What did the mossies do when not doing anything famous

[Gunfreak]

So besides blowing up various gestapo headquarters and nazi prisons. What did the several thousand other FB VI do? Did they do jabbos jobs,bombing and strafing German column in Normandy? You generally hear about P47s and Typhoons doing that.

[Bremspropeller]

One big thing was Coastal Command. Start there.

 

Also, the Mossie was the original Intruder.

[Olddog]

You can check this and get and ideal. 

 

Mosquito Mayhem: de Havillands Wooden Wonder in Action in WWII

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008XKZ6R6/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

[Mogster]

Pathfinders.

 

https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Wolstenholme

 

Kenneth Wolsteholme is a household name in the UK as the voice of the 1966 World Cup final. Less well known is that he also flew 100 missions with bomber command earning the DFC flying Mosquitoes with 8 Pathfinder Group.

[No1sonuk]

I'd imagine they'd be doing Pathfinder jobs like laying bombing markers from low altitude for the larger raids to aim at from high altitude.

[DD_Fenrir]

Prior to the Amiens raid and the series of Gestapo related targets the target list  for the majority of 2nd TAFs FB.VI Mossies prior to D-Day included daylight strikes against Noball (V-1 ski sites) and the odd factory, refinery or power station across northern France. 
 

After the invasion the bulk of their efforts were focused on night interdiction, solo sorties to strafe and bomb enemy supply movements on road and rail, sometimes in the company of an RAF Mitchell who’d drop illumination flares to help pinpoint targets.

 

Some day Rangers were flown by pairs of Mossies, akin to the Rhubarbs of earlier years but these seemed to be phased out, one suspects as the cost in crews and aircraft lost was not worth the netted totals of enemy targets accrued. 
 

Smaller numbers of FB.VIs were employed on intruder patrols, skulking around enemy airbases at night waiting to find enemy aircraft (mostly bombers, the night fighter airfields tended to be harassed by night fighter variants of the Mosquito) and on one appearing to takeoff or land would drop a couple of 500lbers on the runway, have a squirt at the e/a and then disappear back into the shadows to either continue lurking in the vicinity to harangue any poor jerry unfortunate enough to be in the air or move on to some other long suffering Kampfgeschwader airfield.

 

Coastal Command Mossie FB.VI mostly operated in the Bay of Biscay prior to Overlord hunting u-boats, s-boats and merchant shipping. With the fall of France all these units moved to Scotland to continue their work against axis shipping in Norwegian waters, using bombs and cannon until late in 1944 when rocket projectiles started seeing widespread use.

[wingco65]

Thought I would throw some very obscure mosquito trivia in here, they were built in both UK and Canada, my father who made it all the way to 96 years old repaired them, fixing holes and making holes installing cameras. He told me due to the different glues, moisture etc between UK and Canada he could always tell where it was made when working in them.

 

As for the roles there's a lot with the different marks, as above lots of good books out there, think I have most of them. Even found the pilots manual that I have had for years, coming in very useful now.

 

[Dusty44]

[Dusty44]

Sorry some pages came out in wrong order.

[DD_Fenrir]

Those look to be for later bomber mark, B.XVI most likely of the Light Night Striking Force or a Pathfinder squadron.

 

These models flew a very different profile to our FB.VI; our mossie is optimised for low level bombing and strafing of precision targets, an attack aircraft in modern parlance. The B.XVIs in contrast flew at 20,000 - 30,000ft and depending on the mission would either drop Target Indicators for the heavies to drop on or a single 4,000lb cookie.

[Bozon]

7 hours ago, Gunfreak said:

So besides blowing up various gestapo headquarters and nazi prisons. What did the several thousand other FB VI do? Did they do jabbos jobs,bombing and strafing German column in Normandy? You generally hear about P47s and Typhoons doing that.

I had this thread about other, less famous mosquito stories:

You can find there stories about a Coastal Command raid on Norway, day ranger mission across Germany and into Poland, a patrol over the Normandy beaches against FW-190s, a Coastal Command interception of a Ju-88s raid, and the post war adventures of a PR mosquito in the Israeli air force.

 

[Nealius]

I'm starting to wish we had a map that covered Scotland and parts of Norway.

[Gunfreak]

2 hours ago, Nealius said:

I'm starting to wish we had a map that covered Scotland and parts of Norway.

I was thinknig the same, when flying a mission I had made, stopping some torpedo bombers in the channel during winter, and I was thinknig, man if France and England had some nice mountains, this would look like western/north norway during winter.

[Dusty44]

8 hours ago, DD_Fenrir said:

Those look to be for later bomber mark, B.XVI most likely of the Light Night Striking Force or a Pathfinder squadron.

 

These models flew a very different profile to our FB.VI; our mossie is optimised for low level bombing and strafing of precision targets, an attack aircraft in modern parlance. The B.XVIs in contrast flew at 20,000 - 30,000ft and depending on the mission would either drop Target Indicators for the heavies to drop on or a single 4,000lb cookie.

You are correct. It still shows that they  did all sorts of tasking. 627 did fly MK VI albeit only one.

[Dusty44]

More mosquito sorties

[Bremspropeller]

Night intruders were kind of shooting at anything that moved and/ or had a light on. That includes trains, automobiles, etc.

Not sure, but I think that includes airborne V-1s at night.

[DD_Fenrir]

Just now, Bremspropeller said:

Not sure, but I think that includes airborne V-1s at night.

 

They were more the remit of the NF variant Mossies Brems; check out Night Flyer by Brandon Lewis (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Night-flyer-Lewis-Brandon/dp/0450011216) - it's an excellent tome and I suspect one that is right up your alley....

[Bremspropeller]

Thanks, Fen!

 

Just ordered a two-books-in-one Stackpole edition (Night Flyer + Mosquito Pathfinder).

[DD_Fenrir]

Ooh... let me know if the Pathfinder one is any good, I'll chase down a copy myself.

[Dusty44]

2 hours ago, Bremspropeller said:

Night intruders were kind of shooting at anything that moved and/ or had a light on. That includes trains, automobiles, etc.

Not sure, but I think that includes airborne V-1s at night.

They did attack a few at least in 418 Sqn

Edited September 22, 2021 by Dusty44

[Richard Dastardly]

19 hours ago, No1sonuk said:

I'd imagine they'd be doing Pathfinder jobs like laying bombing markers from low altitude for the larger raids to aim at from high altitude.

That'd more ilkely be the pure bomber rather than the FB ( I think the questioner wanted to know what *our* Mossie was doing ).

 

-

 

The Tiffies & Jugs were more CAS & the Mossies more strike/interdiction if you want more modern roles, but they're obviously overlapping just like now.

 

Nice selection of books! thanks folks.