Kiwis and Mossies

[Dave Homewood]

A couple of questions which are eluding me:

Does anyone know who the first New Zealander was to fly or crew a de Havilland Mosquito?

And who was the first New Zealander/s to take the Mosquito into action against the enemy?

[davidd]

One of the first NZers to fly Mosquitos on operations must have been W/C I S Smith, CO of 151 Squadron and fresh off Defiants in 1942, and a night fighter pilot who was to gain more fame on Mosquitos. My source for this is H L Thompson's "New Zealanders with the RAF", page 360, plus Mosquito, by Sharp & Bowyer. The Mosquito commenced operations in the PR, Night Fighter and Bomber roles in different Home-based commands all within a period of about ten months, between July 1941 (PR only) and Nov 1941/May 1942 (night fighters, bombers). However it would be fair to say that getting the night fighters and day bombers operational was a fairly protracted affair, and it was not till 27th April 1942 that the first operational flights were undertaken by 157 (Night Fighter) Sqdn; 151 Sqdn only received its first (trainer) Mosquito in early April, and the first trained crews became operational on 30th April. No. 105 Sqdn was the first operational day bomber squadron, receiving the first of the new aircraft in mid-November 1941, although much training and general operational development flights and tactics, performance tests etc had to be carried out (and Air Ministry and Bomber Command officials convinced) before the unit commenced operations during the first of the Cologne 1,000 bomber raids on 30/31 May, two aircraft only, of which one failed to return.
David D

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks David, much appreciated info.

Any idea which squadron was the first PR unit to use them on ops? And if any kiwis were on that unit?

Cheers
Dave

[davidd]

Dave H,
The first PR Mosquitos were operated by No. 1 PRU based at Benson, Oxfordshire; this unit received its first two Mosquitos (W4051, W4055) on 22/7 and 7/8/41 respectively according to Sharp and Bowyer's "Mosuito" (page 117). Although these aircraft suffered a few minor problems during test flying (including oil tanks that swelled "mysteriously" and sometimes fouled the undercarriage legs), the first operation was undertaken on 17/9/41, to photograph Brest "and the Spanish - French frontier", and also flew over Bordeaux and La Pallice en route. Next operation was flown on 20/9 by another crew, although same aircraft (W4055) was used; this sortie was to the Sylt-Heligoland area. From October 1941 a detached Flight of 3 Mosquitos from Benson were used to make longer penetrations into Europe by operating from Wick in Scotland. PR Mosquitos were soon considered THE aircraft for all the longer range jobs that 1 PRU (which also operated PR Spitfires) increased in size to such an extent that in October 1942 it was split into four squadrons, two each of Mosquitos (Nos. 540, 544) and Spitfires. A third Mosquito squadron (No. 140) was added later. Additional PR Mosquito squadrosn were equipped for deployment with 2 TAF (140 Sqdn), Middle East (680 Sqdn) and Far East (684 Sqdn). All this from "Mosquito" and also Thetford's "Aircraft of the RAF since 1918".
David D

[Dave Homewood]

Awesome info, thanks. Now I just need to establish if there were any kiwis in those units flying the Mossie before any kiwis that may have been flying them in No. 105 Squadron. I guess this might be the less than easy bit.

[Dave Homewood]

I have been going through Errol's For Your Tomorrow Volume 1 book looking to see who the first kiwi was who died in a Mosquito. As far as I can tell it was:

Squadron Leader Joseph Cunningham Simpson mid, RAF 36147, Pilot, aged 25
No. 105 Squadron RAF
Killed on a raid on Hengelo, Netherlands, shot down at Raard, near Dokkum.
Aircraft was Mosquito B IV DZ343

Does anyone know when he joined No. 105 Squadron and how many ops he'd flown in the Mosquito before he was killed? Perhaps he is the actual first kiwi to fly a Mossie?

