I show the first bomber variant, the Mosquito Mk IV (operational late 1941) as having a 1,100 mile 'normal' range with a 4,000 lb bomb load and a maximum range of ~2,000 miles with an (unspecified) lighter load. And presumably at quite a nice clip in terms of cruise speed, as well as a good (pretty high) altitude. So assuming that is correct it exceeds both the 1,000 mile benchmark and 1,000 bomb load considerably.
Admittedly not in time for the BoB but that was not my limitation.
Please check your sources, I don't care about Mosquitos and the Bob but I do care about other arguments where people claim the Mosquito could have replaced the B-17.
The first 10(?) Mosquito bombers were rated at a 1000lb bomb load (four 250lb bombs) as they had not yet shortened the tail fins on the 500lb bombs to fit the bomb bay.
No Mosquito carried 4000lbs until they carried the 4000lb cookie and they needed to bulge the bombay doors to do that. They did go to 3000lbs fairly quickly, Four of the shortened 500lb bombs in the bomb bay and one under each wing.
Going operational is also subject to question. This goes for many planes. First issued to an "operational" squadron or first used in combat/dropped bomb on the enemy?
First combat use of the Mosquito
bomber may have been the day after the 1000lb raid on Cologne, June 1st 1942?
I think you are muddying the waters a bit here. The A-5 was flying in 1938, came off the assembly line in June of 1940, and did fly in the Battle of Britain. The A-5 had the bigger wing and a longer range. My sources say 1,500 miles. Did they have enough of them for the BoB? Perhaps not. But that is besides the point. We are talking about design capabilities here, not the actual history of the war which are all pretty familiar with.
Maximum bomb load for the Ju 88 was actually over 6,000 lbs but more typically they carried about 3,300 lbs. And clearly A-5s were flying quite long missions routinely from the operational history in the MTO, for example Crete to Malta.
Trying to de-muddy the waters. The JU-88A-5 was an interim model built when the engines promised for the A-4 either didn't show up in time or showed up in insufficient numbers.
JU-88s have more than the usual German combinations of fuel tanks and bomb racks. Standard JU-88 bomb bay held eighteen 50kg bombs in the forward bay and 10 in the aft bay.
A 268imp gallon tank could be mounted in the forward bay of both the early Planes and the A-4/5. apparently a 249 gal (?) tank could be mounted in the aft bay of the A-4/5 for a total of 886 imp gallons. I will leave it to others to sort out the range with bombs if both bomb bays are full or what the bomb load might be if you are already carrying almost 6400 pounds of fuel. Or perhaps the extra fuel that I think was in the rear bay was in drop tanks? In any case the ability of the JU-88 to carry a large bomb load over long ranges(or even medium) is highly suspect.
Longer range and Operational strikes tend to be a little less well defended and more vulnerable than either Tactical or major Strategic targets. A lot of time it's a matter of opportunity like spotting a train or a merchant ship heading to it's destination. For targets like these, or for airfields or radar stations etc., a few medium sized bombs can do real damage. Ports are often vulnerable too especially those not so close to the enemy.
The big dividing line in terms of long range for bombers is basically how big was the internal bomb bay. But already in 1940 we had several bomber types around the world which did have both long range and a reasonable internal bomb carrying capability. So in my opinion, the notion that there weren't any bombers which could do long range strikes is bollocks.
In 1940 one of the better long range bombers was the Whitley as evidenced by it's strike against Genoa Italy, Unfortunately the Whitley was so slow that several hours of the trip (beginning and possibly the end) had to be flown in day light so it was not a distance that was practical on a regular basis.
But the problem is not bombers flying long ranges, that was easy, it was getting fighters to go with them
using the engines and fuel/s of the day. This while meeting the structural strength standards of the country buying them.
