20mph (30km/h). The following night, York
was attacked, during which Flt Lt Pennington
in DD613 flew 151 Sqn’s first operational
Mosquito sortie. The crew of one of four
aircraft 157 Sqn launched had the Mosquito’s
first contact with the Luftwaffe when chasing
a Dornier Do 217, though it successfully
evaded them.
Further sorties were mounted during
the raids on Norwich and Ipswich, but
again, success evaded the Mosquito
crews. However, the new night fighter finally
engaged an enemy bomber in the early hours
of May 29 during a raid on Grimsby. Flt Lt
Dennis Pennington and his navigator flying
DD629 intercepted a Heinkel He 111 over the
North Sea that they damaged, though the
Mosquito was also hit by return fire and had
to fly back on one engine. Plt Off Wain also
attacked and damaged a Do 217 from KG 2.
The following night, Sqn Ldr Glyn Ashfield
and his navigator Flt Sgt David Beale of 157
Sqn, flying W4099, attacked a Do 217 off
Dover. Frustratingly for Ashfield – who had
achieved the first-ever, air intercept-controlled
victory when flying a Blenheim in 1940 –
could only claim it as probably destroyed.
The first confirmed victory for the new
night fighter was still awaited.
It finally came in spectacular fashion on
the night of June 24, when 151 Sqn launched
Mosquitos against a raid on Nuneaton. Half
an hour before midnight, Wg Cdr Smith and
his navigator, Flt Lt Kerr-Sheppard, in W4097,
gained a radar contact at 8,000ft. Climbing,
they eventually obtained a visual at 12,000ft
and closed to 300 yards (274m) when it was
identified as an He 111. It obviously spotted
them, and the intruder dived away, but not
before Smith had opened fire, setting the port
engine ablaze. Debris fell off the Heinkel
before it was lost in cloud and was claimed
as probably destroyed.
The crew was then vectored to another
He 111 at 8,000ft and, obtaining radar
contact, Wg Cdr Smith closed to 300 yards
and fired a one-second burst as it dived
vertically, having been hit on the underside
of the wings and fuselage. It went down with
port wing burning outboard of engine and
struck the water where it continued to burn.The Mosquito was then vectored to a
third bomber and AI contact was gained,
lost, then regained, resulting in them gaining
visual contact at 7,000ft. Closing to 300
yards, it was identified as a Do 217 and the
remainder of the cannon ammunition was
fired in one burst, setting the entire aircraft,except the wingtips, on fire. Parts of the
engines fell away.
Return fire was experienced from two
dorsal machine guns, but Smith closed
to 100 yards (91.5m) and fired several
short bursts of machine gun, silencing
the opposing fire. The Mosquito was nowsmothered in oil from the doomed Dornier
and broke away before drawing alongside
as it flew into cloud, burning fiercely before
destruction.
Having well and truly broken the
Mosquito’s ‘duck’, Smith and Kerr-Sheppard
landed back at Wittering just before 0100hrs
on the 25th. The Mosquito’s first confirmed
victims were in fact both Do 217s – F8+AC of
II/KG 40 and U5+AB from I/KG 2.IN THE ENEMY’S BACKYARD
The performance of the Mosquito also made
it a natural selection for the intruder role,
where its range, speed and firepower made
it a formidable weapon. In mid-1942, 23 Sqn
at Ford, West Sussex, under the ebullient Wg
Cdr ‘Bertie’ Hoare, began re-equipping with
all-black Mosquito IIs for the intruder role.
Hoare flew the squadron’s first ‘op’ to Caen
on the night of July 5. The following night he
was flying DD670/YP-S over central France
with Warrant Officer O Potter as navigator.
East of Chartres, they saw in the distance
an enemy aircraft, with navigation lights on,
which they identified as a Do 217. Closing
in, Hoare fired three short cannon bursts.
The Dornier caught fire and crashed near
Montdidier.
It was the first of many victims for the
Mosquito in the enemy’s backyard.
The bomber variant of the Mosquito
was the Mk IV that was to be unarmed and
rely on its performance for protection. After
prototype trials, the first of ten production Mk
IV series 1 with increased fuel tankage were
produced. Before they entered service, it
was discovered that by cropping the vanes
four 500lb (227kg) bombs could be carried,
so doubling the planned load.
Initially referred to as ‘PRU bomber
conversion’, these entered service with Wg
Cdr Peter Simmonds’ 105 Sqn, when W4064
arrived at Swanton Morley, Norfolk, on
November 15, 1941. Lacking in operational
equipment, the initial deliveries were used
for training and developing tactics, as the
Mosquito was so different from any of the
other light bombers used by 2 Group.
It moved to nearby Horsham St Faith
shortly afterwards and continued to workhttp://www.aviation-news.co.uk 81The Mosquito’s first intruder victory was
achieved on July 6, 1942 by 23 Sqn’s OC, Wg
Cdr ‘Bertie’ Hoare. 23 Sqn recordsThe first night-fighter squadron to fly the Mosquito II was 157, and DD612/RS-G was one of the first aircraft flown by the unit. It was the personal
aircraft of the OC, Wg Cdr Gordon Slade, who engaged a Dornier over Norwich on June 26, 1942. Z Hurt‘The performance of
the Mosquito also
made it a natural
selection for the
intruder role, where
its range, speed and
firepower made it a
formidable weapon’
79-82_mosquitosDC.mfDC.mfDC.mf.indd 81 05/02/2018 15:07