Mosquito: Menacing the Reich: Combat Action in the Twin-engine Wooden Wonder of World War II by Martin Bowman Read Free Book Online

low-level Mosquito diver specialists of 627 Squadron, as Flying Officer Robert G. ‘Bob’ Boyden RCAF recounts:
    After nearly a year of constant practice, I was a confident pilot. The fabulous Mosquito had become a part of me. Our Squadron’s accuracy had become so dependable that we grew from a ‘toy airplane’ to a lethal weapon. A quick, accurate placing of our target indicators and bombs would keep the damage centred on the main target and that is why we were chosen for the Oslo raid. We followed the same routine procedure, getting ready for the big one. Our target practices over the Wash increased a little and the aircraft we were slated to fly were checked out. My aircraft was DZ611 and I had flown her on a number of previous trips. We didn’t get all excited about this target beforehand, as the crews knew nothing of what the upper ranks were planning. Our first information about the trip to Oslo was that we were to fly to Peterhead in the northern part of Scotland, which would be our advance base. Peterhead was an American base for B-17s and would cut off at least two hours flight time and give us a good start. The trip would be a long one, 4 to 5 hours, and that can be very tiring if weather conditions require continuous instrument flying or if there are a few unfriendly happenings along the way. Briefing told us that Oslo was the target, not target for tonight, as this would be a daylight raid, which we did not do very often. In fact, I believe I flew only three trips in daylight. It’s quite different, as you feel you stand out like a sore thumb. At this time of our action against the enemy we flew to our destination at 28,000ft and around the target would descend to 3,000ft to look over the area for a predetermined aiming point. We would then dive to 1,000ft or 500ft levels. After we had done our marking, we would climb back to 28,000ft and return to base. This time the target had flak positions and the German Navy was in the Oslo Fjord. Wing Commander Curry was our new CO and would lead the group, which was made up of two flights of six Mosquitoes each. Squadron Leader Peter Mallender would lead the second wave. Flying Officer Joe Willis was my new replacement navigator and we hadn’t done very many trips together. He had been Squadron Leader Ronnie Churcher’s navigator and needed some more trips to wind up his tour of operations. 150 Warrant Officer Ralph Fenwick, who had flown a tour on Lancasters, had retired after another 30 flights in his second tour of operations and had left the Squadron.
    I left Woodhall Spa with a full load of gasoline and two 1,000lb bombs. The two-hour flight to Peterhead was uneventful but the air was rough along the coastline as we came in to land and to my embarrassment I came in pretty heavily. Why is it that it seems everyone is watching at a time like that and no one ever seems to notice when you ‘grease it in’? The Mosquito wasn’t a nose wheel job so it had to be landed in a three-point position. We were up bright and early the following morning as our target arrival time was 11.00 hours. Much to my surprise Wing Commander Curry wanted us to take off in a V formation, three at a time. I was No.3 on his starboard side, behind and to the right of his wing-tip. I can only guess that he wanted to do this because the Americans were masters of formation flying and our Wing Commander had embellished our skills over a glass of black and tan the previous evening. I had flown formation in our early training days but hadn’t done any for a long time. During the night 2 to 3 inches of snow had fallen leaving a nice light cover on the ground. When our leader opened up his throttles for take-off the resulting blizzard astonished even a good Canadian prairie boy like me. It was complete blackout and strictly instrument flying and as soon as we were airborne I pulled sharply to starboard. We waited for the other nine to take-off  at least we had cleared the runway for them  and