Mosquito: Menacing the Reich: Combat Action in the Twin-engine Wooden Wonder of World War II (24 page)

An armourer holds a 57mm armour-piercing HE shell in front of the Molins gun in the nose of a Banff Mosquito. The four .303 inch machine gun armament was later reduced to two guns to save weight and allow more fuel to be carried on anti-shipping strikes. (
via GMS
)

PR.XVI NS590/B with D-Day invasion stripes. (
Ken Godfrey via George Sesler
)

Lieutenant Walter D. Gernand (right), 654th Bomb Squadron, and his cameraman, Sergeant Ebbet C. Lynch, 8th CCU. (
via George Sesler
)

1st Lieutenant Claude C. Moore, a navigator in the 654th Bomb Squadron. On 9 April 1945 1st Lieutenant John A. Pruis and Claude Moore flew a Gray-Pe
a
mission with three other Mosquitoes on an escort for a long, maximum-effort mission by B-17s of the 1st Air Division to Oberpfaffenhofen in southeastern Germany. Their Mosquito was shot down by P-51s and Pruis was killed. Moore, who was very badly wounded, survived and spent the better part of two years in hospitals. Doctors concentrated on his broken back, a ruptured cartilage in his knee, an injured ankle and the shrapnel wounds in his arm. He was then transferred to two burn centers in England where his hand, face and scalp received skin grafts and other attention. Later, he was transferred to the States where he received attention at two more hospitals. When married years after the mission he was still wearing a body cast. Pruis is buried in Lorraine American Cemetery, France. (via George Sesler)

PR.XVI NS591/S of the 25th Bomb Group landing at Watton on 22 February 1945. (
via Philip Birtles
)

PR.XVI NS748 lost its tail and rear fuselage in this crash at Watton in April 1945. (
via Ken Godfrey
)

Lieutenant Raymond G. Spoerl (right) with a UK airman at Watton.

Lieutenant Dean Sanner at Watton on 8 April 1944.

On 18 September 1944 1st Lieutenant Robert A. Tunnel (pictured) in the 654th Bomb Squadron, with 19-year-old Staff Sergeant John ‘Buddie’ G. Cunney, 8th CCU cameraman failed to return from a PR mission to the Nijmegen-Eindhoven area where a supply drop was to be made by Liberators to the US Airborne. Tunnel was blinded by a searchlight, lost control and crashed on Plantlunne airfield. Both he and Cunney were killed and they are interred in the American war cemetery at Neuville en Condroz, Belgium. (via George Sesler)

PR.XVI NS553, still in its RAF PR blue scheme, suffered a starboard undercarriage failure after putting down in emergency at the 96th Bomb Group B-17 Flying Fortress base at Snetterton Heath in Norfolk. (
via Dick Jeeves
)

Len A. Erickson, a navigator in the 654th Bomb Squadron and Albert D. Rasmussen and two other officers playing cards at Watton. (
Erickson
)

H2X PR.XVI NS538/F with Photo Lab personnel, Carl J. Wanka and John W. Ripley. Mickey ships were fitted with modified B-17 H2X sets for preparing photographic records of radar bombing approaches to high-priority targets deep inside Germany. The H2X radar scanner was placed in a bulbous nose, the amplifiers and related equipment in the nose and bomb bay, and the radarscope in the rear fuselage. There was a tendency for the Mickey set to arc or even explode, when first turned on. The radar drew a heavier current than the Mosquito’s electrical system. (
via George Sesler
)