The Freeper Foxhole Profiles - Major-General Stanislaw Sosabowski - July 31st, 2003

various ^

[Darksheare]

No more of the Coffee of Doom for you two!
Speaking of coffee and lack of sleep, where's Dave?
And did he really actually give my brew a shot?

[Johnny Gage]

Air Power
de Havilland D.H.98 "Mosquito"

'The Wooden Wonder', as the Mosquito is affectionately known, almost never came to be. Air Ministry opposition to de Havilland's original proposal for an unarmed, all-wooden bomber almost forced de Havilland to abandon the design, but thanks to some behind-the-scenes lobbying, the Air Ministry reluctantly agreed to progress with the design.

The Mosquito was almost too radical a concept for the Air Ministry. Bomber designs were, by design, slow, cumbersome beasts, heavily-armed and metal in construction. Despite a specification being issued by the ministry for a bomber with some wooden construction in the airframe (B17/38), the idea of leaving the aircraft with no means of self-defence was too much of a risk to take. But some gentle persuasion of the ministry by Air Marshal Sir Wilfred Freeman, who sat on the Air Council as Member for Research and Development, resulted in a new Specification, B1/40, detailing a light bomber capable of carrying a 1,000lb load over a distance of 1,500 miles which could, presumably if it failed in this respect, be quickly modified as a fighter or photo-reconnaissance aircraft. An initial order for 50 aircraft was placed in March 1940.

In November 1940, Geoffrey de Havilland took the prototype Mosquito into the air for the first time. The performance of the aircraft was something of a revelation, the two Merlin engines giving fighter-like handling and a top speed which would allow the aircraft to outpace enemy fighters. The first bomber version, the B.IV first flew in the following September and the first deliveries to No 105 Squadron at Swanton Morley followed in November 1941.

Following its operational debut in a raid by four aircraft on Cologne on 31 May 1942, the Mosquito joined the Main Force but became famous for a number of set-piece attacks, and the first of these was a low-level attack on the Gestapo Headquarters in Oslo on 25 September 1942.

By this time, No 109 Squadron, based at Marham, had formed on Mosquitos, but was unusual in that the squadron was tasked with the development of various bombing aids then in the pipeline. The first of these aids was a blind-bombing device known as 'Oboe' and this was tried for the first time during an attack on a power station in Holland during the night of 20th/21st December 1942. Trials with 'Oboe' continued and gradually introduced across the remainder of Bomber Command during 1943.

No 105 Squadron was not idle, and along with the third Mosquito bomber squadron, No 139 at Marham, set about carrying out a series of highly-publicised precision attacks on enemy targets during the early months of 1943. Indeed, over 100 such attacks took place in the first half of 1943, notably raids on Copenhagen (27 January), Berlin (30 January) and Jena (27 May). The Jena raid, on the Zeiss optical factory and Schott glassworks was the final such attack to be carried out in daylight.

Shortly after the raid at Jena, Nos 105 and 139 Squadrons were transferred from No 2 Group, which had left Bomber Command for the newly-formed Second tactical Air Force, to the Pathfinder Force (No 8 Group) and began to re-equip with an improved bomber Mosquito, the B.IX. With these aircraft, the Mosquito squadrons flew ahead of the Main Force, marking out waypoints for the bombers to guide them onto their intended target and used 'Oboe' increasingly to mark as accurately as possible.

The next bomber variant was the B.XVI, and this became the standard version of the aircraft in Bomber Command, eventually equipping 16 squadrons. This version could fly at altitudes up to 40,000ft thanks to a pressurised cockpit, and could also carry a 4,000lb bomb in an enlarged bomb-bay. With additional wing fuel tanks, the Mosquito could take one of these mighty bombs to Berlin and still evade much of the defending night fighter force.

In 1944, with the tide turned against the Germans, the Mosquitos were transferred to the new Light Night Striking Force (LNSF), part of No 100 (Bomber Support) Group. Here, the Mosquitos were tasked with carrying out diversionary raids to attract the defending fighters away from the main bomber stream. These 'spoof' attacks, many of which were against Berlin, were aided by electronic aids to deceive the German radar network into believing that the much smaller Mosquito force was the main attack.

Some Mosquitos which served with the LNSF and Pathfinders were Canadian-built Mark 25s. After the War, a number of B35s were produced and entered service from late 1947 onwards, many with squadrons on the Continent. The final home-based bomber Mosquitos, some 1,690 of which had been built (from a total of 7,781 of all versions), serving with No 139 Squadron, were eventually replaced by Canberras in November 1953.

An example of the tremendous accuracy achieved by Mosquitos can be shown by comparing figures for the attacks on the V-weapons sites. The average tonnage of bombs required to destroy one of these sites by B-17 Flying Fortresses was 165; for B26 Marauders it was 182 tons and for B25 Mitchells 219 tons. The average for the Mosquito was just under 40 tons!

Specifications:
Manufacturer: de Havilland
Primary function: Fighter-bomber
Power plant: Two Rolls-Royce Merlin XXI engines with Thrust 1,635 HP 1,220 kW each
Crew: Two
Date deployed: 1943

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 54.2 ft
Length: 40.9 ft
Height: 15.25 ft
Wingarea: 454 sq ft
Weights: empty 14,300 lb / Max. 22,300 lb

Performance :
Speed: 380 mph
Ceiling: 36,090 ft
Range: 1,205 mi

Armaments:
4x 20mm cannon,
4x 7.7mm machine gun;

2 x 227 kg bomb or
2x 227 lt (or 2x 454 lt) ext. tanks or
8x 27 kg rockets

---

---

---

---

All photos Copyright of RAF Mod.UK and Military.Cz websites.

