Mosquito: Menacing the Reich: Combat Action in the Twin-engine Wooden Wonder of World War II
Authors: Martin Bowman
Tags: #Bisac Code 1: HIS027140
First published in Great Britain in 2008 by
Pen & Sword Aviation
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS
Copyright © Martin W. Bowman 2008
ISBN 978 1 84415 823 2
eISBN 978 1 84468 435 9
The right of Martin W. Bowman to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
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Contents
Chapter 3 Finders, Markers and Light Night-Strikers
Chapter 5 Fast Night-Striking Force
Chapter 6 The Banff Strike Wing
Chapter 9 The Shell-House Raid
CHAPTER ONE
Down Low
D
ark clouds covered eastern England on 15 November 1941 when Blenheim aircrews of 105 Squadron braved the raw wind to gather near the hangars at the No.2 (Fighter Bomber) Group grass airfield at Swanton Morley, Norfolk to see a grey and green shape approach the aerodrome from the north-west. First it flew over at about 500ft, at a speed of 300 mph. Then it approached the Watch Office and hangar from the west and went into a vertical bank at a height of 2-3,000ft before turning a circle so tight and at such a speed that vapour trails streamed from his wing-tips. This was followed by a normal circuit and landing. It seemed that the rumours were true. For some time now the Squadron observers had attended conversion training on a new W/T and the gunners had started navigation courses, all amid speculation that they would be receiving a revolutionary type of aircraft built largely of wood to replace their outdated Blenheim IVs. Compared to the Blenheim IVs 105 Squadron was used to this performance was quite breathtaking. The tall frame of Company Chief Test Pilot Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. emerged from the tiny cockpit of the ‘Wooden Wonder’. He climbed down the ladder to be received like a conquering hero by Group Captain Battle
OBE
DFC, the station commander, and Wing Commander Peter H.A. Simmons
DFC
. Simmons’ air and ground crews were equally ecstatic. During September and October 105 Squadron had flown anti-shipping operations from Malta and losses were high. Returning to Swanton Morley, the surviving crews were due for a rest and in need of a morale boost. The arrival of the Mosquito provided it.
Sergeant (later Flight Lieutenant
DFC
) Mike Carreck was an observer in one of the newest Blenheim crews fresh from No.17 OTU Upwood, 2 Group’s finishing school. He and Pilot Officer Ronald Onley, first violinist in the London Philharmonic, were one of the half dozen or so crews posted to 105 Squadron at Swanton Morley: ‘a hellspot only 15 miles from Norwich but which might have been in deepest Siberia’, as Mike Carreck recalls:
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Waiting there for us were just a few survivors from 105’s bloodbath in Malta where fourteen days was the lifetime of a Blenheim squadron. We rightly regarded these battle-scarred veterans with the deepest respect but they made us welcome. Life at Swanton Morley began sedately enough.
Now and then we did a Blenheim cross-country, as I handed my pilot the course, compass heading and ETAs [Estimated Time of Arrival]. Sometimes we ventured as far away as Lincoln. We flew to the range and dropped teeny-weeny bombs and once, a special treat and with much trepidation, a 250-pounder. Dullish days but nights were duller still, as for recreation, romance and merriment one had to rely on nearby East Dereham where mothers locked away their daughters after tea and every door slammed tight shut on the dot of 18.00 hours. Nothing to do but go shivering to our beds in our freezing Nissen huts. Excitement was somewhat lacking; except for a nonsense of a rumour going the rounds that we were to be re-equipped with a fabulous new aircraft, the fastest in the world, a day bomber that could out-fly any fighter and leave it wondering where we’d gone, that could fly 5 miles high into the stratosphere and had an incredible range of 1,200 miles. We shrugged our shoulders; we’d believe it when we saw it, which we very soon did.
On 15 November it came suddenly out of nowhere, inches above the hangars with a crackling thunderclap of twin Merlins. As we watched, bewitched, it was flung about the sky in a beyond belief display for a bomber that could out perform any fighter. After a well-bred whisper of a touch down, a door opened and down the ladder came suede shoes, yellow socks and the rest of Geoffrey de Havilland. We pushed and shoved around this impossible dream of an aircraft. No other word for it, it was beautiful. An arrogant beauty with a ‘job-to-do, get out of my way’, slim, sleek fuselage, high cocked ‘to-hell-with-you’ tail. It had awesome power on the leash in those huge engines and was eager on its undercarriage like a sprinter on the starting blocks who couldn’t wait to leap up and away.
Called a Mosquito, they told us. It was Mosquito W4064 and it was to be shot down six months later on the squadron’s first operation.
