Now I've just about seen everything....now I've seen a Mosquito fly
Just a quick butchers and bourbon the MAAM WW2 weekend just passed. I had the honor of joining the 15 recon folks as a re-enactor for a day and a half. This gave a whole new perspective on the show "from the inside". No more attendee parking miles away, waiting for a bus ride, long entry lines etc. I took my eldest in ww2 tank overalls and recon beret and badge with a back woods grade SMLE and No4 Mk1. A quick check-in and we were walking among the display area tents, planesand vehicles. I checked out the evening dance and turned in to our conjoined 8 man tents and bunks. It was great waking up and getting a camp breakfast of fried spam! The old hands were shaving and prepping several changes of clothes for the day - then the covers came off the display vehicles, a couple of jeeps, a half-track and two universal carriers. A quick walk around the static display let me get incredibly close to old favourites (B25, Corsair's, TBM) and then the Mosquito was towed into static before the gate opened. We had 3 hours from breakfast until the crowds starting forming and many new and old friends were greeted. A trip around the swap meet found two used propellers for my man cave (child hood dream) and then I stood for the Mosquito flying display - I had waited 30 years for that too! My highlight was being introduced to a group re-enacting a home guard unit while they were asking for help with authentic drill moves...after a pause and few blank faces I took command of the squad and had them dressed in 2 ranks for a "spot of matching up and down the square" . The show closed around me taking out the propellers one at a time and then a bangers and mash dinner with the chaps in camp before I had to exfiltrate..until next time! Am having trouble with pics from my chrome drive and pad - will try to add more soon.
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And isn't that something? Even after doing my time in the army and seeing my share of the other kind of air shows, an aircraft like that coming in a car roof height at about full throttle is still something...imagine then doing a gun run on you?
My Godfather crash landed a Spitfire in a potato field the week before they rationed potatoes in Britain. It (to his telling) earned transitioning onto a twin engine fighter - Mosquito. The Mossie has always had a special place in my heart because of that -- and because it such a fantastically beautiful aircraft.
I was at Mildenhall in the mid 80's (85 I think but have to check) where the Vintage pair touched wings in a turn and both Vampire and Meteor went down Two ejected, two fatalities.
The Mossie was a truly wonderful all wooden aircraft made by De-haviland so much so the Germans started to copy it once they worked out the formula for sticking the layers of ply together so it stayed together. Fortuitously the RAF bombers one night hit the factory the only one producing the resin type glue and completely destroyed it along with all the details thus ruining the Reichs chance of having their own mossie. Some of the battle damage I have in my books that these planes suffered you wondered how they stayed in the air. A gun run BAR with 4 x .303 MG and 4 x 20mm Hispano's flinging lead at you it would not be a nice place to be in that fire lane. Then again the mossie also had the Molins cannon on them for A/S work as a sub aint gunna dive with a hole in its pressure hull. It could also carry the 4000lb cookie which gave it the pregnant guppy look with modded bomb bay doors but not to shabby a feat for such a plane.
It had initial trials and tribulations and the High command took some convincing but coupled with the Merlins it was a great all rounder.
As a child I had quite a keen interest in military aviation and flying balsa model aircraft, so for my 6th grade science project I built a crude wind tunnel and tested various wings designs for lift. During the science fair I was visited by one of the honorary judges who was an elderly man. He was very interested in my project and made very knowledgeable comments about my choice of angle of attack for the test and so on. He noticed that one of my tested wing designs was a scale copy and cross section of a P-51D Mustang, (a personal favorite of mine) and eventually revealed that he piloted one during the war, and in fact went on to Meteors and finally flew the Vampires.
Since I was so young I can't recall his name, and given his age, I imagine he isn't around any more. However I still have that memory of our technical discussion at least.
- Darren 1 PL West Nova Scotia Regiment 2000-2003
1 BN Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry 2003-2013
I seem to recall a story that when a big Wehrmacht parade was scheduled to take place down the Mall in Paris, a couple of Mosquito bombers thundered down the mall at a few hundred feet while it was taking place and ejected a huge tricolour that floated down. Talk about peeing on someones parade........