The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Operation Carthage (3/21/1945) - Jan. 2nd, 2004

www.milhist.dk ^ | Klaus Velschow

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Valin. Yippee, it's Friday.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Mayor.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning feather.

[snippy_about_it]

Hello there Darksheare.

[Darksheare]

Morning.
Trying to find my skull since it seems to have rolled away from me due to yesterday's 'fun' and oddness.

But I'm 'ere!
More or less in one piece!

[Johnny Gage]

; )

Your wish is my command..

Air Power
de Havilland D.H.98 "Mosquito"

'The Wooden Wonder', as the Mosquito is affectionately known, almost never came to be. Air Ministry opposition to de Havilland's original proposal for an unarmed, all-wooden bomber almost forced de Havilland to abandon the design, but thanks to some behind-the-scenes lobbying, the Air Ministry reluctantly agreed to progress with the design.

The Mosquito was almost too radical a concept for the Air Ministry. Bomber designs were, by design, slow, cumbersome beasts, heavily-armed and metal in construction. Despite a specification being issued by the ministry for a bomber with some wooden construction in the airframe (B17/38), the idea of leaving the aircraft with no means of self-defence was too much of a risk to take. But some gentle persuasion of the ministry by Air Marshal Sir Wilfred Freeman, who sat on the Air Council as Member for Research and Development, resulted in a new Specification, B1/40, detailing a light bomber capable of carrying a 1,000lb load over a distance of 1,500 miles which could, presumably if it failed in this respect, be quickly modified as a fighter or photo-reconnaissance aircraft. An initial order for 50 aircraft was placed in March 1940.

In November 1940, Geoffrey de Havilland took the prototype Mosquito into the air for the first time. The performance of the aircraft was something of a revelation, the two Merlin engines giving fighter-like handling and a top speed which would allow the aircraft to outpace enemy fighters. The first bomber version, the B.IV first flew in the following September and the first deliveries to No 105 Squadron at Swanton Morley followed in November 1941.

Following its operational debut in a raid by four aircraft on Cologne on 31 May 1942, the Mosquito joined the Main Force but became famous for a number of set-piece attacks, and the first of these was a low-level attack on the Gestapo Headquarters in Oslo on 25 September 1942.

By this time, No 109 Squadron, based at Marham, had formed on Mosquitos, but was unusual in that the squadron was tasked with the development of various bombing aids then in the pipeline. The first of these aids was a blind-bombing device known as 'Oboe' and this was tried for the first time during an attack on a power station in Holland during the night of 20th/21st December 1942. Trials with 'Oboe' continued and gradually introduced across the remainder of Bomber Command during 1943.

No 105 Squadron was not idle, and along with the third Mosquito bomber squadron, No 139 at Marham, set about carrying out a series of highly-publicised precision attacks on enemy targets during the early months of 1943. Indeed, over 100 such attacks took place in the first half of 1943, notably raids on Copenhagen (27 January), Berlin (30 January) and Jena (27 May). The Jena raid, on the Zeiss optical factory and Schott glassworks was the final such attack to be carried out in daylight.

Shortly after the raid at Jena, Nos 105 and 139 Squadrons were transferred from No 2 Group, which had left Bomber Command for the newly-formed Second tactical Air Force, to the Pathfinder Force (No 8 Group) and began to re-equip with an improved bomber Mosquito, the B.IX. With these aircraft, the Mosquito squadrons flew ahead of the Main Force, marking out waypoints for the bombers to guide them onto their intended target and used 'Oboe' increasingly to mark as accurately as possible.

The next bomber variant was the B.XVI, and this became the standard version of the aircraft in Bomber Command, eventually equipping 16 squadrons. This version could fly at altitudes up to 40,000ft thanks to a pressurised cockpit, and could also carry a 4,000lb bomb in an enlarged bomb-bay. With additional wing fuel tanks, the Mosquito could take one of these mighty bombs to Berlin and still evade much of the defending night fighter force.

