PRELUDE
TO GREATNESS
EARLY DAYS OF THE MOSQUITO
D
esigners ensconced at Salisbury
Hall, near the de Havilland
factory at Hat eld, were working
on plans for the Mosquito, even
while the Battle of Britain was at its height
in 1940. Their eyes were on developing a
revolutionary, all-wooden aircraft, known as
the DH.98.
The project to build a twin-engine
machine, suitable for a variety of roles, had
been approved shortly after the start of the
war in September 1939. The new aircraft
was speci ed for use as a light bomber,
carrying a 1,000lb (454kg) load over 1,500
miles (2,414km), unarmed photographic
reconnaissance, or as a long-range ghter.
A contract was placed on March 1, 1940
for 50 of what had been named the Mosquito.
It became one of the most versatile and
famous aircraft of the war.
Under great secrecy, the prototype was
built. Eventually, a slim, elegant aircraft,
powered by two Merlin engines, took to the
sky at Hat eld in the hands of Geoffrey de
Havilland on November 25. Its performance
and manoeuvrability astonished even the
design team.
Given the military serial W4050, it
underwent further tests before beginning
three months of official trials on February 19,
1941, which established that the Mosquito
was the world’s fastest aircraft at the time.
Remarkably, it was to retain this distinctionfor the next two-and-a-half years. The press
soon christened it the ‘Wooden Wonder’ and,
for once, the hyperbole was justi ed.
The next aircraft, W4051 became the Mk
I for photo reconnaissance duties, equipped
with a spread of four cameras, three vertical
and one oblique. It ew for the rst time on
June 10, 1941.
Prototype for the Mk II night ghter was
W4052 and it carried a formidable battery of
four 20mm cannon, backed by a quartet of
.303 in machine guns in the nose. The Mk
II was also capable of carrying the highly
secret air intercept (AI) Mk IV radar.RECCE BEGINNINGS
In July – a month after its rst ight –
W4051 was passed to No.1 Photographic
Reconnaissance Unit (1 PRU) based at
Benson, becoming the rst operational
Mosquito to be taken on charge by the
RAF. Two more aircraft, W4054 and W4055,
followed over the next three weeks and, early
in September, seven production Mosquito
PR.Is were delivered.
Commanded by Wg Cdr Geoffrey Tuttle, 1
PRU now had a potent tool: an aircraft able to
reach targets within 1,000 miles (1,610km) ata high altitude, making it almost invulnerable
to ghter intercept.
Flying at 35,000ft (10,668m) and
255mph (402km/h), the camera t on the
Mosquito gave a lateral coverage of three
miles (4.8km). After some initial problems,
techniques were developed to exploit this
capability. July also saw the arrival of Sqn
Ldr Rupert Clerke as ight commander. He
was the stepson of Air Chief Marshal Sir
Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt, Inspector General of
the RAF and an avowed Mosquito enthusiast.
By September, Tuttle pronounced himself
satis ed with training and, on the 16th,
Clerke and Sgt Henry Sowerbutts, his highly
experienced navigator, lifted W4055 off
from Benson for the type’s rst operational
mission.
To their intense frustration, over the Bay
of Biscay a generator failure meant that they
were unable to power the cameras so had
to abort the mission. However, at 1130hrs
the next day, Clerke and Sowerbutts, once
again in Mosquito I W4055/LY-N (named
Benedictine), left Benson and ew over the
French Atlantic ports of Brest, Bordeaux and
La Pallice before continuing as far as the
Franco-Spanish border.
During the Mosquito’s rst operational
sortie, the pair had own along the
entire length of the French coast without
interception and returned safely to Benson
after a six-and-a-half-hour ight. It washttp://www.aviation-news.co.uk 79The early World War Two operations of the multi-mission
capable ‘Wooden Wonder’ are described by Tom Spencer.
Above: The Mosquito PR.I prototype W4051
shows the type’s remarkably clean lines
that, with its wooden construction, enabled
such an astonishing performance. P H T
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