Masters of Precision - The Mossies

 617 Squadron was by no means the only RAF unit engaged in precision bombing. The Mosquito bombers likewise proved to be extremely accurate when in capable hands -- far ahead of anything the USAAF ever delivered. Two examples of their outstanding accuracy will serve to prove the case. 

 

As the war progressed, the French Resistance grew increasingly strong and effective. In anticipation of the Allied landing on the Continent, the French Resistance played an increasingly vital role in both providing intelligence and sabotaging German installations. By late 1943, however, many French Resistance cells had been infiltrated by German spies and in the winter of '43/'44 the Germans struck with mass arrests. On 14 Februrary 1944, a Resistance leader who literally "knew too much" about the Allied invasion plans was arrested by the Gestapo and put in Amiens Gestapo prison. He was not alone. Four American spies, three British agents, a Belgian spy, and over 800 other prisoners of which roughly 100 were resistance fighters were also held in the prison. At the highest levels of government, it was decided that an attempt to rescue the prisoners should be made -- with a back-up plan to destroy the entire prison -- and those in it -- if the rescue failed. 

The plan called for three squadrons of Mosquitos to attack in three waves. The first was supposed to destroy the German guards during their mid-day meal, always taken at noon, by bombing the two wings of the building used as Gestapo quarters and mess. The second wave was to drop bombs at the outer edge of the main building in order for the bombs to create pressure waves sufficient to blow open the doors -- without actually bringing down the building and killing any one. The third wave would bomb the building, if the first two waves had not succeeded in breaking open the doors and enabling the prisoners to escape. Word was smuggled into the prison that a rescue attempt would be made presaged by an air raid. 

The aircraft took off in fog and blowing snow, and it was impossible to see one another. The weather caused six of the Typhoon fighter escort and six of the Mossies to return to base.  The others continued and found clear weather over the channel, where they reformed loosely before continuing at very low level inland. Approaching the target, they were flying so low, one pilot reported, that they had to lift a wing slightly to fly between the poplars lining the road. Aircraft of the first wave arrived at the target just one minute behind schedule at 12:01 and proceeded to bomb while the second wave, arriving early circled and then went in. The Master Bomber could identify people escaping after the second attack and called off the third wave. Altogether 258 prisoners escaped, including 12 who had been sentenced to execution the next day. Another 120 prisoners were killed in the bombing or by German machine guns while trying to escape. The cost to the RAF were three Mosquitos shot down and two Typhoons for the loss of six men; two aircrew survived in captivity.

Roughly six months later, the Danish Resistance sent an urgent message requesting that the RAF destroy Gestapo Headquarters in Aarhus in order to prevent greater disruption of resistance activities in the wake of a number of key arrests. The Gestapo Headquarters was housed in a university building and flanked by hospitals full of civilians making precision bombing particularly important. The raid was undertaken on 31 October 1943 by twenty-four Mosquitos with an escort of eight RAF Mustangs, and again the RAF made a noon (daytime) attack at very low level. The bombs had eleven second delays as otherwise they might have damaged the aircraft dropping them when they exploded. The raid effectively destroyed the Gestapo archives and killed 59 Germans, of whom 27 were SS officers. Thirty Danes also perished in the attack, but two of the most important Danish Resistance leaders escaped and fled to Sweden. One of the Mosquitos was too badly damaged to return to England, but managed to crash land in Sweden.

Obviously, not all raids were equally successful. Notoriously, in an attack on Gestapo HQ in Copenhagen on 21 March 1945 145 Danish civilians were killed including 86 school children. Ironically, the Danes had long requested the attack and the RAF initially rejected the request citing the excessive risk of collateral damage in a densely populated city. But in early 1945 the decision was taken to go ahead and weeks of training using scale models were undertaken. Again the Mosquitos made the attack in three waves of six aircraft escorted by RAF Mustangs. One of the aircraft of the first wing flying at rooftop level snagged a lamppost with its wing and crashed into a school. Several bombers of the second and third wing mistook the crash site for the target and dropped their bombs on the school. Most of the aircraft, however, hit the intended target, destroyed the Gestapo HQ with its records and disrupted their operations for the rest of the war. In addition, 18 Danish resistance fighters escaped. The RAF lost four Mosquitos and two Mustangs on the raid along with eight of nine aircrew participating. Yet the death of 86 school-children overshadowed the success of the raid and turned it into a tragedy so close to the end of the war.

With examples like these, it is clear that the RAF could and did engage in very precise bombing indeed, and the question can legitimately be raised if more could have been achieved by investing in bringing even more crews up to the standards necessary for this kind of bombing. On the other hand, the best crews had done one or more tours of bombing with Main Force or the Pathfinders, and it is possible that training crews up to the standards necessary could not have been done in a training environment at all. The best crews had been tested and tempered by flying through the flak and the night fighters before they were asked to deliver bombs with extreme accuracy.

My novels about the RAF in WWII are intended as tributes to the men in the air and on the ground that made a victory against fascism in Europe possible.

Riding the icy, moonlit sky,

they took the war to Hitler. 

Their chances of survival were less than fifty percent. 

Their average age was 21.

This is the story of just one bomber pilot, his crew and the woman he loved. 

It is intended as a tribute to them all.  

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Disfiguring injuries, class prejudice and PTSD are the focus of three heart-wrenching tales set in WWII by award-winning novelist Helena P. Schrader. Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/grounded-eagles

 

  

 

 

 

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"Where Eagles Never Flew" was the the winner of a Hemingway Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction and a Maincrest Media Award for Military Fiction. Find out more at: https://crossseaspress.com/where-eagles-never-flew

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