Mosquito: Menacing the Reich: Combat Action in the Twin-engine Wooden Wonder of World War II (7 page)

Harris’s night bombing offensive was gaining in intensity and the PRU, as a consequence had to fly an ever-increasing number of target acquisition and bomb damage assessment sorties. With attrition losses mounting
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more long-range PR aircraft had to be found. Accordingly, between April and June 1942 four NF.IIs and two B.IV bomber variants
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were diverted to the PRU as PR.IIs and PR.IVs, respectively. While the NF.IIs lacked long-range tanks, the B.IVs had bomb-bay tanks and two 50-gallon underwing slipper type drop tanks, to give the aircraft a range of 2,350 miles – enough to reach northern Norway and back. With three vertical camersa and one oblique camera installed, Flight Lieutenant Ricketts
DFC
and Sergeant Lukhmanoff performed the first operational sortie in a PR.IV on 29 April, in DK284, to overfly Augsburg, Stuttgart and Saarbrücken in a five-and-a-half-hour flight. On 24 April they used W4059 to take photos of the disastrous daylight raid by sixteen Lancasters of 44 and 97 Squadrons on the MAN
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U-boat engine works at Augsburg on 17 April. On 7 May Ricketts and Lukhmanoff flew the deepest penetration over enemy territory thus far when they photographed Dresden, Pilsen and Regensburg, returning after six hours. On 14 May the unit’s CO, Wing Commander Spencer Ring
RCAF
made the first operational flight in a PR.II when he piloted DD615 to photograph Alderney. On 25 May Ricketts and Lukhmanoff overflew Billancourt, Poissy and Le Bourget in this aircraft and on the 27th, Pilot Officer Gerry R. Wooll
RCAF
and Sergeant John Fielden crewed DD615 when they photographed Amiens. On 10 June Ricketts and Lukhmanoff flew a 7¾-hour sortie to Spezia, Lyons and Marseilles, but their luck finally ran out on 11 July when they were lost in W4089 overflying Strasbourg and Ingolstadt.

At Leuchars during May and June 1942 PRU Mosquitoes attempted to find and photograph the German battleships berthed in the Norwegian fjords. On 15 May the first PR sortie to the Narvik area was flown by Flying Officer Higson in one of the PR.IVs. Next day a photographic sortie over Trondheim by Flight Lieutenant John Merrifield brought back photographs of the
Prinz Eugen
heading south-west, apparently making for Kiel for repairs to damage inflicted by the submarine HMS
Trident
. On 17 May Flying Officer K.H. Bayley and Flight Sergeant Little took photographs of the
Prinz Eugen
and four destroyers still
en route
for Kiel despite attacks by two squadrons of Coastal Command Beauforts from Wick. Further coverage of Trondheim on 22 and 23 May revealed that the
Tirpitz, Admiral Hipper
and
Lützow
were all still berthed in fjords. On 23 June Pilot Officer Robin Sinclair who was the son of Sir Archibald Sinclair Bart and Pilot Officer Nelson (in W4060) used the new 36-inch F52 camera to photograph the
Graf Zeppelin
, Germany’s only aircraft carrier, launched in 1938 and the battleship
Scharnhorst
in Gdynia. The
Graf Zeppelin
was last photographed at Swinemünde on 22 April but photographs taken on 5 May showed that the carrier had moved (it had put to sea for trials in the Baltic). Photographs taken on 23 June showed that
Graf Zeppelin
was berthed alongside the western edge of the Oder at Stettin. Subsequent photos showed no sign of activity and it was assumed, correctly as it turned out, that all work on the carrier’s development had been abandoned.
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On 6 July 1942 the newly-promoted Flight Lieutenant Bayley and Pilot Officer Little took off from Leuchars in W4060 at 12.30 hours for Wick to top up their tanks before heading for Norway to photograph the
Tirpitz
. However, they were forced to return to base when the long-range immersed fuel pump failed to function. The starboard undercarriage leg collapsed on touch down at Leuchars but the crew emerged unscathed from their crash-landing.
⁵⁷
PR.IV DK284 was prepared and at 21.30 hours Bayley and Little took off again for Wick. However, excessive temperature in the port engine forced the crew to return a second time and they landed at 23.05 hours. They took off for the third time at 05.30 hours on the 7th. A contemporary account of the sortie did not of course mention the setbacks and instead it painted a rosier picture for its readers.
⁵⁸