[errolmartyn]

Sept 5, 2013 17:27:44 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

I have been going through Errol's For Your Tomorrow Volume 1 book looking to see who the first kiwi was who died in a Mosquito. As far as I can tell it was:

Squadron Leader Joseph Cunningham Simpson mid, RAF 36147, Pilot, aged 25
No. 105 Squadron RAF
Killed on a raid on Hengelo, Netherlands, shot down at Raard, near Dokkum.
Aircraft was Mosquito B IV DZ343

Does anyone know when he joined No. 105 Squadron and how many ops he'd flown in the Mosquito before he was killed? Perhaps he is the actual first kiwi to fly a Mossie?

Simpson was posted from 13 OTU to 105 on 3 October 1942, just a few weeks before he was killed on 23 October. I don't know the number of ops he flew but one could probably find out by downloading from Britain's National Archives website the squadron's ORB for that month (costs about GPB3.50).

Errol

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Errol.

[Dave Homewood]

Errol the thought occurs to me that as Simpson was posted to a Mosquito squadron, he probably trained on Mosquitoes prior to that at No. 13 OTU. Or would have have trained there on Blenheims? Do you know the date he began that course please?

[errolmartyn]

Simpson was posted to 13OTU on 16 Dec 41. He became an instructor there from 8 apr 42. 13OTU was primarily a Blenheim training unit. It doesn't appear to have had Mosquitos on strength until 1943.

Errol

[Dave Homewood]

Aha, thanks.

Well it seems thanks to my thread on RAF Commands Forum we now have an even earlier kiwi Mosquito pilot. Andy Fletcher wrote there:

"As far as I can ascertain the first Kiwi to fly an operational Mosquito sortie with 1 PRU was P/O F.W. McKay on 23 Aug 42 in DK310. He had already flown a number of Spitfire sorties with 1 PRU before converting to Mossies."

So, who was this chap McKay? Does anyone know more about him please?

As an aside, I think it might be interesting to discover the first kiwi to fly lots of WWII types. The only one I have off the top of my head is Don Nairn was the first kiwi to fly the Grumman Wildcat (Martlet), and also the Vought F-4U Corsair and the Mitsubishi Zero. Any others?

[suthg]

There was an NZ test pilot that flew a lot of prototypes prior to distribution to squadrons. But he probably never flew active combat missions... so may not count.

[errolmartyn]

This was NZ411424 Flt Lt Frederick William McKay. The sortie on which he was obliged to abandon his aircraft was on 8 December 1942, not 12 December as described in the article below.


From The Press, 8 May 2004

For sale: aerial view of a war
A collection of photographs, taken by a remarkable Southland pilot above enemy-occupied Europe in World War 2, is about to be auctioned in Christchurch. MIKE CREAN reports.

A box of old photographs will go on sale in Christchurch next month.

Not just any old photographs - these were taken from Spitfire and Mosquito aircraft, above enemy occupied Europe, in World War 2.

The photographs were the work of remarkable Southland pilot Fred McKay. He flew a staggering 576.45 hours, from May to December, 1942, before baling out from his stricken plane.

He then footed it for 10 days through Belgium and France, until he was captured by the Germans. He spent the rest of the war in Stalag Luft Ill, where he became involved in the Wooden Horse escape story that was later immortalised in book and film.

McKay died in Gore in 1995. His daughter, Robin Speden, has kept his collection of 130 photos and his Royal Air Force logbook since.

Now she feels they should go to someone interested in the war.

The collection will be auctioned at Barry Watson Auction Rooms in Christchurch on June 16.

Matthew O'Sullivan, an Air Force Museum, Wigram, spokesman, says some of the photographs are "quite telling". The collection is unusual for having been taken by a New Zealander. "I am sure it will generate quite a bit of interest," O'Sullivan says.

McKay took thousands of photographs for British intelligence, often diving from cruising altitude of 3'0,000 feet to as low as 500 feet, before zooming away again.

"Boffins" studied his pictures, enlarging details that could help them work out enemy movements and set targets for bombing attacks.

