raid
by Douglas Hinton.
After The Battle
, No.13. 2001.

235
The Shell House Raid
by Douglas Hinton.
After The Battle,
No.13. 2001.

236
The
Sickerkeitsdienst des Reicksführers Schutzstaffeln
or SD, was an espionage organisation both for the Nazi party and for the State, which also assisted in the work of the security police (
Sickerheitspolizei
). Recruitment to the SD was secret and members did not wear uniform. The
Sickerheitspolizei
included the criminal police and the
Gestapo
(
Geheime Staatspolizei
).
The Sixth Floor
by Robin Reilly. (Leslie Frewin 1969).

237
On 2 February ‘Daddy’ Dale and Hackett, his navigator, went missing on a night patrol. On 6 February the squadron transferred to Rosières-en-Santerre and shortly afterwards Wing Commander Victor R. Oates took over command. He and his navigator F. C. Gubbings failed to return from a sortie on 12 March and Peter Kleboe arrived to take over the squadron.

238
Operation Carthage
by Kjeld Sasbye. Denmark 1994.

239
Altogether, evidence of at least 11 bomb explosions was found after the raid in the Frederiksberg Allé-Maglekildevei area just behind the northwestern corner of the school.
The Shell House Raid
by Douglas Hinton.
After The Battle
, No.13. 2001.

240
The Shell House Raid
by Douglas Hinton.
After The Battle
, No.13. 2001.

241
Aage Schoch became managing Editor of Denmark’s leading Conservative newspaper. Mogens Fog became a member of Denmark’s first port-war government and in 1967 he became Vice Chancellor and Rector of Copenhagen University.

242
The Sixth Floor
by Robin Reilly. (Leslie Frewin 1969). Pøul Sørensen became chairman of the Danish Conservative Party and in 1967, Minister for Internal Affairs. Tiemroth retired from the army in the 1970s with the rank of major general. Professor Rehberg became chairman of Denmark’s Atomic Energy Commission.

243
Becker’s body was discovered in an unmarked grave on the Danish island of Samsø. Becker was Jewish and all his family were eradicated by the holocaust.

244
Coe was killed in a flying accident on 6 April 1945. Squadron Leader W. P. Kemp RNZAF and Flight Lieutenant R. Peel in PZ339 and New Zealanders Flying Officers G. L. Peet and L. A. Graham in SZ985 returned safely. Flight Lieutenant R. J. Dempsey and Flight Sergeant E. J. Paige RAAF in PZ462 had one engine damaged by a single bullet in the coolant system over the west coast of Jutland and flew 400 miles home with the engine feathered.

245
Pattison broke R/T silence with the message “
Z-Zebra- Christmas
” the code for a forced landing in Sweden. The aircraft had been hit on the port engine, which began to burn fiercely. Flying towards the Oresound, with hopes of making it across the water to neutral Sweden, the aircraft lost height rapidly and control was difficult. The Mosquito was last seen as it ditched in Oresound 1 km ESE of the Swedish Hveen Island. The crew was spotted standing on the wing, but the weather conditions made it impossible to launch a rescue boat. Both men were posted as missing believed killed in action - no bodies were ever recovered. The wreck of the Mosquito has since been precisely located at a depth of 115ft.

246
Bob Bateson retired as an Air Vice Marshal in 1967. In May 1951 Ted Sismore qualified as a pilot and he retired as an Air Commodore in February 1971.

Chapter 10

247
The ‘Flying Elephants’ were commanded by Wing Commander James Brindley Nicolson, famous as the only Battle of Britain pilot to have been awarded the Victoria Cross, which he had gained for his actions on 17 August 1940. Despite terrible burns sustained in the action, Nicolson recovered and in 1942 he had been posted as station commander to Alipore, Calcutta. On 25 December he and Flying Officer Thompson made strafing attacks on Japanese railway targets. Nicolson flew 27 Squadron’s final Mosquito operation on 9 March 1944: a reconnaissance of Japanese airfields. Later, as commander of training at SEAC, he spent some time with Liberator crews, studying the results of aircrew training operationally. On 1 May 1945 Nicolson was lost aboard a Liberator involved in a night raid on Rangoon.

