Oslo Mosquito raid

A No. 105 Squadron Mosquito B Mark IV in 1942

Date	25 September 1942
Location	Oslo, Norway
Result	Failure

Belligerents

Royal Air Force

Gestapo

Strength

4 bombers

Various anti-aircraft defences, 2 x Fw 190

Casualties and losses

1 aircraft destroyed

80 Norwegian civilians killed

Norwegian Campaigns (1941–45)

Claymore Anklet Archery Musketoon Oslo raid Checkmate Attacks on Tirpitz Source Tungsten Mascot Goodwood Paravane Obviate Catechism Finnmark 28 January 1945 Black Friday 9 February 1945 Judgement Doomsday

The Oslo Mosquito raid (25 September 1942) was a British air raid on Oslo, Norway, during the Second World War. The target of the raid was the Victoria Terrasse building, the headquarters of the Gestapo. It was intended to be a "morale booster" for the Norwegian people and was scheduled to coincide with a rally of Norwegian collaborators, led by Vidkun Quisling.

Preparation

The operation was carried out by four de Havilland Mosquito aircraft of No. 105 Squadron RAF, led by Squadron Leader George Parry, flying with navigator Flying Officer "Robbie" Robson. The other three crews consisted of:

Flight Lieutenant Pete Rowland and Flying Officer Richard Reilly
Flying Officer Alec Bristow and Pilot Officer Bernard Marshall
Flight Sergeant Gordon Carter and Sergeant William Young.^[1]

In order to shorten the mission distance, the four aircraft were flown to RAF Leuchars in Fife, Scotland, where they were refuelled and loaded with four delayed action 500 pounds (230 kg) bombs each.

The operation

The operation involved a round trip distance of 1,100 miles (1,800 km), with a flying time of 4.75 hours, making it the longest mission flown with Mosquitos to date. The bombers crossed the North Sea at heights of less than 100 ft (30 m) to avoid interception by enemy aircraft and navigated by dead reckoning.^[1] Each aircraft was armed with four 500 lb bombs with 11 second delayed action fuses since in such a low level attack the bombs had the potential to damage the aircraft that dropped them.

Despite their low altitude, the Mosquitos were intercepted by two Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters of 3/JG 5 flying from Stavanger, causing Gordon Carter's Mosquito to make a forced landing in Oslofjord. Rowland and Reilly were pursued by the other Fw 190 until it clipped a tree and was forced to break off the attack.

At least four bombs penetrated the Gestapo HQ; one failed to detonate, while the other three crashed out through the opposite wall before exploding. The building was not destroyed, but several civilian residences were, and 80 civilians were killed or injured. The Norwegian government in exile, which had not known about the raid, later expressed serious concern to the British government. Official announcements by the German occupation forces claimed that several British aircraft had been shot down, when in reality a single Mosquito had been lost.^[2]

Impact

Although the raid had failed fully to achieve its main objective, it was considered dramatic enough to be used to reveal the existence of the Mosquito to the British public, and the following day (26 September) listeners to the BBC Home Service learned that a new aircraft - the Mosquito - had been revealed for the first time by the RAF, and that four had made a low level attack on Oslo. The Mosquito bomber was featured in The Times on the 28 September, and the next day the newspaper published two captioned photographs illustrating the Oslo bomb strikes and damage.^[3] ^[4]

References

Notes

1 2 Bowman 1998, p. 13.
↑ Dahl 1999, p. 277.
↑ Our Aeronautical Correspondent. (28 September 1942). "Nazis Stung By 'Mosquitoes'.". Times [London, England]. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
↑ Our Aeronautical Correspondent. (29 September 1942). "The R.A.F. Raid On Oslo.". Times [London, England]. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.

Bibliography

Bowman, Martin. Mosquito Fighter/Fighter-bomber Units of World War 2. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 1998. ISBN 1-85532-731-7.
Dahl, Hans Fredrik and Anne-Marie Stanton-Ife (translator). Quisling: A Study in Treachery. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-521-49697-7.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, October 18, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.