It was work that McKay could never have dreamed of when, as a 21 year-old Edendale electrician, he enlisted in the air force. He trained at Levin, Taieri and Wigram and joined a Spitfire squadron in England in late 1941 on photo-reconnaissance work. He transferred to the new, twin-engined Mosquitoes the next year.

Speden said her father used to tell how the planes had their weaponry removed so they could carry extra fuel tanks, allowing them to stay airborne for 13 hours. They were fast enough to "outrun" German aircraft.

McKay took up to 1000 photographs on a flight. He flew mainly over Mediterranean coastlines, including Malta, but also took pictures over the English Channel coast, Paris and Italy.

Railyards and dockyards can be clearly seen in many photos, while a view over Turin shows the extent of the giant Fiat Factory. A shot of the harbour at Toulon shows French naval ships at berth. A second, taken after the fleet was scuttled, shows smoke from fires partly obscuring hulks on their sides.

Pasted into his logbook is a commendation from the Commanding Officer for the excellence of photos taken over Malta.

McKay kept his logbook meticulously. It records every day's activities, from the time he spent in training. On December 12, 1942, it comes to an abrupt end, with just the word "Missing" inserted. A good friend, Don Hardman, wrote it in, then sent a letter to McKay's parents in New Zealand expressing hope that their son had landed safely and would survive the war.

Survive he did. He later old his family how he had been flying over Belgium when a fuel problem forced him to order his navigator to bale out. The Mosquito was still an unknown quantity to the Germans and pilots were under instructions not to let them fall into enemy hands. So, McKay set fire to his plane before jumping to safety.

His 10 days of freedom ended when he was caught climbing into a railway wagon in Paris. He was locked up in Stalag Luft Ill, in Germany, where he became part of plans for an escape.

A group of fellow prisoners exercise compound, under double barbed-wire fences. They built a gymnastics vaulting horse from wooden Red Cross food boxes. Two diggers were secretly carried inside the horse each time it was taken onto the compound. The horse was placed on the same spot and, while prisoners above ground went about their daily vaulting exercises, the tunnellers worked away beneath.

At the end of each session, in the nine-month project, the diggers closed the hole and climbed back inside the horse, with bags of dirt from their tunnelling. The dirt was later spread surreptitiously about the camp.

McKay took his turn as a digger. While not designated to escape with the first bunch, he went underground with them, assigned to close the, tunnel after them so it would not be found.

He told the family he would-have been in the next bunch of escapers.

There was no next bunch. Three got away but the tunnel was found before more could follow. McKay spent the rest of the war a prisoner.

He returned to Southland after the war and worked as an electrician and electrical inspector before becoming a science technician at Gore. High School.

Errol

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Errol. That's great.

Graeme, can you please elaborate on who this test pilot was? Thanks.

[suthg]

Jack Cleland first to fly Mustang with USAAF ... On the 5th July the New Zealander was attached to a USAAF fighter unit, made his first flight in a 363rd Squadron USAAF Mustang out of Leiston on the 15th and was issued with his "personal" P-51D B6-V on the 21st. (1944) www.cebudanderson.com/jackcleland.htm

[nuuumannn]

Pasted into his logbook is a commendation from the Commanding Officer for the excellence of photos taken over Malta.

According to a book I have on PR Mosquitoes, McKay was flying with 540 Sqn at the time he failed to return. He flew the first return PRU flight to Malta on 1 October and returned on the 4th.

[nuuumannn]

Another PRU Kiwi was Fg Off Donald Hardman who flew Spitfires on a detachment to Russia, then Mossies with 540 Sqn. His aircraft, Mosquito PR.IV DK315 disappeared without trace on 3 March 1943.

[hardman]

Sept 20, 2013 15:32:11 GMT 12 nuuumannn said:

Another PRU Kiwi was Fg Off Donald Hardman who flew Spitfires on a detachment to Russia, then Mossies with 540 Sqn. His aircraft, Mosquito PR.IV DK315 disappeared without trace on 3 March 1943.