The Mosquito was something the RAF was still keeping up its bright blue sleeve… But in July, to the ordinary man and woman in the street, the mosquito was still a summer pest with a horrid appetite for sensitive skins. One of those lowly and thoroughly noisome creatures an incomprehensible Providence had allowed to multiply alarmingly in an already over-crowded world. Certainly never to be accorded the dignity of a capital M! However, as two Coastal Command men
⁵⁹
sat over their breakfast one bright July morning a twin-engined plane, clean-cut in line, sprouting cannon [sic], was warming up ready for a take-off. For those two excited and very proud men the only mosquito in the world was the one on the runway whose engines purred with the rhythm of power. They did not dally over the meal. The sun was beginning to find its real lustre when they climbed into the aircraft, settled themselves in their cockpits, checked quickly the instruments and radio and gave the ground staff the OK sign. The chocks were pulled away, the sleek length of the wooden frame shuddered slightly, and the Mosquito moved forward. It rose off the airfield, circled once and then headed east…the pilot knew his stuff. He headed straight out across the North Sea, making for the Norwegian coast. He kept high and thrilled at the effortless ease with which his Rolls-Royce Merlins pulled the aircraft through the air. He kept glancing at the speed gauge, fascinated by what it revealed.

Making the Norwegian coast Bayley turned due north, still keeping very high. Fifteen minutes short of Narvik the oxygen supply failed. Little placed his finger over a hole that had appeared in the oxygen tube and Bayley put the Mosquito’s nose down into a sharp dive at 450 mph to descend to 12,000ft. He pulled out of the dive suddenly and sent the Mosquito screaming away to the north-east. A glance below had revealed, spread over the surface of the sea at Arno in Langfjord, the German battle fleet and climbing to 14,000ft they photographed the battleships,
Tirpitz
,
Admiral Scheer
and
Hipper
, seven destroyers, two torpedo boats, three E- or R-boats and one
Altmark
tanker. They took an oblique photograph of a destroyer at Bogen and verticals of Bardufoss aerodrome and Tromsø before the 36-inch camera failed! Bayley and Little flew on to Vaenga in North East Russia where shortly before noon, they landed on the oiled sand-runway cut through a silver birch plantation, to refuel. According to a contemporary account:
⁶⁰

…the two Coastal Command men received a hearty welcome from the Russian airmen, who eyed the aircraft that had made the flight with keen, appreciative eyes. The British fliers were taken into the Russian mess for lunch, and a rare lunch it proved for men who had been on rations. There were mounds of pâté de foie gras, bottles of vodka, bortch, mountainous steaks of venison, piles of bright creamy butter and the samovars worked overtime producing cup after cup of what the pilot described as ‘the most perfect tea I have ever drunk.’ Lunch over and smoking cigarettes [Bayley and Little] were shown over the aerodrome and generally entertained by their hosts.
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At three o’clock they were back at the Mosquito in flying-kit, ready to take off. Seven and a half-hours later [flying at 12,000ft for most of the way], with daylight still in the English sky, they dropped down over their own landing-field, [at 20.50 hours] having made an uneventful flight. ‘We then had a late dinner’ [Bayley] recounted later. ‘Altogether we had been in the air 11 hours and 50 minutes. I was a bit cramped, since I couldn’t leave my seat, and had to wriggle my body to avoid stiffness.’

On 13 August a small PRU Detachment embarked for Vaenga. (Initially three elderly Spitfire IVs were used until on 23 September Squadron Leader M.J.B. Young
DFC
landed in W49061 for photo-reconnaissance sorties over Norway).
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Meanwhile, reconnaissance sorties were also made to Italy. On 24 August Flight Lieutenant Gerry R. Wooll
RCAF
and Sergeant John Fielden were dispatched in DK310 to confirm a report that Italian warships were putting to sea. They were to obtain photos of Venice, Trieste, Fiume and perhaps Pola, if conditions were right. DK310 took off from Benson and stopped at Ford to top-up its tanks before proceeding uneventfully to Venice. However, as Wooll departed the area the glycol pump on the starboard engine began malfunctioning. The shaft had become slightly elliptical and fluid began escaping. Within a few seconds, the engine seized. Wooll found the aircraft too heavy and unbalanced to attempt to continue on one engine and his problems were compounded a few minutes later when the port engine began overheating. Wooll headed for Switzerland and managed to put down safely at Belp airfield near Berne. After landing, Fielden tried unsuccessfully to set the aircraft on fire before the two men were marched off to a small village camp at Yen. After four months Wooll and Fielden were repatriated as part of an exchange deal which allowed two interned Bf 109 pilots to leave for Germany.
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On 19 October 1 PRU was re-formed at Benson as five PR squadrons.
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No.540 Squadron’s first operation was to Norway to photograph the
Tirpitz
and the
von Scheer
in Ofot Fjord. Shortly after, ‘B’ flight moved to Benson where Flight Lieutenant W.R. Alcott and Sergeant Leach photographed Le Creusot on the eastern side of the Massif Central, 200 miles south-east of Paris. The Schneider armaments factory had been bombed on the afternoon of 17 October by a force of ninety-four Lancasters of 5 Group
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and the crews had claimed a successful attack. However, Alcott’s and Leach’s sortie brought back photographs, which revealed that damage to the factory was not extensive and that much of the bombing had fallen short and had struck the workers housing estate near the factory.
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Flight Lieutenant W.R. Alcott and Sergeant Leach flew sorties to Milan, Genoa, Savona and Turin to obtain evidence of the results of heavy bombing raids during late October and November. Within days of being formed various 540 Squadron detachments were sent to Malta and Gibraltar to provide coverage for the ‘Torch’ landings in North Africa. Long and dangerous flights like these in unarmed Mosquitoes are often overlooked, while a contemporary wartime account added more than its fair share of romance. This flight was made by Sqn Ldr Rupert Clerke and his navigator:

