Mosquito PR.XVI used on 22. March 1945 (mission to Tromsö)

[uhebeisen]

When visiting the Tirpitz museum near Tromsø, I became aware of a picture by Ph. West. It shows a Mosquito PR.XVI of the 544 Sqn (pilot F. Dodd, P/O E. Hill) on her mission to Tromsø on 03/22/45 to photograph the Tirpitz. Although there are some stories and details about this mission I have not found the exact details of the plane anywhere. I am particularly interested in the serial number of this Mosquito. Who knows?

Thanks
Ueli

 

[EwenS]

From the IWM photographic collection it is given as NS637.

ROYAL AIR FORCE: OPERATIONS BY THE PHOTOGRAPHIC RECONNAISSANCE UNITS, 1939-1945

Low-level oblique photographic-reconnaissance aerial photograph taken from De Havilland Mosquito PR Mark XVI, NS637, of 544 Squadron, RAF, showing the capsized German battleship TIRPITZ, lying in Tromso fjord off Norway, with a salvage vessel alongside on 22 March 1945.

www.iwm.org.uk

You may be able to confirm this by downloading the 544 squadron ORB from The National Archives.

 

[uhebeisen]

From the IWM photographic collection it is given as NS637.

ROYAL AIR FORCE: OPERATIONS BY THE PHOTOGRAPHIC RECONNAISSANCE UNITS, 1939-1945

Low-level oblique photographic-reconnaissance aerial photograph taken from De Havilland Mosquito PR Mark XVI, NS637, of 544 Squadron, RAF, showing the capsized German battleship TIRPITZ, lying in Tromso fjord off Norway, with a salvage vessel alongside on 22 March 1945.

www.iwm.org.uk

You may be able to confirm this by downloading the 544 squadron ORB from The National Archives.

Thank you very much. That's exactly what I am looking for. My first guess was NS504 as Dodd/Hill already flew two PR missions up north in July. They each flew the NS504 model. But now it's clear: NS637.
BTW an interesting link to the squadron ORB.

 

[JDCAVE]

The RAF Commands forum has a useful search engine for the National Archives ORB's:

RAF AIR 27 :: ::

AIR27 National Archives Search engine provided by RAFCommands.com

www.rafcommands.com

This is a screen capture for the sortie in question:

I'm not certain what all the times are: 06:50-08:45 seems like a very fast flight to Tromso and Back. Not likely. But they record a bunch of times.

Jim

 

[uhebeisen]

The RAF Commands forum has a useful search engine for the National Archives ORB's:

RAF AIR 27 :: ::

AIR27 National Archives Search engine provided by RAFCommands.com

www.rafcommands.com

This is a screen capture for the sortie in question:View attachment 670498
I'm not certain what all the times are: 06:50-08:45 seems like a very fast flight to Tromso and Back. Not likely. But they record a bunch of times.

Jim

I think these times mentioned were the tank-stops during their mission. Usually the aircraft was refueled at Wick or Shetland and then the 'journey' starts.

 

[JDCAVE]

That makes sense, but there are several, if so.

 

[EwenS]

That makes sense, but there are several, if so.

Outbound and return. So:-

Benson to Sumburgh outbound. Refuel.
Sumburgh to northern Norway and back on mission. Refuel.
Sumburgh to Benson inbound.

Benson (544 squadron base) to Sumburgh in the Shetlands (and the most northerly British airfield), is about 570 miles. So allowing for climb and cruising speed of a Mossie two hours +/- seems about right. Sumburgh was used as the base for the weather reporting Mossies for the Tirpitz missions and was the diversion airfield for the Lancasters running short of fuel on the Tirpitz missions.

 

[JDCAVE]

Thanks guys for keeping me straight and level.

Jim