The Last Mosquito Aircrew Reunion

This was held last night in London at the Royal Aircraft Museum.

Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, we still don't realise just how good de Havilland's wooden wonder was.

For instance, it carried a similar bomb load to the B17 or Flying Fortress, an American bomber that was responsible for the deaths of many aircrew. On the other hand the Mosquito carried a crew of just two and was so fast that not only could it outrun any defending fighters, but it could do two trips to Germany every night!

If we had used Mosquitos instead of Fortresses, Lancasters and Liberators, we would not have lost the tens of thousands of Allied airman we did.

We would also have been able to bomb strategically from low-level and thus would not have had to create the firestorms in places like Hamburg and Dresden. Perhaps, the war might have ended earlier, as the Germans often relied on single factories for vital goods.

As it was the Mosquito just did all the difficult jobs that no other aircraft ever did. Even the Americans bought Mosquitos for high altitude weather research.

But one thing I remember is when I was in Amsterdam in the seventies, I met a guy, whose father had been in Holland during WW2. They were desperate, but one thing that gave them cheer, was to see Mosquitos flying through the buildings of Dutch cities as they returned from Germany. The Germans tried to hit them but never did.

The Dutch just threw their hats in the air!