The Mosquito, or the DH-98 De Havilland Mosquito to give its full name, almost wasn't. First proprosed to The Air Ministry in 1938, by Geoffery de Havilland himself, obviously worried about the situation in Europe. It was proprosed that the aircraft be so fast that it could go unarmed and just outfly any enemy craft. The Air Ministry was not happy with this, and turned the request down, saying that the best thing De Havilland could do was to continue building wings for anothers' bomber programme, utilising a more conventional design.

Development

De Havilland, however, realising the possibilities of such a craft, kept at it, as a private venture. He drafted men working on the other bomber wings, against orders and so illegally, to work on the Mosquito. He lightened the aircraft by removing the weapons and most of the crew. He also brought innovative construction techniques to the party, another sticking point with the Air Ministry, in that the plane was to be predominantly wooden. This was genius, most metal was in short supply, and metal workers already overstretched. However there was a whole bunch of woodworkers who were not in much use, everything from 'proper' carpenters and joiners through to the specialists, such as piano makers and furniture makers¹.

Almost the whole plane was wooden. The fuselage was a plywood-balsa-plywood laminate, built round spruce stringers². It was built in two halves, moulded on some concrete formers and, once all the wiring and control sytems put in, glued together. The wings were basically plywood skins over a couple of spars. The control surfaces were an alloy, light and strong, covered with a metal skin on the ailerons, and a simple fabric on the tail.

De Havilland was convinced that even with twice the weight and twice the wetted area³, the two Rolls-Royce Merlin engines that the Mosquito used would still power it to 20mph faster than the Spitfire. The Air Ministry was sceptical, but even so they ordered 50 in March 1940, sight unseen. This was cancelled due to the fallout from Dunkirk, but after several more attempts they finally confirmed the order at the end of November that year.

It was Feburary the following year that the first official test flight took place over Boscombe Down. The sceptics were there, but even they were impressed when the plane reached a top speed of 392 mph, even the newest Spitfire could only manage 374 mph. It became the fastest plane that Bomber Command had, and it stayed that way until 1951. The demonstrations impressed the American contingent, but when General Henry Arnold took the idea back to the US and proposed it to a group of their aircraft manufacturers, again the opposition was unanimous - 'It appears as though this airplane has sacrificed servicability, structural strength, ease of construction and flying characteristics in an attempt to use construction material which is not suitable for the manufacture of efficient airplanes'. Ha, more fool them.

Once official approval was gained, production went ahead and the first 50 aircraft were ready by the summer of 1941. These were photo-reconnaisance planes and were incredibly able. Some became unarmed bombers, carrying a respectible 2000 lbs worth of explosives, and development on the next generation of Mosquitos was pushed forward. The wings were lengthened, the tail made larger and the engine nacelles⁴ were made larger. The development also turned up some intresting things.

The Mosquito was a very powerful machine, so powerful that the 'unarmed' idea could be updated, weapons could be fitted to the 'plane and they were. All kinds of different weapons, in all kinds of different ways. Large bombs could be carried - like the Cookie, a 4000 lb monster. The aircraft had showed that it could lift several times the weight that it was designed for, and there are stories of planes being massivly overloaded - a ballast of 10,000 lbs - and still being able to fly. This meant that it could, not only, carry the bombs, but that it could also attack enemy aircraft with machine-guns or even cannons⁵.

This power was the major reason that it became one of the most versatile crafts in the second world war. There are 43 known varients, designed for almost any mission that a 'plane can be used for. The only aircraft that had more uses was the Junkers JU-88, with upto 60 varients. It got to be dive bomber, which the Mossie missed out on.

Varients

There were four main themes that the Mosquito had, during the war. It was a photo-reconnaisance aircraft, a bomber, a ground-support vehicle and a nightfighter. With these four main niches the DH-98 was an excellent and timely addition to the war effort. However, this was not all that it did, there were a number of other variations, normally only made in small numbers but allowing the Mossie to do some suprising things.

Photo-Reconnaisance

Even though the Mossie was envisioned as an unarmed bomber, the Air Ministry were still sceptical and so the first 50 ordered were to be the Photo-Reconnaisance (PR) models. With no armament, other than a few camaras, it depended on its svelte form and speed to outfly any enemy it came across. The very first Mosquito missions were indeed PR, over France, in the middle of the day. Some squadrons had their machines painted a powder blue, to help camoflage them, as they would be flying so high that they would disappear into the blue yonder.

Night Fighter

Technically the second variation produced, in the form of the NF Mk.II. Painted black, to hide in the dark (obviously), this slowed the Mossie down by upto 20mph. Fitted with nose-mounted 20mm machine-guns, and chin-mounted⁶ 38mm cannons, it was also fitted with one of the first airborn RADARs. After being vectored to the area by ground control, the navigator, watching a small screen, would direct the pilot to the potential enemy planes for identification, and possible attack. Later RADAR innovations required the removal of the machineguns, and the addition of an ugly nose cone, but didn't diminish the effectivness of the aircraft any.

Bomber

Though, technically, the Nightfighter was the second variation, the Bomber was actually the second. The Mosquito proved itself very quickly, and the original order was quickly changed to 20 PR versions and 30 Bomber (B) versions. The first bombers were just adapted PR planes, but soon the B Mk.IV, a production bombers was being produced. Still unarmed, and depending on its lightening quickness the bombers proved an incredible success. The Mk.IV was the turning point for the Mosquito, it got bigger engines, bigger nacelles. It was the Mk.IV that proved the versatility of the plane.

Fighter-Bomber

The fighter/bomber varaition of the DH-98 was the most popular. Building on all the improvements in previous Marks, the fighter/bomber increased power, the amount of arms and the armour that was carried. It role was mainly in ground support, but they could also be used as intruders⁷, and helped in defending London against the V1⁸ terror attacks. Eventually with the guns and bombs there were also varients that carried rockets under the wings.

Anti-Ship

Though not a major variation the anti-ship Mosquito was a fairly effective machine. Taking part in the incredibly dangerous attacks on ships, where you basically fly down the guns, required an extremely competant machine. The major succesful variation, there were a number of experimental versions, was the addition of a Molins 57mm Cannon into the nose of the plane. This beast lobbed 6lb shells at ships, and with rockets and bombs on order, the Mosquito claimed a fair number of U-boats, and smaller ships.

Other

'Highball'. Highball came out of Wallis' bouncing bomb project to destroy the German industrial Rhone Valley. Smaller then the massive dambuster, the highball was designed as an anti-ship bomb. Shaped as a sphere, and with the opposite spin that the Wallace dambuster bomb had it proved erratic and very susceptible to wind and weather on the open sea. The project was dropped and the aircraft were then rigged for carrier operations.

Missions

The Secret War

Mossies were often used to send and recieve information from underground, resistance and spies deep within enemy territory. Their speed and altitude meant that the enemy fighters had real difficulty touching them.

The aircrew would fly with the resistance handler and aim for above a field, 40,000 feet above a particular field. The ground operative would have a suitcase radio with a directional antenna. The antenna would beam the radio waves into the sky - safely beaming them out into space, and not able to be detected by german triangulation teams, trying to hunt them down. Information could be exchanged, recon updated, equipment drops arranged and orders given, all safe from interception by the enemy.

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¹ Though they were used to construct gliders, for various missions.
² A horizontal length used to support uprights.
³ Surface area in contact with the airstream, so basically the entire outer surface of the aircraft.
⁴ Fancy name for the outrigger engine housings on the wings.
⁵ Really BIG machine-guns.
⁶ Just below the machineguns
⁷ Striking deep into the enemy territory.
⁸ The V1 'Doodlebug' Rockets