Bomber command used the De Havilland Mosquito to improve the very poor accuracy of the heavy bombers and to reduce their losses, but it refused to consider the alternative, which was finally adopted only after World War 2 and dominates modern air power since. The alternative was to replace the big and slow and expensive heavy bombers with the Mosquito as Bomber command's main bomber. The points in favor of this alternative were also clearly presented by group commander Bennett, as a comparison between the Mosquito and the Lancaster, which was the best
British
heavy bomber:
Mosquito carries to Berlin half the bomb load carried by a Lancaster, but...
Mosquito loss rate is just 1/10 of Lancasters' loss rate
Mosquito costs a third of the cost of a Lancaster
Mosquito has a crew of two, compared to a Lancaster's crew of seven
Mosquito was a proven precision day bomber and the Lancaster was not.
Bennett added that any way you do the math with those data, "It's quite clear that the value of the Mosquito to the war effort is significantly greater than that of any other aircraft in the history of aviation". In the
German side, Erhard Milch, the deputy head of the Luftwaffe, said about the Mosquito "
I fear that one day the British will start attacking with masses of this aircraft". But in one of the greatest allied mistakes in World War 2, bomber command persisted with its heavy bombers, and less than 1/4 of the Mosquitoes produced were of bomber types.
PM
Originally Posted by Surpmil
