Mosquito: Menacing the Reich: Combat Action in the Twin-engine Wooden Wonder of World War II (25 page)

Lieutenant Colonel Leon W. Gray, CO. 25th Bomb Group (23 September 1944-14 April 1945) (left); Major Albert S. Straff, Ground Executive; Lieutenant General James E. Doolittle, Major Alvin E. Podwojski, CO, 652nd Bomb Squadron, later Lieutenant Colonel, deputy Group CO and Colonel Elliott Roosevelt, Wing CO, at Watton. (
via George Sesler
)

PR.XVI MM386 was delivered to the USAAF at Burtonwood on 4 May 1944 and was assigned to the 653rd Bomb Squadron at Watton, where it was coded ‘U’. Combat missions were usually signified on the nose, as here, by a cloud with a red lightning flash. Sometimes, a mosquito caricature with a telescope, a modified representation of the official 653rd Bomb Squadron badge, was used. (
Jack Green via George Sesler
)

2nd Lieutenant Vance J. Chipman (at the back with his pet monkey) a pilot in the 654th Squadron who flew
Chip’s Chariot
was a former racetrack driver from Chicago who had joined the RCAF when war started in Europe. On 1 November 1944 2nd Lieutenant Vance J. ‘Chip’ Chipman and 1st Lieutenant William G. Cannon took off on a Mickey mission to take H2X photos for a bombing run to Schweinfurt. They never returned.

Fifty miles from Schweinfurt the run was completed and on leaving the Mosquito received a direct AA hit. The right engine caught fire and Cannon was hit by shrapnel in his right leg and on the back of his head. Cannon was captured but Chipman tried to make his way toward France and during the journey he tried to steal a Bf 109 and fly it to England but a guard, using a one-inch rubber tubing, beat Chipman over the head until he was unconscious. When he recovered he was taken to the Dulag Luft in Frankfurt, interrogated, and finally taken to Stalag Luft III at Sagan. (via Ken Godfrey)

On 31 October 1944 25 FB.VIs of 21, 464 RAAF and 487 RNZAF Squadrons led by Group Captain Peter Wykeham-Barnes destroyed the Gestapo HQ at Aarhus University in Denmark with 11-second delayed action 500lb bombs. The buildings in the foreground are intact. (IWM)

Pilot Officer Maxwell N. Sparks (left) and his navigator. Pilot Officer Arthur C. Dunlap of 487 Squadron RNZAF who crewed HX982/EC-T on the Amiens raid. (
Arthur Dunlap via John Rayner
)

Amiens prison on fire after the raid. (
via John Rayner
)

Squadron leader ‘Ted’ Sismore DSO DFC* AFC was ‘Bob’ Bateson’s navigator in FB.VI RS570 EG-X on the Shellhaus raid. (
Derek Carter Coll
)

On the Shellhaus raid three FB.VIs hit by flak had to ditch and all three crews perished. Flight Lieutenant Pattison and Flight Sergeant Pygram’s FB.VI in 487 Squadron RNZAF was hit by the cruiser Nurnber
g
at anchor in Copenhagen harbour. Flying Officer Palmer and Squadron Leader Becker of 487 Squadron and Flying Officer R.G. ‘Shorty’ Dawson RAAF and Flying Officer Fergus Murray of 464 Squadron RAAF were the other two Mosquito crews lost. Dawson (left) and Murray (right) are seen here in Malta in 1943 when they were serving with 23 Squadron. (
Tom Cushing Coll
)

Mosquito pilot and navigator beside their FB.VI in the summer of 1944.

One of the 150 NF.IIs delivered to the RAF between April and October 1942 by de Havilland Hatfield, DD744 seen here with four guns fitted like the all-black NF.II behind, is in a high-visibility silver finish during its time with either No.1 or 301 Fighter Training Unit (FTU). Later converted to PR.II the fighter was flown to North Africa by the Overseas Aircraft Delivery Unit (OADU) and used by 60 Squadron SAAF on the unit’s first sortie from Castel Benito, near Tripoli on 15 February 1943. (
DH via Philip Birtles
)