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During those six months only seven more Mosquitoes joined W4064 on the squadron so flights were few and far between; indeed we new boys had to wait weeks for our first. For us, it was back to Blenheims and Arctic nights, not counting a Station exercise when it was pretended that German paratroopers had landed and a batch of us were sent to guard the Sergeants’ Mess. We stretched out on the carpet; blissfully warm at last until somebody came in to wake us with the astounding news that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. We turned over to sleep our best night ever, the war was won…‘Three to a crew in a Blenheim, only two in a Mosquito so sadly some of our navs and WoPs were surplus to requirements. Sadder still they were posted to Blenheim squadrons flying in the Sea of Carnage, attacks on North Sea convoys whose escorting flak-ships didn’t bother to aim, just fired splash into the sea, a curtain of exploding steel through which the doomed Blenheim crews flew with unmatchable courage.
Among the throng of seasoned pilots and their navigators at Swanton Morley on 15 November gathered to admire the Mosquito’s ‘beautiful shape’ was Flight Lieutenant D.A.G. ‘George’ Parry, who like his CO, was a veteran of two tours on Blenheims. He was always known as ‘George’ because, like the autopilot of the same name, he always came home! Parry had recently completed two tours and was ‘resting’ at 13 OTU at Bicester when he just happened to pick up the telephone and receive a call from Pete Simmons who had been his ‘A’ Flight commander in 110 Squadron at Wattisham. Simmons had rung to enquire when he was getting some more pilots, adding, ‘by the way George, I’m getting some fast aircraft. Do you want to come?’ Parry quickly turned down a posting to a squadron equipped with Bisleys going to North Africa and joined Simmons at Swanton Morley. The CO’s promise of ‘fast aircraft’ had come true, although W4064 left almost as fast as it arrived. After lunch, Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. climbed back into the sleek Mosquito B.IV and was joined by Simmons, who took the right-hand seat for a joyride with a difference. De Havilland Jr. treated his passenger and the watching crews to an exhilarating display of aerobatics. When they landed, Simmons was reported to be ‘...looking a bit green around the gills, but it did not stop him talking about it in the Officers’ Mess during lunch!’
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The sleek new bomber had to return next day to Hatfield, where the first of a paltry ten B.IV bombers was coming off the production lines, for adjustments. Not until July 1941 had it been decided to build Mosquitoes as bombers and even then only converted photo-reconnaissance airframes.
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Meanwhile, 105 Squadron, now stationed at Horsham St. Faith near Norwich after Swanton Morley proved unsuitable for operations, had received only eight Mosquitoes by mid-May 1942, but 2 Group was anxious to despatch its new wonder aircraft on the first op as soon as possible. On 27 May it issued orders for 105 Squadron to prepare four Mosquitoes with bombs and cameras to harass and obtain photographic evidence in the wake of the ‘Thousand Bomber’ raid on Cologne, scheduled for the night of 30/31 May. Squadron Leader Alan R. ‘Jesse’ Oakeshott
DFC
, commander of ‘A’ Flight and his navigator Flying Officer Charles Hayden, set off first. Well over 6ft tall and a regular officer, Oakeshott cut an imposing figure. He had won the
DFC
flying as a bomber pilot on a Wellington squadron earlier in the war. They were followed later by Pilot Officer William D. Kennard and Pilot Officer Eric R. Johnson who took off from Horsham before the ‘heavies’ had returned. Pilot Officer Edgar A. Costello-Bowen and Warrant Officer Tommy Broom; Flight Lieutenant Jack E. Houlston and Flight Sergeant James L. Armitage followed them shortly before lunchtime the following day. Oakeshott and Hayden flew at 24,000ft over the battered and blasted city and added four 500lb bombs to the devastation; but with smoke reaching to 14,000ft, their F24 camera was rendered useless. Kennard and Johnson failed to return, their aircraft being hit by anti-aircraft fire. Costello-Bowen and Houlston dropped their bombs from high-level into the smouldering and smoking ruins to prolong the night of misery for the inhabitants and bomb disposal teams and headed back to Norfolk. In the late afternoon Squadron Leader Peter J. Channer, who as a Blenheim pilot on 18 Squadron had received the DFC for the attack on the Knapsack power station at Cologne, took off from Horsham and flew in thick cloud to within 60 miles of the city. Then he dived down at almost 380 mph to low-level to take photographs of the damage. Channer quickly realized that this highly successful approach would be particularly effective for future Mosquito bombing operations.
On the evening of 1 June, two Mosquitoes returned to Cologne to bomb and reconnoitre the city. One of the aircraft failed to return. Then, just before dawn on 2 June, 18 hours after a ‘Thousand Bomber’ raid on Essen, George Parry and his navigator, Flying Officer Victor Robson, flew a lone 2 hours 5 minutes round-trip to Cologne. They carried four 500-pounders to stoke up the fires and a camera to observe the damage. However, thick smoke made the latter task impossible. The Mosquitoes of 105 Squadron continued their lone reconnaissance missions over Germany and on 8 June, 139 Squadron was formed at Horsham St. Faith under the command of Wing Commander William Peter Shand
DFC
using crews and a few B.IVs from 105 Squadron. One of the pilots transferred to 139 was Jack Houlston
AFC
who was promoted to Squadron Leader. Houlston flew 139 Squadron’s first operation on 25/26 June, a low-level raid on the airfield at Stade, near Wilhelmshaven and returned after dark just as bombers for the third in the series of ‘Thousand Bomber’ raids were taking off for Bremen. Two of 105 Squadron’s Mosquitoes flew reconnaissance over the city after the raid and four more went to reconnoitre other German cities to assess damage and bring back photographs.
