Osprey Combat Aircraft 9 : Mosquito Fighter/Fighter-Bomber Units of World War 2

The second book in the trilogy of Combat Aircraft titles devoted to de Havilland's 'wooden wonder', this book focuses on the Mosquito fighter/fighter-bomber variants, and their users. From its earliest development phase, the aircraft was considered as much a fighter as a bomber, and this was duly reflected when the original 1940 Air Ministry order for 50 Mosquito bombers was modified to 20 bombers and 30 fighters. The primary modifications undertaken by de Havilland to turn the unarmed B IV into a Mosquito II fighter comprised the fitment of strengthened wing spars to cope with the stresses of combat manoeuvring and the installation of machine guns and cannon in the nose of the aircraft. Later, the addition of AI Mk IV radar turned the Mosquito into the RAF's premier nightfighter, the multifarious types built for the nocturnal role achieving great success both in the defence of Britain, where some 600 raiders and 600 V1s fell to the guns of the Mosquito between 1942-45, and on roving daylight and night patrols over occupied Europe. This book is the first of its kind exclusively dedicated to the fighter/fighter-bomber variants of de Havilland's classic wartime aircraft. Text by Martin Bowman with illustrations by Chris Davey.

Contents

• Defensive Nightfighting
• 'Baby Blitz' and Beyond
• Offensive Nightfighting
• Intruding
• No. 100 Group
• Mosquito Menace
• Appendices