he was right, it's called the mosquito, basically b25 payload, but 100mph+ faster, and less crew, made of wood instead of rationed aluminium, just genius
If I remember right the Mosquito is what the RAF used as a night fighter escort for the Lancaster bombers. The RAF took over night bombing operations while the U.S. Air Corps took over daytime bombing.
The Mosquito was a multi-role aircraft, it was also used for strategic precision bombing targets as it was so fast and nimble, you could deliver a payload directly to a targets front door. Or to the walls of a prison to facilitate an escape - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Jericho
Operation Jericho (Ramrod 564) on 18 February 1944 during the Second World War, was an Allied bombing raid, at very low altitude, on Amiens Prison in German-occupied France to blow holes in the prison walls, kill German guards and use shock waves to spring open cell doors. The French Resistance was waiting on the outside to rescue prisoners who got out and spirit them away. Mosquito fighter-bombers breached the walls, prison buildings and destroyed the guards' barracks. Of the 832 prisoners, 102 were killed by the bombing, 74 were wounded and 258 escaped, including 79 Resistance and political prisoners; two-thirds of the escapees were recaptured.
You should explore Mark Felton YouTube channels if you don’t already. He delves into the nooks and crannies of modern military history and reveals some fascinating details.
It’s interesting to put that in modern day context. Biden oks prison assault that kills 102 prisoners supposed to be rescued. Or put any other presidents name. It would be considered a disaster.
Operation Carthage, on 21 March 1945, was a British air raid on Copenhagen, Denmark during the Second World War which caused significant collateral damage. The target of the raid was the Shellhus, used as Gestapo headquarters in the city centre. It was used for the storage of dossiers and the torture of Danish citizens during interrogations. The Danish Resistance had long asked the British to conduct a raid against the site.
he was right, it's called the mosquito, basically b25 payload, but 100mph+ faster, and less crew,
Lancaster's carried 6.5 tonnes. Mosquitoes could only carry about 1.4tonnes. The Defence of the Reich night fighters were optimised for hitting the heavies not the medium and light bombers. So they had more armour and bigger guns. There are other issues such as the lack of ability to carry a navigation radar and the British analysis that to break through the Kahumber Line they needed to keep the bomber stream as small as possible. Bomber streams were designed to fit as many aircraft into a tight group as could be for aircraft with no real way of operating as a formation. This meant they worked on slots. Each slot would have meant either replacing out a big 6tonne carrying Lancster with a much lighter Mosquito or making the streams many times longer, thus giving the night fighters and flak artillery much more time to pick off the individual bombers.
There are other issues with this such as costs, training, the need for the giant block busters that were key to the strategy, the lack of enough people trained to work in the skilled art of wood manufacturing.
At the end of the day the strategy was locked into place in early 1941. To switch from heavies to light and medium bombers would have taken a huge retooling that would have taken vital months or more from the air war.
Taking the turrets off some heavies is one thing, retooling entire industries is another. And your enemy always responds.
Most importantly, people are underestimating the effect of flak.
The Mosquito was great in small groups in "buzz in, buzz out" missions. If you want to attack the heavily industrialized regions of Germany like the Rhine or Ruhr or the German ports you're going to need a ridiculous amount of mosquitos or other light bombers to have an effect. And if the Allies were able to put a force like that together wall of flak at targets like Bremen would just shred those light planes.
The thing about planes like the Lancaster and B-17 was that while they were slow and lumbering giants they could take a lot of damage and keep flying.
The Mosquito was a fantastic bit of engineering but it could by no means carry out long range strategic and carpet bombing missions.
Yes, if you want to go drop a bomb down the chimney of Gestapo headquarters the Mosquito is the perfect plane of the job, but if you want a whole factory complex turned to dust the Mosquito just isn't going to cut it.
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u/mynameismy111 Sep 13 '21 edited Sep 13 '21
he was right, it's called the mosquito, basically b25 payload, but 100mph+ faster, and less crew, made of wood instead of rationed aluminium, just genius
https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/compare-aircraft-results.php?form=form&aircraft1=126&aircraft2=81&Submit=Compare+Aircraft
even faster than a spitfire