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The de Havilland Mosquito was one of the most versatile and successful aircraft of the Second World War, serving as a bomber, a fighter and an unarmed reconnaissance aircraft. This book gives us a large selection of eye witness accounts provided by the crewmen of this iconic aircraft, looking at some of the varied roles the aircraft performed. There are chapters looking at defensive night fighting, offensive night intruder missions, bombing missions, pathfinder missions, meteorological flights, nuisance raids across occupied Europe and the pinpoint bombing raids that first brought the aircraft to public attention.
This book shares two problems with Bowman's similar work, The Mighty Eighth at War. First, the detailed notes have been placed at the end of each chapter, rather than as footnotes, where they would have been most useful. Second is the introduction, which was produced by 'Bruce Sanders', the wartime pen name of Leonard R. Gribble, a thriller writer. The problem isn't the use of this text, but that Bowman doesn't explain who Sanders was or when he was writing. Sanders was writing under wartime conditions, so many of his statements are not accurate, and it would be useful if this was made clear somewhere (Bowman does make this clear in the chapter end notes, but these might be missed).
This book has a rather different tone to the 'Mighty Eighth'. That book had a rather melancholy feel, reflecting the heavy losses suffered by the heavy bombers. Here there is far more of a tone of adventure and excitement. The Mosquito squadrons suffered comparatively light losses, taking advantage of their high speed to avoid enemy fighters. Some of the air crew record that they were eager to return to the action after enforced breaks, something far less common in the 'Mighty Eighth' (one feature that both forces had in common was that some men volunteers to fly extra missions after their tour had expired so that an entire crew could complete operations at the same time).
This is a compelling read, giving us a glimpse into the fast vanishing world of the Mosquito crews.
Chapters
1 - The New Wooden Walls, by Bruce Sanders
2 - 'Musical Mosquitoes'
3 - Defensive Night-Fighting
4 - Death in the Dark
5 - On the Defensive Again
6 - The 'Milk Run', Markers and 'Pampas'
7 - 'Nuisance' Raiders
8 - The Enemy Within
9 - Jericho
10 - 'Jane'
Author: Martin W. Bowman
Edition: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Publisher: Pen & Sword Aviation
Year: 2010