248
This feat earned a commendation from Air Commander EAC, Major General George E. Stratemeyer and Flying Officer Winship later received a mention in dispatches. MAA archives as compiled and edited by Norman Maloyney of the West Canadian Air Museum.

249
This flight earned Newman the DFC and Smith the DFM.

250
In May Wing Commander A. C. Stumm, the Australian CO of 45 Squadron and Flight Lieutenant McKerracher RAAF were killed at Amarda Road when their Mosquito broke up during a practice attack. On 13 September Flying Officer W. C. Tuproll and Flight Sergeant V. A. Boll of 82 Squadron died when their FB.VI crashed while making dummy attacks on another aircraft. Wing Commander L. V. Hudson, the CO, thought that a gluing fault had caused failure of the wing or tail. Then on 4 October the wing leading edge of a 45 Squadron FB.VI buckled in flight, but the pilot, Sergeant Bourke RAAF was able to land safely. On 10 October Flight Lieutenant Dick Campbell RCAF and Flight Lieutenant’s Rimmel, 143 RSU’s Chief Technical Officer, were killed in a crash near Bishnupur. Sergeant C. J. Cabot arrived from HQ Base Air Forces the following day to investigate the accidents. On 20 October two more Mosquitoes crashed. An 82 Squadron aircraft flown by Flying Officer A. E. Parker and Flying Officer M. D. Randall shed half its starboard wing during a practice bombing attack on Random Range and a 45 Squadron aircraft flown by Sergeant Edwards broke up when about to land at Kumbhirgram, Assam.

251
In the UK a series of fatal flying accidents among Mosquitoes of various marks (at the rate of two to four per month from January to June 1944) was attributed to failure of the wing structure. HQ 8 Group reported alarm over nine accidents in the 10 weeks 27 June-16 September, some caused by wing failure.

252
At first it seemed that the defects were restricted to the FB.VIs built at Canley by Standard Motors Ltd. Of 24 such aircraft inspected by 8 November, 23 had defects adjacent to Rib 12, located 6ft from the wingtips. But within four days, de Havilland at Hatfield had found similar faults in 16 Mosquitoes produced. An investigating team led by Major Hereward de Havilland arrived in India on 26 November and a week later reported that the accidents were not caused by deterioration of glue, but by extensive shrinkage of airframes during the monsoon season. However, an investigation by Cabot and Myers attributed the accidents definitively to faulty manufacture. Myers signalled: ‘Defects not due to climatic conditions. The standard of glueing…leaves much to be desired.’ Meanwhile, an inspection team at the Ministry of Aircraft Production at Defford found that six different marks of Mosquito, all built by de Havilland at Hatfield and Leavesden showed signs of similar defects. Yet none of the aircraft had been exposed to monsoon conditions, nor had termites attacked them! In 684 Squadron there was no uncertainty about the cause of the grounding of the Mosquitoes. The 12 November 1944 entry in the Operations Record Book says: ‘Section of wing-tip splicing on some aircraft found to be defective due to inferior workmanship at the factories building these components.’

253
To cure the problem, a plywood strip was inserted along the span of the wing to seal the whole length of the skin joint along the main spar. Despite this remedy altering the aerofoil section of the wing, it seems that Mod 638, as it was called had no effect on performance. The modification was applied to all Mosquitoes in production in Australia, but few, if any, sets were sent to India, where Mosquitoes found to have skin defects were simply struck off charge. 84 Squadron Mosquitoes saw no action against Japan but they were used, along with 47, 82 and 110 Squadrons, in late 1945 against Indonesian separatists until more faulty wing-structures were discovered in some FB.VIs. The aircraft were again grounded briefly for inspection.

254
45 Squadron at 1672 MCU at Yelahanka, near Bangalore, had been the first to convert from the Vengeance to the Mosquito, in February 1944.

