De Havilland Mosquito

[SlimRick]

Bit of a long shot here - can anyone find any hostory of this Mosquito?

It was flown by a friend of my parents, and they happened upon a dvd which shows it taxiing down the runway. Managed to get a screenshot of the DVD which I hope to tidy up and print out, but wondered if anyone on here had any resources they could search to find out a bit more about it.

[SlimRick]

Close - the one in the picture is P3-O, ML970. Will have a look through that book, many thanks!

[SlimRick]

Simpo Two said:

Looks to me as if the lower surfaces might be painted black - if so would it be a nightfighter/intruder?

Indeed - it was painted all black.

[SlimRick]

dr_gn said:

Google is your friend:

Serial: ML970
Build Type: B.XVI, Merlin 72/73 engines
Build Location: Hatfield
Contract Number: 555/C.23(a)
Contract Date:
Delivery Period: Between 24-11-1943 and 4-12-1944

ML970 BXVI 105/692/571/692/180 Overshot landing at wrong airfield Woodley 7.11.45 to 5773M

Awesome info - thank you.

[SlimRick]

Well spotted - were they ever painted all black? I'm sure he referred to it as black when he was talking about it.

[SlimRick]

williamp said:

...and so another thread with lots of potential to be interesting descends into bickering and pathetic-ness

OP, I hope you got the answer you were looking before.

Indeed - it's been a very interesting read, many thanks for everyone's efforts. The pilot's name is Bill Reid, and IIRC he's just coming up on his 90th birthday

[SlimRick]

I had completely forgotten about this thread! If you're still reading this thread, I'd love to send Bill a copy of that picture.

jmpjack said:

Hi Slimrick

I know it is sometime since you posted this topic about the De Havilland Mosquito ML 970 but I can confirm that my father Flight Lieutenant ( at the time) Robert Phillips did fly this aircraft at Gravely with 571 Squadron in 1944. I was very interested to see you had found a video of it, is the video on a public site anywhere? If so I would love to view it. In fact Dad only appeared to fly it on the one occasion, his 57th operation to Mannheim - Ludwigshaven on the night of the 1st-2nd May 1944 when his crew member was Flying Officer Mapes. They were carrying one 4000lb cookie. From the description he says "Visual bombing by light of flares on IG Forbenindustrie in Ludwigshaven. Believed very successful. Flares and T.Is ( Target indicators) went down on time, nipped in and bombed. Bombing concentrated, 3 fires started. Not much opposition - many search lights but haze seemed to fox them". Time taken 3.20mins

I can only assume he flew this aircraft on this occasion as the one they had been flying ML968 was "indisposed" at the time!

I dont know if it is of interest to you or your friend but I have a picture of the members of 571 Squadron in June 1944 seated in front of two Mosquitos. I would upload it but I think the file size might be a bit large for a website.

Cheers
Jackie