Intruders! 418 squadron in WW2

[slimm50]

Great Thread!

[Angus]

Didn't the Mosquito have a very low loss rate?
Wouldn't surprize me at all that they used 150 octans a lot to keep their edge in speed. And cruising fast at high alt they were practically uninterceptable.

[MOSQ]

Below is the text that goes with my print. I have the signed edition from the RCAF aircrew. I hadn't realized that the planes in my print were the same as the one in AH. Now I'll have to fly more Ranger missions. In Air Warrior I started a Mossie Squad, the Mosquito Rangers. I'm thinking of it again in AH. Hmmm, maybe the 418 Rangers?  Let's fly Manx!

Rangers On The Rampage

by Robert Taylor
 
Flying the high-speed low-level 'Day Ranger' missions in the Mosquito was one of the most exhilarating forms of aerial combat experienced by aircrews in WWII. Given a free hand at squadron level to select targets of opportunity deep inside enemy held territory, operating the fastest piston engine aircraft of the war, the Ranger Mosquito crews wreaked havoc in the air and on the ground literally all over occupied Europe.

Approaching their targets at tree-top height, often completely undetected, the element of surprise was usually total; one pair of Mosquitoes arriving over an airfield near Kronigsburg found a ceremonial parade in progress, broke up the party, and departed within seconds leaving five aircraft burning and a bunch of German Generals diving for cover beneath their staff cars!

Typical of the Day Ranger squadrons was No. 418 (City of Edmonton) Squadron R.C.A.F. Flying the Mosquito Fighter-Bomber MkVI, they completed over 3000 effective missions, destroyed 172 enemy aircraft - 73 on the ground - damaged a further 103, and in addition brought down 83 buzz-bombs and destroyed countless other ground vehicles. In company with other Mosquito Ranger squadrons, they rampaged across Europe with outstanding courage in the best traditions of the R.A.F. and Commonwealth Air Forces.

Robert Taylor's painting RANGERS ON THE RAMPAGE dramatically brings to life a Mosquito attack on a German fighter station deep inside Germany. Arriving over the target at little above hangar height, the two-ship mission announces their arrival by raking the field with cannon and machine gun fire. Within seconds both aircraft have scored direct hits with their 500lb. Bombs, and before the defensive flak guns can get the range, the pair have departed for home.

The Signers:
Wing Commander RUSS BANOCK
Air Marshal SIR IVOR BROOM
Squadron Leader T.J. 'Tommy' BROOM
Squadron Leader R.R. 'Bob' COWPER
Group Captain JOHN 'Cats-Eyes' CUNNINGHAM
Wing Commander MOOSE FUMERTON
Squadron Leader T. KEARNS
Squadron Leader CHARLES PATTERSON
Air commodore E.B. 'Ted' SISMORE
Flight Lieutenant F.S. 'Fred' STEVENS
Group Captain BRIAN 'Black Jack' WALKER
Flight Lieutenant S.J. 'Stan' WILLIAMS

[Karnak]

Originally posted by Squire
*Mossie VI was not a day fighter, and was never used as one, it was a fighter-bomber, night fighter, intruder, anti-shipping a/c.

This is not entirely true.  Many Mosquito FB.Mk VI strike missions that flew during daylight were excorted by other Mosquito FB.Mk VIs that were not carrying bombs or rockets.  RAF Mustangs were also used to escort these missions.

The specific Mosquito FB.Mk VI we have in AH gained many of its kills on day intruder missions.  Intruder missions are simply missions to go and destroy targets of opportunity, mostly enemy aircraft.

[Squire]

Yes, I agree. I just meant it was not used as a regular day air superiority fighter ala Spitfire, P-51, ect.

Its one of my favorite rides for strike missions in the CT, 880 just did one tonight. Great fun.

Long live the Mossie.

[Guppy35]

MOSQ's print sent me to the film viewer as it reminded me of how that AH flight looked over the target.  My son and I were'nt close enough to get both Mossies in the image, but we clearly flew ourselves a 2 ship Day Ranger.  Up on one wing to get the heck out of the flak after getting hits.

 Not exact to the print, but similar

Dan/Slack
[/IMG]

[Karnak]

The Mosquito Mk VI remains my favorite aircraft in AH despite its poor performance compared to the late war super fighters in AH.  It is simply more fun.

[gofaster]

IGShill was on a Mossie streak a tour or so ago and he got me to fly some Mossie runs, too.  Its a fun ride if you don't plan on yank-n-bank too much.  Go in fast and hot, pickle your ord, climb away and come around again.

[MOSQ]

Nice Pic Guppy !  I've never noticed the maple leaf on the Mossie before. Too bad HTC doesn't have a way to take a walk around the planes in the hangar. It would be cool to do a close up 3-D visual inspection of your plane, like a pre-flight.

