Hi folks, a plea for info here. Although I have done extensive googling, I can’t find info about the mosquitos which were modified to carry Highball bouncing bombs…
I do remember seeing an article in either Airfix Magazine, or one of it’s annuals, so if anyone has the Mag/Annual I would be deeply grateful if they could either let me know which issue it is, so I can try and buy one, sell me a spare, if they have one, or even photocopy it.
Second one is a poser too…
In Osprey’s Aircraft of the Aces for the Spitfire marks 1-5, there is a picture (also seen in Spitfire at War) of a squadron of canadian spits painted up for Exercise Spartan. Now, finding info on the exercise itself isn’t that hard, but colour info for those aircraft is. It APPEARS to be standard Mk 5 grey / green camo, with a white stripe along the front section of the fuz, but if anyone has anything more than this, I would again be grateful.
Firstly, Welcome to the forums, Stu!
I tried to do some google-ing of my own and i couldn’t come up with anything either… just some vague references to those mossies you were talking about. Neither can i find any color pics on spitfires in operation spartan… I’m sure someone here knows the answer to that one… [:D] Sorry i couldn’t be of more help.
The movie features Mosquitos using bouncing bombs to destory a German rocket factory and to rescue British POWs. I don’t know if the story has any historical ground, but may help as reference.
It’s a small page which gives an account of the demise of the aircraft pictured. There are some leads, however, that you can follow. There’s mention of the Yorkshire Aircraft Preservation Society, which may have evolved into the Yorkshire Air Museum. Also mentioned is the fact that the remains of the aircraft in question are displayed at this museum and that components of it are being used in a restoration. You may want to look into contacting the YAM to see if they can provide further info.
Other searches for 618 Sqn garnered little in the way of truly helpful material, most of it being rehash. Unfortunately, the most interesting info, including that found on the site listed by NGC, pertains to 618’s service in the PTO.
One bit of info that I discovered is that the aircraft used by 618 Sqn were Mosquito B.IV’s and that 36 aircraft were modified to carry the ‘Highball’.
I dunno what terms you’ve used for your searches but you might want to try looking for pages pertaining to Barnes Wallis (Sir Barnes Neville Wallis) and also for pages pertaining to ‘Upkeep’, which was the codename for the dam-busting bomb project. Sometimes better results can be had by searching for loosely related info. Perhaps you’ve already tried this, I dunno. Just a suggestion…
I haven’t gotten around to looking through my hardcopy library for the Mossie info or for info on the Spartan Spits yet. Perhaps in the next day or two…
Guys, thanks so much for all the help, and the welcome
I remember Mosquito Squadron, but it was a long time ago. As for the Mosquito in Dam Busters, I seem to recall that, and it is odd, because I am sure that the test aircraft for Upkeep ( the larger 6000lb highball used to breach the ruhr dams) was a wellington, - it used a smaller dummy device.
Thanks for the links Black, and keep the Mary Chapin comin…
And pete, I’ll check out paragon- I might even be able to find one of the conversions at Bolton tomorrow (Bolton IPMS show…)
Cheers again guys, can’t thank you enough for the help.
The other night about 11 pm (cst) the History Channel had an hour long program on Barnes Wallis (the inventor of the Dambuster bomb, Tallboy and Earthquake bombs and, I believe, the geodesic construction method used in the Wellington). The show was on his weapons work, and used a combination of official test footage, computor animation and scenes from the movie). There were several shots (official footage) of a Mossy dropping a small spinning bomb. Apparently the idea was to see if it was possible to use the weapon against docked ships. The idea was to skip it into the side of the ship, the spin of the bomb would roll it down the side of the ship and then under it, where it would explode.
And to add to that, yesterday the History channel that we get, via a south african TV satellite showed ‘Dambusters’. As above but purely about the dam’s raid. The test drop aircraft was a Wellington. BTW, I used to work at Scampton (early 90’s) and my home is about seven miles North of there, a former officers married quarter at the old RAF Hemswell, from where I think some of the dam raid aircraft took off. Small world, ain’t it?
Pete
And there’s more! Browsing through some old Aeroplane Monthly magazines, I came across a letter in the August '93 edition. A Mr H Wills of Salisbury says he witnessed the Highball trials in May (42?) at the Ashley Walk bomb range. ‘A Mosquito’ ( Only one A/c used for trials?) ‘dropped dozens of spherical bombs, two on each trip to the range’.
He also says that film of this WAS used in Mosquito Squadron. The range was also used by 617 sqn for practice using concrete filled bouncing bombs, they broke up, though the end casings survived & were recovered, a pair where rebuilt & put on display at Scampton.
Pete
Firstly, Twin Highball Mossies. As far as I am aware this weapon was never used in action. Secondly, Exercise Spartan. I’m afraid I dont have any info on Spits involved, but I do have a couple of schemes for Typhoons in Exercise Spartan. They were in standard camoflage with black spinners, but the underside of the port wing was black, while the underside of the starboard wing had 4 black and 3 white stripes, and the fuselage had a white stripe either side under the exhaust running from the spinner to the rear edge of the cockpit doors. The examples I have are for EL-A / R8742 of 181 sqn, or HF-D / DN334 of 183 sqn
I have the 1974 Airfix annual pages, which were sent to me regarding the conversion of the BIV Mosquito in .PDF form, with the story of the aircraft converted to Sea Mosquito standard, etc. I lived in Dubbo and spoke to a number of people from Narromine who worked on 618 Squadron and disposed of the surplus aircraft after the war, the engines were taken out and sent to Sydney, they were the 2 stage Merlins, the aircraft Australia were operating were only the single stage mk 21 and 23’s. The airframes were usually cut up and transported to various farms etc, to be used as chook sheds (chicken coops) or cubby houses etc. The wings - burned. The bombs and release mechanisms were still top secret so the mines were destroyed on the airfield and the release system cut up for scrap.
I will upload a couple of pictures if there is any interest? The Paragon conversion is quite different from the Airfix one, there were progressive developments of the bomb release and fairings, as well as the turbine drive, I have various sketches and other documented information on all of these. I too loved the 1968 movie “Mosquito Squadron” I have it on DVD, I saw it in 1972 with my little brother on school holidays and was fascinated by the weapon.
Stuflyer I assume when you say Bolton, you mean in the UK. If so, than hannats have the 1/72nd Paragon conversion for the Highball http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/PAR72037 Its designed to go with the tamiya Mk IV
