WWII Tactics, procedures and paint schemes.

[Black-Witch]

A brief look at the De Havilland 98, the Mosquito.

History.
There are numerous online histories, such as (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havill ... al_history) however I shall not repeat all that here, rather I shall focus on how we can use it in DCS.

The RAF light bomber force started with the Blenheim, which suffered heavy casualties, before moving on to American aircraft such as the Boston and Mitchell. These carried out low level raids, day & night, against the enemy in France and the low countries.

Designed during 1940, in September 1941 the first operational Mosquito flight took place, this was a photo-recce version. It was at the time easily comparable to the Spitfire MkV and was faster at some altitudes.

In early 1943 the FBVI version was first used, mainly as a night intruder though it also carried out many well know daylight raids such as Operation Jericho.

Coastal command used Mosquito's for anti-shipping strikes, preferring Rockets to bombs, aiming to hit right on the waterline.
Anti shipping patrols meant they tangled with Ju88’s, the Mosquito frequently emerging the victor.

FB MKVI use in the 2nd TAF.
The FBVI was often used for precision raids, day & night, on individual buildings such as those against buildings housing SS troops, R&R buildings used by U-boat crews, and predominantly attacks on enemy airfields ranging as far as Denmark to Poland and Southern Bavaria.

As an example, 418 Sqn RCAF carried out Intruder and day ranger missions, sometimes operating single aircraft or pairs regularly targeting enemy airfields, often catching enemy planes in their circuit, also trains and road transport.

As the war progressed operations were carried out more at night.

Crews were allowed to plan their own routes to assigned targets, Radio silence was maintained, they used morse rather than radios, and as they were often too low for direction finding beacons they relied on low level navigation by the navigator using bearings, timings and looking out of the cockpit.

Therefore take-off would have been by single or pairs of aircraft, especially for those based at ALG's (advanced landing grounds) in Normandy as the metal "planking" runways caused punctures, there was always a gap between aircraft taking off or landing.

If the target allowed 3 aircraft to attack at the same time then there would be 3 a/c in each flight. flights were below 50' to avoid enemy radar, cruising between waypoints was usually at 250 to 270 mph. Attacks were carried out at 250 to 300 mph to improve accuracy.

30 second bomb fuses were commonly used and each section would attack, in close echelon, with a 10 second delay between sections, to allow them all to be clear before the first bombs exploded, they usually cleared the target altogether before the 1st bombs went off because it took ages for the dust and rubble to descend.
Fuzes could be up to 72 hours.

For most buildings the bombs were preferably to hit the base of the building, for more flimsy targets they "skipped" the bombs in to slow them down though these bombs could also veer off after hitting the ground.

If more than 6 a/c were needed to destroy the tgt there would be an obvious RV, like a lake, about 20 miles short of target, the second attack would orbit here to leave time for the 1st group to attack. the second group would fly fast, after their nattack, to catch the first group up on the agreed heading from the tgt.

If they required a fighter escort the fighters would fly at the same level and also maintain radio silence, if engaged the fighters would deal with the enemy, should the Mosquito's have to defend themselves, the rear flight would jettison their bombs and engage.
They were randomly assigned call-signs with no significance to the Sqn.

ALG circuits were usually as follows,
Taking off, the leader went first and extended from the runway for a couple of minutes and then turned onto his heading, any wingman would take off and "cut the corner" to catch him up.
Circuits were joined on the downwind leg in Squadron/Flight groups and landed with short intervals for the reason described above.
Each Squadron had its own dispersal area used for rearming and refuelling.

Camouflage: there was a standard RAF fighter scheme, colours and pattern, applied to single engines fighters, this was also applied to Mosquito’s although, and this was news to me, there was a “dark” and “light” version of this scheme for Mosquito's.

Dark, or Night, was Medium Sea Grey underneath, Ocean Grey and Dark Green upper surfaces, the Lighter, or Day, version was Medium Sea Grey overall with Dark Green on upper surfaces.

The coastal command version, we have this in game, had Extra Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces and “sky” underneath, sky has a light green tinge.

[Chris]

Great research and write up Lee, pitched perfect for our needs.... both initial training and tactics as well as missions.
Thank you very much Sir....

[Neil Willis]

Brilliant stuff.

Makes the Mossie sound like it will be huge fun to fly and fight.