Noticed you still have your wing bomb. HTC needs some way to indicate in the weapons selector which bombs are set to drop. After ripping numerous wings in the A-20 accidentally from dropping my internal bombs first, then pulling up to sudden death, I learned to carry the 250lb bombs on the wings and 500's internally. Then I know exactly which bombs are going to drop.

If the Mossie could really do 375mph at sea level, now that would make this a much more competitive plane in AH. I "wish" HTC would increase the speed and the fuel burn issue. They've been saying they would fix the fuel "bug" since I started flying here in Nov. 2001, but nothing ever happens.

Angus, in answer to your question about low loss rate, I have read that the Mossie had the lowest crew loss rate of all bombers used by all combatants in WW2. A prime reason why Mossie aircrew are so devoted to their plane.

There were studies that showed that the Mossie was a much more efficient means of applying the same tonnage of bombs to a target because when a Mossie was lost, it was only 2 aircrew to replace vs a hvy bomber's 8-11 crew members, only two engines instead of four, wood instead of metal, ect. And far fewer of them were shot down anyway because the best defense for a bomber is speed. I have heard it was these studies that convinced the USAAF to drop using defensive guns all over a bomber and build the next generation of jet bombers for speed (like a Mossie). I'm sure the advent of AA missles had a lot to do with dropping gun turrets on every side of a bomber as well.

[Guppy35]

yep, still had the wing bombs on.  Problem is I didn't know I had em when I took off.  Couldn't figure out why the kid was always pulling away from me


I was re-reading "Terror in the Starboard Seat" by Dave Mcintosh last night.  He was a 418 RCAF Squadron Nav and they were flying "M-Mother" on at least their first few sorties.  That's the AH Mossie code letter too.

He mentions Bannock a lot too.

As for Mossies to Berlin.  Mosquito at War, by Chaz Bowyer, mentions Mossies going to Berlin 36 nights in a row.

Dan/Slack

[Scherf]

Apologies for repeating posts on the same subject - but have a look over in the O'Club forum re: Toronto Aerospace Museum, December 6.

They are holding a "Mosquito Symposium" - Russ Bannock (mentioned above) is the featured speaker!

The AH Mossie FB.VI doesn't prosper quite so well as in real-life. As in the posts above, it's equipped with the speed-robbing flame dampers used for night operations. Plenty of Mossies on daylight operations used the ejector exhausts, which added 12-15 mph (not inconsequential when being chased by Fw190s).

Also, many, but not all (according to the pilot's discretion!) of the daylight Ranger sorties took place on days when low cloud layers offered some cover should the Mossie be spotted by enemy fighters. In the right hands, it could hold its own against 190s, but it wasn't recommended.

Various other gameplay issues make the Mossie fan's job harder. For instance, the flashing icons give the game away on Intruder flights, when really aircraft taking off and landing generally didn't realise the danger until the Mossie was on top of them.

In addition, the glowing icons make night ops rather unrealistic. Finally, the boost figures in the Mosquito cockpit are also out by several pounds (for the standard Merlin 25 engine) - given the fact most of us fly flat out all the time, that's probably a minor issue.

The 150-octane issue is problematic. I don't know what the state of the research on this is now, but from what I've seen, the Mossies had it in 1944 for (night-time) anti-V1 operations only. I've seen documents related to 2nd TAF, in which many Mosquito Fighter-Bomber squadrons served, as having 150 octane available later in the war. If you give it to the Mossies though, you'd have to give it to the Mustangs etc. as well.

Incidentally, with 150-octane, +24lbs boost (required Merlin 25 engines), and ejector exhausts, the Mossie VI could indeed manage 375 at sea level - 377 to be exact I believe. With the addition of nitro, it got up to 395, but I don't believe it was ever used in combat in that configuration. However, some radar-equipped home-defence nightfighters did have nitro tanks, the first kill for this setup coming in January 1944.

I'd love to see a Mosquito bomber in AH - as noted above, the bomber versions were quicker than their fighter counterparts, due at least in part to the vee windscreen. The later versions got well above 400 mph at altitude with a max 4,000 lb bombload.

Anyway, go check out the post in the O'Club forum - there's a link to the Toronto Aerospace Museum there.

Cheers,

Scherf

[Angus]

Did the make 400 mph WITH the bombload? if so, WOW!!!!!

[MOSQ]

I wish we had these sounds in our AH sounds file: Mosquito Startup and Fly By

Maybe someone can figure out how to do it?

For more info go to http://www.mossie.org/Mosquito.html

[Furball]

There's not many finer sounds than a Merlin engine flypast.  I feel sorry for those people that have not seen/heard a Spitfire fly by!

Thanks for the link

[Scherf]

One final point of course, is that in AH the Mossie has to contend with lots of fast allied fighters, when in real life the only real danger it faced, apart from flak, was the 190.

Cheers,

Scherf