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Then also understand when discussing aircraft design, manufacture, performance, deployment and operations, there are many on this site who have studied these subject areas intensely, some putting decades into that study, with some actually maintaining and flying some of these aircraft or have immediate family who participated in actual operations. When you see, feel and operate the machine or discuss with those who have, there tends to be "an absolutist view."As a retired teacher, I do not think it is always productive to take an absolutist view of an historical point, rather to mention the multiplicity of factors that may have been involved. History should be presented in school, not preached. Valid points must be acknowledged, not destroyed summarily. By presenting history as a series of choices based on information then available, I hope to generate more interest than the current textbooks which too often present it as irrefutable facts, dry and propagandized.
How many Mosquitoes were deployed and how many missions when compared to the Lancaster during the same time period? Also you're comparing two different types of aircraft in two different types of operational roles, totally apples and oranges.>>From November 1943 to March 1944 Berlin was repeatedly bombed, the loss rate of the heavy bombers (predominantly Lancaster's) was 5.1%, for the Mosquito it was 0.5%.<<
The Mossies outran their fighter escorts.
If we're considering the aspect that the greatest damage inflicted by bombing raids was actually a by-product of sucking up the Luftwaffe opposition, then this is not a bad thing. Once the Mosquitoes absconded, the fighters were free to pursue targets of opportunity.How many Mosquitoes were deployed and how many missions when compared to the Lancaster during the same time period? Also you're comparing two different types of aircraft in two different types of operational roles, totally apples and oranges.
For the most part irrelevant unless you're betting whos' getting to the pub first!
Again, do you have specifics of this? Yes, operationally this was the status quo taken by the 8th AF to destroy the Luftwaffe, but in the case of the Mosquito conducting escorted tactical raids, do you have examples of this? What were the escorts?If we're considering the aspect that the greatest damage inflicted by bombing raids was actually a by-product of sucking up the Luftwaffe opposition, then this is not a bad thing. Once the Mosquitoes absconded, the fighters were free to pursue targets of opportunity.
That is the most selective of selective stats. You are discussing massed precision daylight raids and quote statistics from individual high altitude night time raids. Invariably when a Mosquito was dropping a can of explosives at random on Berlin there were hundreds of Lancasters and Halifaxes dropping many more cookies and bigger ones somewhere else.The Mosquitoes followed road and railroads when low, and a very high reminder was put on navigators. Flak would be ineffective if th
we're talking an exceptional pilot and navigator, that's all. The Mossie had by far the best survivability rate of the war, therefore you're not losing crews.
>>From November 1943 to March 1944 Berlin was repeatedly bombed, the loss rate of the heavy bombers (predominantly Lancaster's) was 5.1%, for the Mosquito it was 0.5%.<<
You cannot outrun your opposition on the way to the target, neither can you out manoeuvre a single engined fighter in a bomber with a full fuel load at low level. The Mosquito pilot shot down by an Fw 190 on the Amiens raid thought he was hit by flak.The Mossies outran their fighter escorts.
You cannot outrun your opposition on the way to the target, neither can you out manoeuvre a single engined fighter in a bomber with a full fuel load at low level. The Mosquito pilot shot down by an Fw 190 on the Amiens raid thought he was hit by flak.
Operation Carthage Copenhagen Gestapo HQ 18 bombers 6 lost =33%
Why would anything have been halted until the Mosquito proved itself?USA making Mosquitoes is a good thing in general. We might 1st know the goal post: is it being made instead of B-17, or instead of B-24, or instead B-25 or/and B-26? Or a combination? Perhaps something not listed should be axed instead?
Before all of that - timing is the crucial issue here, and before it is well defined we're unlikely to arrive at plausible scenarios.
As mentioned - it wasn't THEIR design, their company wasn't given a contract to produce it and it was British. That simpleMy problem here is that six engineers summarily dismissed it.
Have you ever worked on a government contract? Bid a government contract or was part of a bid process, or is this the way you perceive the procurement process works?It is crucial that we determine the selection processes involved since this has a way of Institutional ensconcing, the way procurement decisions were made then had their historical precedent in the Civil War and direct lines can be traced from there to the present.
Is this your opinion or can you provide historical references to back this?Congress is tasked with funding the military, therefore political bookmarks can spur or black a project. The idea of an unarmed bomber is what seems to have disturbed the Brass which had locked onto the faulty idea that a big bomber can defend itself. To that dogmatic end, they did not hasten the development of fuel drop tanks which could have enhanced fighter protection much sooner.
As I understand it, Hitler was so incensed by the audacious Mosquito raid on Berlin that he demanded the Me 262 be converted to a bomber, thereby delaying its development.Aparently Donald has never heard of Kurt Welter and his Me262...
Not true - from the time he saw the Me262 fly in 1943 he envisioned it as a "Schnellbomber" and it could be debated that this insistence of the 262 being deployed as a bomber actually sped up it's introduction.As I understand it, Hitler was so incensed by the audacious Mosquito raid on Berlin that he demanded the Me 262 be converted to a bomber, thereby delaying its development.
The Mosquito had nothing to do with the development of the Me262 - Hitler was obsessed with "schnellbombers".As I understand it, Hitler was so incensed by the audacious Mosquito raid on Berlin that he demanded the Me 262 be converted to a bomber, thereby delaying its development.
Elliott Roosevelt, (a drinking buddy of Vance Chipman) campaigned for this according to a Wikipedia article:As mentioned - it wasn't THEIR design, their company wasn't given a contract to produce it and it was British. That simple
Have you ever worked on a government contract? Bid a government contract or was part of a bid process, or is this the way you perceive the procurement process works?
Is this your opinion or can you provide historical references to back this?