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de Havilland Mosquito

Yup my bad, I knew it was a Molins! Bugged if I know why I said Polston!!
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and

 
Right basic , flexible design , right place and right time ... what always astounds me is the Tsetse ? version fitted with a Quick Firing Field Gun .... bet that version really rattled the Germans when developed and issued to Squadrons
Or twin 37mm's ......one Ace Stuka pilot alone (Rudel) took out over 500 tanks!!! (he flew 2200 odd sorties



ATB, Ed
 
Or twin 37mm's ......one Ace Stuka pilot alone (Rudel) took out over 500 tanks!!! (he flew 2200 odd sorties



ATB, Ed

I think that “The squadron led by Rudel claimed 500 tanks, most of which were then attributed to him regardless of which pilot was actually responsible. Some of their claims might have been true.” would be somewhat more realistic.
 
I think that “The squadron led by Rudel claimed 500 tanks, most of which were then attributed to him regardless of which pilot was actually responsible. Some of their claims might have been true.” would be somewhat more realistic.


If you say so, I am in aviation and have built and restored WW2 fighters to flying condition in the past, and in that time of my career met all sorts of ex RAF combat veteran crew, the subject of German claims and victories is always debated, their top 10 aces having over 2000 combined kills for example.

They (the Germans) flew till they died or the war ended, many from Spain till the last days of the war, so the ones that somehow survived did rack up huge totals, albiet in the early days with better gear and skills, but many also against our later types and against huge odds due to their combat experience ("experten")

The guys I spoke to over the years back 40 years ago when I was restoring warbirds all had a very healthy respect for their foes, and even Bader did the forward in Rudel's book.

I am not a Nazi fanboy, but many folk can't seem stand the fact that the German pilots because of unique demands and time in combat acquired the biggest scores in air combat history, the dust has settled, all their claims have been examined and gone over for years by first our intelligence people and later historians, but the numbers are still eye watering enough for even a sceptic surely.

I have just as much interest in Allied WW2 air combat history and lost a relative who was a special operator in 101 squadron, but to understand how we suffered such losses (he was lost on a night when Bomber Command lost more crew than the RAF did in the whole Battle of Britain) you have to examine the enemy tactics and equipment.





ATB, Ed
 
I am in aviation and have built and restored WW2 fighters to flying condition in the past, and in that time of my career met all sorts of ex RAF combat veteran crew,
If you say so.
but many folk can't seem stand the fact that the German pilots because of unique demands and time in combat acquired the biggest scores in air combat history, the dust has settled, all their claims have been examined and gone over for years by first our intelligence people and later historians, but the numbers are still eye watering enough for even a sceptic surely.
I was basing my take from a piece I watched a little while back by a German historian who posts videos on youtube under “Military Aviation History”. It’s either one of his videos or a collaboration he did on “The Chieftain”s channel.

I’m aware of the German policy to keep their ace pilots in combat compared to the allied policy of withdrawing them to training positions, meaning that the best of the Germans would rack up relatively high ‘scores’ at the cost of their newly trained replacement pilots decreasing in quality as the war progressed. No doubt Rudel did ‘score’ substantially higher than allied crews, but aircrew claims are always exaggerated, doubly so against ground targets. On top of that, there was propaganda value in encouraging over-claiming, particularly when it came to aces.
 
Mosquito fans: “Hornby: a Model World”.
Saw a bit last night on Yesterday TV. I think this is a new series, if not, please ignore.
Anyway, the Airfix designer was looking at the Mosquito in real life, looking at improving the model. Much attention paid to the undercarriage. Of the plane, that is.
I haven’t made an Airfix model in 35+ years, but found myself staring at different aspects of the plane and getting into the designer’s thought process.
These long evenings are a drag, aren’t they?
 
6 pounder QF Polson with an auto loader developed by the British Cigarette Machine company. It’s the same gun as fitted to RN coastal forces, like on the Motor Gun Boats.

The 6pdr QF with a Molins auto-loader was one of two options fitted to MGBs at the end of the war. The other, which used the same mounting was a 4.5in howitzer - a modern version of the old carronade.

Incidentally, there was a programme on rebuilding a Mossie on the box the other night. I saw the arrowhead radar aerials and thought, an NF MkII (two). The idiot presenter then started wittering on about the NF MkXI, which was a cue to change stations.
 
The 6pdr QF with a Molins auto-loader was one of two options fitted to MGBs at the end of the war. The other, which used the same mounting was a 4.5in howitzer - a modern version of the old carronade.
The photos I’ve got there are from the IWM archives. I was looking at the RNPS in Lowestoft’s Harbour during WW2. We had quite a collection of fast boats here, MGBs and MTBs. Worth a look if you like fast boats!
 
A local Mosquito story.......

As you know Malvern is the home of British radar and the factory and research establishment here and the local Defford airfield test area were as secret and as important as Bletchley in WW2,..... anyhow I digress.

On 31st July 1942 a Mosquito night fighter (DD639 the newest one in the squadron) was vectored onto a trace by the "Longload" GCI Yeovil station.

It was a JU88 heading for Brum.....They caught up with it about two miles South of my house and dropped it by a burst into an engine which then took off a wing, the crew bailed and the JU broke up, with the main parts landing less than 1/2 from my house (as the crow flies) on the other side of the hill in a field behind what then was a pub called the Hornold Arms (really...we have a Hornyold Road here too!).

2 x500 KG bombs and incendiaries landed intact with other stuff and the pilot on the Malvern Golf Course 18th fairway....The incediaries went up, but the big ones did not.

The pilot was injured and patched up in a nearby house, but complained when the Police arrived that someone had nicked his Iron Cross.....The Police then went off searching for it all over the place!

The gunner decended unharmed a ways away, by now a general alert was on and a young female ARP walking back from a duty saw a shadowy figure near a road, accousted him and took him by the arm and led him to the Police station, getting a medal for her nerve later.

In 1961 the pilot returned to Malvern to thank people that had helped him, and met the director of the Malvern radar establishment, who said it was fitting that the first kill with the new device had actually been over Malvern, with the JU88 hitting the deck under 2 miles from where it had been invented!

The Pilot off the 88 was 21, he had flown since 1939 and he and three other crews in his Sqd. were the sole survivors from the beginning of the war, the new pilots called them "the old men"

And the Mossie ?.......Less than 8 weeks later on final approach to RAF Colerne, the home of 264 sqd. it deveoped a stall, and veered into a hanger sadly killing both occupants.

Just one of 1000's of tales many that will never be told, this one thanks to Glyn Warren who researched local WW2 Air War events for a book.
 
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The gunner decended unharmed a ways away, by now a general alert was on and a young female ARP walking back from a duty saw a shadowy figure near a road, accousted him and took him by the arm and led him to the Police station, getting a medal for her nerve later.

Probably a better option than some of the other possibilities from his point of view.
 
For all those German types waving the Axis' ground attack options about, please remember that the largest was the HS-129 with a 75mm.
The Mossie was getting a 32-pounder, which is 94mm, anti-tank gun at the end of the war. For those who've been to Bovy, the same gun in the Tortoise. That thing, shoehorned into a Mossie with an autoloader.

Granted, for naval strike the Italians had a 4 engine heavy with a 100mm artillery piece on it.
 
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