Account of a Mossie 16 attack on Berlin the night of Dec. 31, 1944

[Karnak]

From "Osprey Combat Aircraft 4, MOSQUITO, BOMBER/FIGHTER-BOMBER, UNITS 1942-43" by Martin Bowman:

Plt Off J F P Archbold, navigator to Plt Off R H M 'Percy' Vere of No 692 Sqn, described his 'Big City Bash' to Berlin in MM224/'K-King' on 31 December 1944 (their 27th operation) in the following terms;

'Began Windowing, eight minutes to go.  The chute is on the floor between your feet - you have to bend almost double to drop the bundles.  You can hear a crackle on the R/T as they open up in the slipstream.  Back breaking job this - makes you sweat like blazes.  Five minutes to go - should see the first TI soon.  The goes the last Window bundle - I stretch up and look out.  Still over 10/10ths cloud.  Good.  There's the first TI over to port.  I dive into the bombing position - "dive" is a misnomer.  With all the kit I've got on it's more like a wrestling match!  I switch on the sighting head and put the final wind velocity on the computer box, then wait for the TIs to come into view.  The nose is frosted up except for the optically-flat, heated bombing window, so I can't see very far ahead.

A couple of minutes to go now. "More TIs down - reds and greens", says Ron.  "Bomb doors open". "Bomb doors open", I repeat, and I hear the rumbling roar as they open and wind whistles into the bomb bay. "I'm running on a bunch of three", says Ron. "Can you see them yet?" I crane my neck close to the window and look ahead sideways. "Yep. I can just see them. OK now, left-left, left-left, steady - we're running up nicely.  Keep weaving a bit.  We've a minute or so to go yet." I get the TIs up on the centreline of the graticule and thumb the release switch.  I will press this when the markers reach the cross line.

A couple of big white flashes under the cloud up ahead show that the first two 'Cookies' have gone down,  I notice them almost subconsciously. "A little bit of flak to starboard", says Ron. "OK.  Keep going", I reply. "Right, right a little - steady now, steady...BOMB GONE!", as I press the tit.  There's a thud underneath as the lug springs back and releases the bomb.  The camera whirs and the red light on the selector box comes on.  We have to keep straight and level for 45 seconds to get the photo of our bomb burst in relation to the TIs so as to be able to plot the accuracy later on.  I scramble back into my seat and look down the window chute.  The wait seems endless. "Bomb doors closed", says Ron.  The camera green light comes on. "Hold it", I say.  There is a tremendous flash under the cloud. "There she goes. OK. Let's get the hell out of here", and we turn south-west to get out of the target area.

[Stratocaster]

Reading this makes me hope for more engaging strat bombing play in the future. Good little read... Nice post!

[007Rusty]

 

[Brooke]

Thanks for the post.

[LLogann]

MORE MOSSIES!!!!

[Karnak]

I thought that was a neat little description of a bomb run, but the part that prompted me to post it was this post chain in the "What? No one has noticed the new Mossie?" thread:

so did the bomber/navigator have to lie on the floor to use the bombsight? looks like it from the cockpit screenies.

I think, if I recall correctly without digging out the books, that the bomb aimer/navigator sat in a copilots seat for most of the flight and only wriggled into position in the nose for the bomb run. I forget if he laid down or not, I think the space is a bit bigger than it looks in the in-game screenies.

The story included a description of the navigator getting into position to be the bomb aimer.

[Plazus]

I am guessing the copilot had to sit cross-legged in the nose so he could peer into the bomb sight. I could be wrong though.

[Karnak]

I am guessing the copilot had to sit cross-legged in the nose so he could peer into the bomb sight. I could be wrong though.

Navigator, not co-pilot, Mosquitoes don't have a second set of controls other than on the trainers versions.