[Diver Dave]

No more of the Coffee of Doom for you two!
Speaking of coffee and lack of sleep, where's Dave?
And did he really actually give my brew a shot?

Hey, can you keep the noise down, some folks aren't quite awake yet.
Coffee! I need coffee! ('fraid I haven't tried your brew. Missed the recipe. Wanna repeat it?)

Interesting topic today. And, with Valin's 'history' column, I'm remembering so much of his stuff first-hand, I must be getting old.

[SAMWolf]

No more of the Coffee of Doom for you two!

So that's what it was!!!!!!!

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Johnny!

Great plane! I have a chance to get "633 Squadron" on DVD. Good movie featuring the Mosquito.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks DD.

There's a method to our madness, Snippy did this thread as a lead into tomorrows thread. She graciously switched days with me so I could do tomorrow's thread.

[Darksheare]

IN 12 cup drip percolator, fill pot to 6 cup mark.
In filter, put 6 HEAPING scoops of coffee.
Put pinch of salt into filter, pinch being equal to the size of a dime.
Brew, recirculate if necessary.
Usually isn't.
Unless the roast you normally use is rather weak.
(No-one I know uses weak brewing roast..)

Sugar to preference, add half-n-half.
Non dairy creamer in it will give you a buzz like nothing, just ask snippy and Sam.
That, and you'll end up awake for a long time.

[Darksheare]

Probably!

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks Johnny. I think the Mosquito is a good looking plane.

[snippy_about_it]

I must be getting old.

Oh no, not you too! LOL. First SAM and now you.

[snippy_about_it]

Non dairy creamer in it will give you a buzz like nothing, just ask snippy and Sam.

So true Darksheare, I think at least my stomach wouldn't have felt as bad had I used real milk or cream. However, I'm not willing to try it again to find out!! LOL.

[Darksheare]

Understood.
I've also found in personal experience that non-dairy creamer, like cremora, leaves a filmy plasticy taste to it.
Like surface grease.

I am rather picky about my coffee, and will use non-dairy creamer only if I absolutely have to.
But, how awake were you afterwards?

[snippy_about_it]

But, how awake were you afterwards?

Oh, I was plenty awake.

I'd have to go back to the thread that day to see for sure but as I recall we stayed up extra late that night, went to a restaurant on the way home just so I could keep talking. And believe me, that's not like me, lol.

I bet SAM thanks you for that, *chuckle*.

[Darksheare]

SORRY!!!

I can down at least five out of the six cups of the stuff and still not feel a thing.
So now I'm slightly jealous about your coffee buzz experience. ;-)

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. Don't apologize, we knew what we were getting into just reading your recipe that day and then deciding what the heck, we'd try it.

I think the only way you'll have a coffee buzz again is to stay away from it for a little while and then go back to it. :)

[Johnny Gage]

In the history of the Mosquito it talks about a "blind bombing device" called Oboe.

I found some more information regarding this. Quite interesting:

Oboe

A blind-bombing device installed into an aircraft but controlled from ground stations in England. Two stations transmitted pulses which were picked up by aircraft and then retransmitted to the ground stations.

The aircraft receiving the Oboe signals used the pulses to keep itself on the correct path in order to pass over the target; the stations in England, by measuring the time taken to receive the pulses back again, calculated the aircraft's exact position and sent a short signal at the moment when the bombs should be released.

Oboe had several limitations; it was - like Gee - a 'line-of-sight' device and thus limited by the curvature of the earth. Also each of the three base stations in England could only control six aircraft each per hour, and those aircraft had the highly dangerous task of flying straight and level for several minutes.

The best tactic employed was for a small force of Oboe-equipped Pathfinder Mosquitoes (with an operational ceiling of 30,000 ft - thus extending the range of Oboe) to be the first to mark the target. This would then be backed up by non Oboe Pathfinder aircraft to further mark the target.

Oboe was one of the most accurate of blind bombing devices.

First trialed in December 1942, it was used operationally from January 1943 onwards.

[SAMWolf]

AH Yes! The midnight munchies at Shari's I almost had to hit her on the head and drag her to her hotel to get her to go to sleep.

[SAMWolf]

Polish Monument Driel

In the beautiful village of Driel you can find this monument for the Polish troops who fought here. The Polish troops had to land with the third lift on tuesday 19 September. Because of bad weather conditions the flight was postponed till thursday. On thursday there were also bad weather conditions, but the Airborne troops at Oosterbeek needed them. They landed but the Germans expected them. Many Polish troops were killed during their landing with parachutes. At night the Polish General Sosabowski, the leading commander of the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade Group, commanded his troops to cross the river to help the Airborne troops at Arnhem. Unfortunately the Germans noticed that the Polish were crossing the river and launched some fireworks. The Polish then were an easy target. Many Polish Airborne Soldiers died during this action. Only 200 reached the other side. On the monument you can read:

-Surge Polonia-
(Poland will rise again)

[snippy_about_it]

LOL.

So you do remember. ;)

[SAMWolf]

:-)