On 2 July the first joint attack by 105 and 139 Squadron Mosquitoes took place when four aircraft from 105 Squadron carried out a low-level attack on the submarine yards at Flensburg and two Mosquitoes in 139 Squadron also bombed from high level. Group Captain J.C. MacDonald
DFC AFC
the Station Commander and his observer, Flight Lieutenant Skelton were last seen flying slowly across the coast on the return leg, off Pellworm Island. They did not return to Marham and were later found to be PoWs. ‘Jesse’ Oakeshott
DFC
, who was now a Wing Commander, and his observer, Flying Officer Vernon F.E. ‘Titch’ Treherne
DFM
, were intercepted by an Fw 190 and they were shot down and killed 9 miles NNE of Husum, at Sönnebüll, Germany. Jack Houlston came off the target pursued by three Fw 190As but he and his observer made it back. Two more fighters chased Flight Lieutenant George Pryce Hughes
MiD
RCAF, who despite his name was an Argentinian, after he had been hit by flak over the target. Both pilots made their exits hugging the wave tops and by applying plus 12½ lb of boost, they easily outpaced their pursuers. (The Mosquito was only just faster than an Fw 190 under certain conditions. It all depended on the rating of the Merlin 21 engines. If they were rated to give maximum performance at either low or high level, the Mosquito could just outdistance the Fw 190A. However, the average Merlin 21s fell somewhere in the middle range of rating, which meant that they although they were just fast enough at low level, they were certainly not at high level).
On 11 July the Mosquitoes bombed Flensburg again, as a diversion for the heavies that were hitting Danzig. Pilot Officer Laston made it home with part of his fin blown away by flak, but Flight Lieutenant George Pryce-Hughes and his navigator, Flying Officer Thomas A. Gabe were killed when their Mosquito was shot down by
Unteroffizier
Herbert Biermann of 2nd
Staffel
JG1. Sergeant Peter W.R. Rowland, in DK296, borrowed from George Parry, flew so low that he hit a roof and returned to Horsham with pieces of chimney pot lodged in the nose. After he had landed Parry barked at Rowland, ‘I’m not lending you my aircraft again!’ High-level raids in clear skies were the order of the day during July and the first of twenty-nine ‘Siren Raids’ were flown. These involved high-level dog-leg routes across Germany at night and were designed to disrupt the war workers and their families and ensure that they lost at least two hours’ sleep before their shifts the following day. Flying Officer Frank Weekes
RAAF
and Pilot Officer Frank Hurley of 105 Squadron failed to return from a sortie to Essen on 28 July: they were shot down over Mönchengladbach by
Unteroffizier
Karl Bugaj in a Bf 109F for 11th
Staffel
JG1’s first victory. While the Mosquito could outpace the Bf 109 in a straight chase, when in a dive the Bf 109 had all the speed it wanted to engage a Mosquito. Bugaj’s kill was made all the easier by
Hauptmann
Fritz Losigkeit, who controlled the interception.
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For the first time he had the use of the recently introduced Freya early warning radar. Losigkeit decided to track the intruder only as it was flying a straight course, and give radio instructions to Bugaj, which resulted in him intercepting the Mosquito when he had a height advantage, so that he could gain speed by diving.
6
On 1 August Wing Commander Hughie Idwal Edwards
VC
DFC, an Australian of Welsh ancestry from Freemantle, took command of 105 Squadron for the second time. Edwards had been CO of 139 Squadron when he took command of 105 Squadron in May 1941 when the two squadrons were flying Blenheims on suicidal anti-shipping strikes in the North Sea.
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On 25 August Flight Lieutenant D.A.G. ‘George’ Parry and Flight Lieutenant Victor G. ‘Robbie’ Robson and Flight Lieutenant Joseph Roy George Ralston
DFM
and Flying Officer Sydney Clayton
DFM
, were detailed to raid two electric power stations. Ralston and Clayton had both been posted to the squadron in May 1942 after flying Blenheim IVs in 107 Squadron. Ralston, a Mancunian from Moss side, had enlisted in the RAF in 1930 as a technical tradesman. By 1938 he had progressed to become a sergeant pilot on 108 Squadron flying Hawker Hinds and Blenheims. Flight Lieutenant Edgar A. Costello-Bowen and Warrant Officer Tommy J. Broom were given a switching station at Brauweiler near Cologne but they hit a pylon and crashed at Paaltjesdreef Wood at Westmalle in the Belgian hamlet of Blauwhoeve
en route
. Incredibly, both men survived and with the help of the Underground movement they evaded capture and were sent along the escape route to Spain. In October they returned to England aboard the battleship HMS
Malaya
.
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