Hi Heidi. A little gem of interest, the plane PR34(RG314) of 8 Squadron Seletar,was taking off for the last ever sortie for a Mosquito in RAF service, December 15th 1955 shame
Be specific please, Heidi. There is no link in the post you have quoted and all of the pics he has posted lately are working. The post you quote actually refers to the pic of the PR Mossie taking off in Keith's previous post. If this is what you're after, please delete your post so we keep this thread on track. I will then delete this post.
Oh,i did not realise it was not a link. This won't happend again! Here's some information on a crashed 1945 WWII Mosquito. WWII Mosquito fighter-bomber rises from the mud
And was there two different sorts of Mosquitos-Day Mosquito and a Night Mosquito? This link mentions a Mosquito that is called nighter! Mosquito Bomber Page
That's right, Heidi. The bomber versions flew by day and/or night with squadrons like 464 RAAF and 487 RNZAF (we talked about them recently with regard to the Amiens raid) regularly chopping and changing their hours of operation to suit requirements. Being a very adaptable design, the Mossie was also a night fighter equipped with AI (air intercept) radar for protecting the British Isles at night and for forays over the Continent waiting for returning German bombers and hunting German night fighters. Figher-bomber versions also performed anti-shipping and other ground attack roles. Have a look at www.mossie.org and DH Mosquito | D.H.98 de Havilland Mosquito
Great link there Andy,i am half way through it,and i noted it down for the furture. I see the Mosquito can do- day and night runs but were there seperate Mosquito planes for day and night? Like special planes for night raids and defence/attacking?
Heidi, to some extent there were. As I said, the night fighters were specially equipped to operate at night but they also became all-weather (i.e.day and night) fighters - a capability that exists to this day with modern interceptors. Some Mossies were equipped with the likes of Oboe which was a blind-bombing system so perfect for night ops but, again, this would be just as useful bombing through cloud during the daytime. There were Mossies used to contact agents in Occupied Europe. Contact was pre-arranged and the aircraft would fly a racetrack pattern until a signal was picked up from the ground upon which the aircraft would commence an orbit. An operator in the converted bomb bay would work the radio system. By necessity these aircraft would operate at night. I think you could argue the rocket-firing Mossies weren't night operating aircraft. The flash from the rockets would have blinded the crew. However, without the rockets, and assuming a trained crew, these aircraft could easily operate at night making a nuisance of themselves. Bomber Command's 100 Group had specialist Mossie squadrons who would home in on night fighter radars. There was also the Light Night Striking Force dropping their 4,000lb Cookies in small-scale raids which were often diversions for the Main Force but were sometimes the only BC aircraft over Europe on a given night (when the weather shut down the heavies' ops). These guys would have been specialast night operators in their unarmed bombers.
I understand you now Andy. The mosquitos aircraft when needed at night time,would get night time equitment place aboard. When Mosquitos are needed for day time,they would get transferred back to normal day equitment,meaning the same aircraft is deployed both day time equitment and night time equitment. I got you.
Not quite, Heidi. Equipment would not be chopped and changed from aircraft from day to day. Yes, aircraft were converted as required but, for example, a night fighter did not have all of its relevant equipment removed for daylight operations. Night fighter squadrons were equipped with night fighters only. What I was getting at is that many of the Mossie squadrons were equally as good at operating at any time of the day with the same equipment fit-out.
This is actually quite a good documentary YouTube - Mosquito Doc Part 1 YouTube - Mosquito Doc Part 2 YouTube - Mosquito Doc Part 3 YouTube - Mosquito Doc Part 4 YouTube - Mosquito doc 'part 5'
A: Both. There were a number of incidents in East Anglia, between Dec 1942 and April 1945, both in level flight and during rather violent aerobatics when various Mks of Mossie came apart in flight. I suspect that the majority were as a result of the airframe becoming over-stressed. As the aircraft was extremely fast and agile, I imagine a number of pilots allowed their aircraft to get into rather difficult situations where the wooden structure could not withstand the g-forces. Not knocking the aeroplane, merely highlighting a little-known problem it (and other aircraft) experienced. Bc
I can not take credit for this footage,another member did all the work and found this amazing footage of the mosqutio during ww2. Mosquito footage in colour. (Just fast forward a little bit,at the start) YouTube - De Havilland Mosquito in Colour
Yes ! A few (sorry for d-e-l-a-y-e-d response). Did a dig on one in Norfolk in October last year, but that was a mid-air in 1948, nothing to do with structural failure. Quite a few Mosquito parts were handed to the N&SAM at Flixton in 1996, from two men who gathered a lot of material from the dump site at North Creake, Norfolk,but I fear many have since been scrapped. Main area of my research has always been WW 2 crashes in East Anglia. BC
Some fantastic information here about a great plane, thanks everybody. I am making a documentary at the moment about the female pilots who flew for the Air Transport Auxiliary in WW2 and they talk very fondly throughout the documentary about various different planes. I was wondering whether anyone has any photos of: Mosquitoes, Spitfires, Hurricanes, Tiger Moths, Wellingtons, Hellcats, Walrus, Barracuda or Meteors that they took themselves and wouldnt mind me using in the documentary. All contributions would be credited and all help appreciated. Thanks, Nathalie
