Author(s): Martin W. Bowman

Military

The 'Wooden Wonder' was probably the most versatile combat aircraft that operated on all fronts in World War Two and was still giving valuable service in first-line service after 1945 when it enjoyed a limited renaissance both at home, in Germany and abroad until the advent of jet aircraft. The author's well-tried formula of using background information interspersed with scores of RAF and Dominion and overseas pilots and navigators' personal narrative is evident once again, as a previously unpublished selection of crew tales takes you raid by raid on night-fighter, fighter-bomber, anti-shipping, path finder, photo-reconnaissance and precision bombing and low-level ground attack operations while carrying full bomb loads or rockets or cannon and machine guns, or no armament at all on photo-reconnaissance missions, in the Middle East and jungles of the Far East where post-war, the Mosquito served as an interim night-fighter and bomber and saw action in a 'messy little war' against Indonesian extremists in the jungles of the Dutch East Indies until 1946. Mosquitoes were operated as a maid of all work on 'Pampa' Met flight duty, reconnaissance and mapping and survey work as well as a high-speed courier service and Sea Mosquitoes were operated by the Royal Navy. Civil Mosquitoes also operated throughout the world and RAF record-breaking attempts saw many more Mosquito achievements in the late 1940s. In the early fifties many Mosquitoes were refurbished for use by foreign air forces. The last RAF Mosquitoes to see RAF service anywhere were the PR.34As of 81 Squadron at Seletar and the very last Mosquito sortie was a 'Firedog' reconnaissance sortie against two terrorist camps in Malaya on 15 December 1955; fourteen years and three months since the first ever Mosquito operation on 17 September 1941 when another PR machine had photographed Brest and the Spanish-French border.