255
The Mossie
, Magazine of the MAA, No.27 January 2001.

256
Offensive operation by fighter aircraft, which had originated in Europe where these operations were used as a means of tying down enemy aircraft in the west to prevent them being sent east to the Russian Front.

257
While awaiting posting to 684 Squadron Pridmore and Campbell had been posted to 143 RSU at Bishnupar as a test crew for repaired Mosquitoes. On 10 October Campbell was asked to test a Mosquito whose exhaust shrouds had been burnt out leaving no shield to the exhaust flames. Campbell, anticipating a fire risk, did not want to fly this aircraft but Flight Lieutenant Rimmel, the Chief Technical Officer of 143 RSU, persuaded him it was safe and to let him go in Pridmore’s place. He was watching from the ground and saw the wing break off when the Mosquito was at about 8,000ft. The aircraft spun in to wild scrub away from the airfield. Subsequent investigation revealed blood and feathers at the point of impact where a large Kite Hawk had broken the plywood skin causing the main spar to separate at the joint.

258
The Mossie
, Vol.11 August 1995.

259
The Mossie,
MAA, Vol.17 August 1997.

260
Wing Commander D. B. Pearson of 681 Squadron had flown over Everest on 26 May in a Spitfire. He was the first pilot to do so since the Houston Expedition of 1933 and he had taken photos of the mountain and the Rongbuk Glacier.

261
They had teamed up in October 1941 when they joined 604 Squadron on Mosquito night fighters. Constable-Maxwell had gained the first of his three confirmed Mosquito victories on 30 March 1943 on 264 Squadron when he destroyed a He 111. His second victory in a Mosquito followed on 15/16 May 1944 when he destroyed a Ju 188 off the Isle of Wight. On 2/3 July 1944 Constable-Maxwell and John Quinton destroyed a Ju 88 and followed this on 8/9 July with the destruction of another Ju 88 over France. Constable-Maxwell returned to the UK in December 1947 and in April 1948 took leave of absence to go to Ampleforth Monastery as a novice, where he remained for the next four years. He returned to the RAF in November 1952, retiring from the service in June 1964. On 13 August 1951 while on a navigation course at 228 OCU at RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire John Quinton was on board a Wellington detailed for an airborne interception exercise with a Martinet. During the exercise the Martinet and Wellington collided over the hamlet of Hauxwell near Richmond. The force of the impact caused the Wellington to break up and go out of control. Quinton picked up the only parachute within reach and clipped it on to ATC Cadet Derek Coates’ harness. Pointing to the ripcord Quinton indicated that the cadet should jump. A large hole then appeared in the side of the Wellington flinging the cadet clear. Coates was the only survivor from the six men aboard the Wellington and he survived to tell the story of Quinton’s unselfish act of bravery. Both men in the Martinet also died. For his heroism John Quinton was awarded the George Cross. Each year the Quinton Cup is awarded to the most efficient ATC Squadron in the North West region. Derek Coates emigrated to Perth, Australia. John Quinton lies buried in Leeming village cemetery along with three other members of the Wellington crew.

262
On 10 July 1945 a fifth PR.34 (RG191/M) joined No 2 Detachment on the Cocos Islands but on the 14th, flying out on a sortie, the port engine began vibrating when 450 miles out. The pilot, Flight Lieutenant Edwards, feathered the propeller and jettisoned his wing-tanks, but the aircraft lost height and crashed in the sea on final approach. For several days the Mosquitoes’ objectives over areas of western Malaya, in preparation for Operation
Zipper,
were cloud-covered but Squadron Leader Newman and Warrant Officer Reg Smith, in RG185/Z, obtained satisfactory cover of Jahote Bharu and Singapore Island on the 16th. On 22 July Flight Lieutenant D. Warwick and Flying Officer C. Jowles in RG186/C covered more airfield sites at Batu Pabat, Yong Peng and Kluang in Johore State, Malaya. Four days later Newman and Flight Sergeant Pateman in RG184/X obtained further airfield coverage of Aitmotek in Sumatra, of Changi on the coast, Singapore Island, Tebtati, Bato Pahat and Lumut (Sitiawan) on the west coast.