The Wooden Wonder: Mosquito Built Entirely of Wood One of Best RAF Aircraft WW2
The Wooden Wonder
RAF MOSQUITO AIRFRAME BUILT ENTIRELY OF WOOD
DAYTON, Ohio — De Havilland DH 98 Mosquito at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo)
De Haviland D-98 Mosquito Mk. 35 restored to Mk XVI version. Painted as a plane of 653 Bomb Squadron. National Museum of United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio, USA.
Engines: Two Rolls-Royce Merlins of 1,690 hp each
Maximum speed: 415 mph
Range: 1,955 miles
Ceiling: 42,000 ft
Once in service, RAF photo reconnaissance only used Mosquitos because they were fast and had a ceiling of 42,000. Very difficult for Germans to shoot down.
DE HAVILLAND DH.98 MOSQUITO Mosquito PR Mark XVI of 544 Squadron RAF. © IWM. McCain: “The aircraft is painted with ‘invasion stripes’ which were painted on aircraft immediately before D-Day to establish there were Allied aircraft.
An armourer, Leading Aircraftman H Knight of Cliffe-at-Hoo, Kent, loads 19-lb 4.5-inch Photoflash bombs into a De Havilland PR Mark XVI of No. 140 Squadron RAF at B58/Melsbroek, Belgium, prior to a night photographic-reconnaissance sortie. Photo courtesy of Imperial War Museum, in the public domain.
Photo flash bombs were dropped by photo-reconnaissance aircraft to allow them to photograph areas at night. The bombs exploded at low altitudes and produced a brilliant white light fulfilling the function of a flashbulb.
posted and copyright 2021 by Charles McCain, author of An Honorable German, a WW2 naval epic featuring a heroic but deeply conflicted anti-Nazi German naval officer. The novel is about him and his fiance set against the backdrop of the war.
Buy My Novel An Honorable German: “…mesmerizing from the first to the last page.”
THIS NOVEL IS ABOUT AN ANTI-NAZI GERMAN NAVAL OFFICER
…mesmerizing from the first to the last page…the bombing scenes of Berlin by the Allies are terrifying… MyShelf.com
Several Germans who were young teenagers in Nazi Germany, read the manuscript for accuracy. some years ago. One of them had been in a bomb shelter during a bombing raid on Berlin and told me I had perfectly captured what it was like
The paperback cover of An Honorable German by Charles McCain
“A gripping and eye-opening novel . . .Booklist:
“Truly superb storytelling, crisp prose, and an amazing knowledge of German naval customs, history, and traditions make this an outstanding read.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune
available on Kindle here: https://tinyurl.com/McCainAmazonAHG
available on Nook here: https://tinyurl.com/AHGMcCainNook
In the novel, there are four chapters aboard U-114, commanded by the main character, who is the honorable German of the title. (U-114 was never built).
The Battle of the North Atlantic is the Name of the Campaign Against German U-Boats Sinking Allied Merchant Ships. We won.
Sinking of German submarine U-175, April 1943. The submarine was sunk off south-west of Ireland by USCGC Spencer (WPG-36) on April 17, 1943. Coast Guardsmen on the deck of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter USCGC SPENCER watch the explosion of a depth charge which blasted a Nazi U-Boat’s hope of breaking into the center of a large convoy. Photograph and caption by USCG. From the US National Archives.
German U-boat, U-118, attacked and sunk by aircraft from USS Bogue (ACV-9), June 12, 1943. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
World War Two was good to me.
US Coast Guard Patrolled all Beaches in US during WW Two
“World War Two was good to me.”
When I was a stockbroker in the 1980s, one of my clients was a retired pilot from Pan American Airways. He told me that during World War Two, he was in the Coast Guard.
“What did you?” I asked him.
“Patrolled the beaches of Catalina Island and made sure the beautiful girls on the beach weren’t enemy saboteurs.”
“How long did you do this?”
“The entire war. World War Two was good to me.”
USCG on Horseback Patrol of US Coast World War Two
Men on Horseback Became the Largest Portion of Coast Guard Beach Patrol
US Coast Guardsmen on horseback during beach patrol during World War Two. The mounted portion soon became the largest segment of the patrol. (official USCG photo in public domain)
US Army Remount Service Provided More than 3,000 Horses to US Coast Guard
According to USCG, “one year after orders were given to use horses, there were 3,222 of the animals assigned to the Coast Guard. All came from the Army. The Army Remount Service provided all the riding gear required, while the Coast Guard provided the uniforms for the riders.” (From USCG Office of Chief Historian)
Mounted Beach Patrol: WWII.
(Official USCG photo in the public domain)
Everyone from Polo Players to Rodeo Riders Volunteered
“A call went out for personnel, and a mixed bag of people responded. Polo players, cowboys, former sheriffs, horse trainers, Army Reserve cavalrymen, jockeys, farm boys, rodeo riders, and stuntmen applied. Much of the mounted training took place at Elkins Park Training Station and Hilton Head, the sites of the dog training schools.” (From USCG Office of Chief Historian)
Scrambling out of a whaleboat to patrol the beach (Official USCG photo in the public domain)