In 1944, with the tide turned against the Germans, the Mosquitos were transferred to the new Light Night Striking Force (LNSF), part of No 100 (Bomber Support) Group. Here, the Mosquitos were tasked with carrying out diversionary raids to attract the defending fighters away from the main bomber stream. These 'spoof' attacks, many of which were against Berlin, were aided by electronic aids to deceive the German radar network into believing that the much smaller Mosquito force was the main attack.

Some Mosquitos which served with the LNSF and Pathfinders were Canadian-built Mark 25s. After the War, a number of B35s were produced and entered service from late 1947 onwards, many with squadrons on the Continent. The final home-based bomber Mosquitos, some 1,690 of which had been built (from a total of 7,781 of all versions), serving with No 139 Squadron, were eventually replaced by Canberras in November 1953.

An example of the tremendous accuracy achieved by Mosquitos can be shown by comparing figures for the attacks on the V-weapons sites. The average tonnage of bombs required to destroy one of these sites by B-17 Flying Fortresses was 165; for B26 Marauders it was 182 tons and for B25 Mitchells 219 tons. The average for the Mosquito was just under 40 tons!

Specifications:
Manufacturer: de Havilland
Primary function: Fighter-bomber
Power plant: Two Rolls-Royce Merlin XXI engines with Thrust 1,635 HP 1,220 kW each
Crew: Two
Date deployed: 1943

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 54.2 ft
Length: 40.9 ft
Height: 15.25 ft
Wingarea: 454 sq ft
Weights: empty 14,300 lb / Max. 22,300 lb

Performance :
Speed: 380 mph
Ceiling: 36,090 ft
Range: 1,205 mi

Armaments:
4x 20mm cannon,
4x 7.7mm machine gun;

2 x 227 kg bomb or
2x 227 lt (or 2x 454 lt) ext. tanks or
8x 27 kg rockets

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All photos Copyright of RAF Mod.UK and Military.Cz websites

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks Johnny. The wooden wonder, what a neat plane!

[snippy_about_it]

"Bother," said Pooh, and called in an air strike.

LOL. Great tagline!!

[Professional Engineer]

Morning ma'am

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Snippy.

[SAMWolf]

Hi Aeronaut. Nice to see the Hurricane back. :-)

[SAMWolf]

Morning E.G.C. I hate ISP problems. There's not a thing you can do about them but wait and getting them to tell you what's actually wrong is next to impossible.

[The Mayor]

Morning and Happy New Year!

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the additional info on the raid and the Danish underground.

I recall theose stories about the SOE and the Danes. The Danish may have surrendered to the Wehrmacht in a day but they never quit. The Danes didin 't roll over like some countries and turn over the Jewish population for deportation.

Here's an interesting Urban Legend.

Claim: When the Germans ordered Jews in occupied Denmark to identify themselves by wearing armbands with yellow stars during World War II, King Christian X of Denmark and non-Jewish Danes thwarted the order by donning the armbands themselves.

Status: False.

Variations:


In some versions of the legend, after the Germans announce their intention to implement the order, King Christian responds by stating that he too will wear the armband. The Germans then rescind (or never implement) the order.

A popular version of the legend has King Christian sporting an armband as he makes his daily morning horseback ride through the streets of Copenhagen, explaining to citizens that he wears the Star of David as a demonstration of the principle that all Danes are equal. The Germans then cancel the order.

In a version similar to the one above, non-Jewish Danes respond to their king's example by wearing the armband as well, thus preventing the Germans from identifying Jewish citizens and rendering the order ineffective.
Origins: The legend of Denmark's King Christian X and his wearing of the yellow star is our most stirring example of non-violent opposition to evil: ordinary citizens (following the example of a courageous leader) defy their military overlords by selflessly putting themselves in harm's way to prevent the persecution of a defenseless minority. If only more people exhibited such moral fortitude nowadays, we reason, the world would be a much better place. Perhaps if more people had exhibited such moral courage back then, we think, the Holocaust might never have happened.

