PSMossie:Layout 1
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Chapter 4
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Find, Mark and Strike ‘The first thing that struck one about the Mosquito’ recalls Frank Ruskell, an ‘Oboe’ navigator on 109 Squadron ‘was the beauty of line of the fuselage, tailplane, fin and engine cow lings. They all went together and made a lovely aeroplane. The cockpit cover also had a sweet line and the simplicity of the undercarriage and the treaded tyres set the whole thing off. The aeroplane sat on the ground looking pert and eager and it was easy to become fond of - which was by no means true of all aeroplanes, the Hampden for example. These were my feelings about the B.IV. The line was marred in the Mk.VI by the flat windscreen and the protruding guns. When the B.IX came along, it looked even better than the B.IV because the engines were larger and the spinners extended forward of the line of the nose (the later Hornet had a similar feature). This gave the line added beauty and also conveyed an air of warlike viciousness which was very apt. ‘Inside the cockpit there was just room for the crew to do what they had to do. The pilot sat in the usual sort of seat, with his seat pack and dinghy; the navigator sat on the main spar on his dinghy, but with his parachute pack elsewhere for lack of headroom. In the ‘Oboe’ version the nose was full of black boxes and the Gee and bomb switches were near his left elbow. I used to push my parachute pack on top of the boxes in the nose, out of the way-you could not leave it on the floor as that was the escape hatch. The navigator in the ‘Oboe’ version had a little navigation board, made on the squadron, on which was screwed the two parts of a Dalton computer-triangle and Appleyard scale and on which you pinned your chart. There was also a little box let into the top where you kept the protractor, pencils etc. The plotting chart we used was a 1-million ‘Gee’ chart. Our routes to and from the English coast were fixed and our range was such that you never went off the printed ‘Gee’ chart. ‘‘Oboe’ attacks were always started from a 'waiting point', ten minutes' flying time from the target. Up to that point you followed a Bailey Beam for track accuracy, monitoring on ‘Gee’ (once or twice the beams were laid wrong...) and checking the ground speed between ‘Gee’ fixes. Operating in this rigid pattern, we were able to ensure navigation and timing accuracy of a high order-the record speaks for itself ... For greater range on the ‘Oboe’, we flew as high as the aircraft would go - which meant climbing on track with consequent complications to the navigation. We were, however, able to reach operating height before we ran out of ‘Gee’ cover, so we were able to maintain accuracy. As we experienced wind shear in the climb, the pilot could detect it by the change in heading (or 'course' as it was known) to maintain constant direction on the Bailey Beam. Coming back to England from the Ruhr area, we used to do a cruise descent which brought us home at a tremendous speed (for those days). We always went out at Southwold and came in at Orfordness, so that the little tracks from your base to these points used to get smudged with rubbing-out ‘Gee’ fixes all the time. ‘Pathfinder operations were of two kinds - Sky-marking, code-named ‘Wanganui’;