…Work like the truly remarkable flight to Malta by way of France and Italy made by another Coastal Command crew flying a Mosquito. Here are the navigator’s own words, describing the journey: ‘We took off from England in fog, and set course directly for Venice, climbing to 24,000ft. The Alps were a breathtaking sight and visibility was now good. At 11.45 hours we sighted Venice, and after reconnoitring the city, harbour and aerodrome and clearly seeing a large battleship and a passenger liner, we flew over the shipbuilding-yards at Monfalcone, and then headed for Trieste. There were a number of naval vessels in the harbour. We noted these, set course for Fiume, and flew over the small port of Pola, on the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula’. It sounds very much like a peacetime tourist itinerary. These Mosquito airmen, flying in daylight, apparently wandered Italian skies as they wished. There is something about the complete success of the flight that smacks of covert nose-thumbing, a quiet impertinence that is breath-taking. ‘This job done,’ the navigator continues, in the same rich vein, ‘we set course for Rome. The cloud thinned as we approached, and, clearly showing amid the modern and well-planned streets of this ancient city, we saw the Colosseum. Final course was now set for Malta, a distance of 420 miles, with Sicily to cross. Soon the island loomed ahead, with Mount Etna easily visible to port. Losing height gradually, we spotted Luqa and made a perfect landing, a little over six hours after leaving England’.

The weather, after their arrival, turned unfavourable for flying, so for twenty-four hours these intrepid ‘tourists’ stayed on the island, but at six o’clock on the following morning they were in the air again and the nose of their Mosquito turned south. They headed for the North African coastline. ‘We then set course for Gibraltar,’ the narrative continues, ‘Malta to Gibraltar took just over 5 hours. Almost immediately after leaving Gibraltar we ran into heavy cloud and icing conditions, with the port engine missing occasionally, to keep us alive to the fact that we were not home yet’. But when they were over France the weather cleared, and they crossed the Breton coast somewhere just south of the U-boat base of Lorient. When one recalls the many squadrons of German fighters kept in that sector to deal with intrepid raiders, it almost seems as though the two men were throwing the enemy a dare. A dare, anyway, the Hun did not accept. They flew on and by radio pinpointed their exact position when well above heavy cloud once more. ‘At the right moment,’ the navigator concluded his account of the trip, ‘we came below cloud, and there was our base, right where it should have been. Never was there a more welcome sight. We had covered nearly 4,000 miles since leaving England  and had forgotten to eat our grapes!’
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On 1 October 1942 Pilot Officer Freddie ‘Mac’ McKay
RNZAF
made the first return trip to Malta, returning to Benson on the 4th. On 6 October a photographic reconnaissance of Upper Silesia by McKay revealed two oil plants at Blechhammer and one at Deschowitz, the existence of which was previously unknown. On 8 December ‘Mac’ and his navigator, Flight Sergeant Stan ‘Paddy’ Hope flew a long flight from Benson to Austria in a Mosquito PR.IV. Paddy Hope had flown operations on Blenheims and Beaufighters with Coastal Command before transferring to PRU Mosquitoes in May and he had completed twenty operations with ‘Mac’ McKay before this one. The starboard engine began to overheat and had to be feathered. ‘Paddy’ Hope set course for home but after a long, slow descent to about 5,000ft the port engine began to misfire from shortage of fuel. They only got as far as Enghien, south-west of Brussels in Belgium. Mac gave Stan Hope orders to bale out while he flew the stricken Mosquito a little further before he too baled out. Stan was able to evade capture but on 15 January 1943 he was caught at Urrugne near the Franco-Spanish border with the Comet Line [a Belgian underground organisation set up to help downed RAF airman escape back to Britain] leader, Andrée ‘Dédeé’ de Jongh, a 26-year old Belgian girl, and two other RAF evadees.
⁶⁸
The
Gestapo
held the RAF airman for four months, who endured repeated questioning and two beatings, before being sent to a PoW camp in Germany. Meanwhile, Mac managed to set the aircraft on fire with an on-board incendiary device that was always carried. The New Zealander later attempted to board a train at night, which just happened to be carrying German troops. He was sent to
Stalag Luft III
at Sagan for the remainder of the war where he was involved in many attempts to escape.
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