Although the Danes did undertake heroic efforts to shelter their Jews and help them escape from the Nazis, there is no real-life example of the actions described by this legend. Danish citizens never wore the yellow badge, nor did King Christian ever threaten to don it himself. In fact, Danish Jews never wore the yellow badge either (except for the few who were finally deported to concentration camps), nor did German officials ever issue an order requiring Danish Jews to display it.

We will assume everyone is familiar with the systematic persecution of Jews instituted in Germany after Adolph Hitler became chancellor in 1933, and the subsequent imposition of laws requiring Jewish-owned shops to be identified as such with prominent signs; passports and ration cards held by Jews to be stamped with the letter 'J'; and Jewish concentration camp inmates to wear yellow-and-red six-pointed stars. (Surprisingly, it was not until late 1941 that the display on clothing of a yellow Star of David with the word 'Jude' printed on it by Jews was mandated by law in Germany.) Denmark entered the tragic saga on the morning of 9 April 1940, when German troops overran the country and an ultimatum was delivered: if Denmark offered no resistance, Germany would respect Danish political independence. The Danish government and monarch, with no real options, quickly capitulated, and the five-year long occupation of Denmark began.

As usual, the occupied engaged in symbolic gestures of defiance against their occupiers, such as wearing four coins tied together with red and white ribbons in their buttonholes. (Red and white are the Danish colors, and four coins totalling nine ore represented the date of the occupation, April 9.) Tales of King Christian's snubbing of Hitler and the Nazis (some true and some apocryphal) began to circulate. When Hitler sent a letter of congratulations to King Christian X on the latter's 70th birthday in September 1942, the monarch's brief response ("My best thanks") was taken as an insult by Hitler, who recalled and replaced the German ambassador in Denmark. A Swedish newspaper cartoon (possibly the origin of this legend) depicted the monarch talking with the former Danish prime minster, who asks him, "What are we going to do, Your Majesty, if Scavenius makes all the Jews wear yellow stars?" (Erik Scavenius was the Danish foreign minister who became prime minister at the insistence of the Germans after the Danish government resigned in 1943.) The king responds by asserting, "We'll all have to wear yellow stars."

Matters came to a head in Denmark during the summer of 1943 when strikes and other overt resistance activities against the Germans resulted in a demand from Hitler that the Danish government declare a state of emergency. The government refused to comply, resigning in protest, and the German commander-in-chief, Hermann von Hanneken, imposed martial law. The arrest and deportation of Danish Jews was finally ordered and carried out on 2 October 1943, but by then nearly all the Jews in Copenhagen had already been warned and gone into hiding while government officials secretly negotiated an agreement with Sweden to receive them. Only 284 of an estimated 7,000 Jews in the area were rounded up, and over the next several weeks most of them made their precarious way to Sweden on fishing boats, private vessels, and any other type of floating craft that could undertake the journey. Fewer than 500 Danish Jews were deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, and nearly 90% of them survived to return to Denmark after the war. (Only these few hundred Danes who were sent to Theresienstadt were made to wear yellow stars identifying them as Jews.)

Although this legend may not be true in its specifics, it was certainly true enough in spirit. The rescue of several thousand Danish Jews was accomplished through the efforts of "thousands of policemen, government officials, physicians, and persons of all walks of life." The efforts to save Danish Jews may not have had the flair of the "yellow star" legend, and they may not have required quite so many citizens to visibly oppose an occupying army, but those who were rescued undoubtedly preferred substance to style.

[SAMWolf]

I believe the movie "633 Squadron" used this incident as a basis for a scene where the "underground hero" is captured and he knows the plans to the upcoming "Secret Mission". The Squadron is sent to "make sure he doesn't talk"

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning PE.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Snippy. It's real interesting to see the contrast between how some countries, like Poland and Denmark and others like france and Austria reacted to Nazi occupation.

[Professional Engineer]

1910 1st junior high schools in US open in Berkeley CA

I shoulda known. I've wondered for years who started these.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Darksheare. That Mosquito was a heck of a plane.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Mayor.