Hi Nuuumannn, I'm Donald Hardman great nephew, I dont know much info or history about my great uncle,
I am very keen to learn more about him, If you can share any history that would be great and much appreciated

Regards

Dirk Hardman

[hardman]

Sept 6, 2013 20:01:55 GMT 12 errolmartyn said:

This was NZ411424 Flt Lt Frederick William McKay. The sortie on which he was obliged to abandon his aircraft was on 8 December 1942, not 12 December as described in the article below.


From The Press, 8 May 2004

For sale: aerial view of a war
A collection of photographs, taken by a remarkable Southland pilot above enemy-occupied Europe in World War 2, is about to be auctioned in Christchurch. MIKE CREAN reports.

A box of old photographs will go on sale in Christchurch next month.

Not just any old photographs - these were taken from Spitfire and Mosquito aircraft, above enemy occupied Europe, in World War 2.

The photographs were the work of remarkable Southland pilot Fred McKay. He flew a staggering 576.45 hours, from May to December, 1942, before baling out from his stricken plane.

He then footed it for 10 days through Belgium and France, until he was captured by the Germans. He spent the rest of the war in Stalag Luft Ill, where he became involved in the Wooden Horse escape story that was later immortalised in book and film.

McKay died in Gore in 1995. His daughter, Robin Speden, has kept his collection of 130 photos and his Royal Air Force logbook since.

Now she feels they should go to someone interested in the war.

The collection will be auctioned at Barry Watson Auction Rooms in Christchurch on June 16.

Matthew O'Sullivan, an Air Force Museum, Wigram, spokesman, says some of the photographs are "quite telling". The collection is unusual for having been taken by a New Zealander. "I am sure it will generate quite a bit of interest," O'Sullivan says.

McKay took thousands of photographs for British intelligence, often diving from cruising altitude of 3'0,000 feet to as low as 500 feet, before zooming away again.

"Boffins" studied his pictures, enlarging details that could help them work out enemy movements and set targets for bombing attacks.

It was work that McKay could never have dreamed of when, as a 21 year-old Edendale electrician, he enlisted in the air force. He trained at Levin, Taieri and Wigram and joined a Spitfire squadron in England in late 1941 on photo-reconnaissance work. He transferred to the new, twin-engined Mosquitoes the next year.

Speden said her father used to tell how the planes had their weaponry removed so they could carry extra fuel tanks, allowing them to stay airborne for 13 hours. They were fast enough to "outrun" German aircraft.

McKay took up to 1000 photographs on a flight. He flew mainly over Mediterranean coastlines, including Malta, but also took pictures over the English Channel coast, Paris and Italy.

Railyards and dockyards can be clearly seen in many photos, while a view over Turin shows the extent of the giant Fiat Factory. A shot of the harbour at Toulon shows French naval ships at berth. A second, taken after the fleet was scuttled, shows smoke from fires partly obscuring hulks on their sides.

Pasted into his logbook is a commendation from the Commanding Officer for the excellence of photos taken over Malta.

McKay kept his logbook meticulously. It records every day's activities, from the time he spent in training. On December 12, 1942, it comes to an abrupt end, with just the word "Missing" inserted. A good friend, Don Hardman, wrote it in, then sent a letter to McKay's parents in New Zealand expressing hope that their son had landed safely and would survive the war.

Survive he did. He later old his family how he had been flying over Belgium when a fuel problem forced him to order his navigator to bale out. The Mosquito was still an unknown quantity to the Germans and pilots were under instructions not to let them fall into enemy hands. So, McKay set fire to his plane before jumping to safety.

His 10 days of freedom ended when he was caught climbing into a railway wagon in Paris. He was locked up in Stalag Luft Ill, in Germany, where he became part of plans for an escape.

A group of fellow prisoners exercise compound, under double barbed-wire fences. They built a gymnastics vaulting horse from wooden Red Cross food boxes. Two diggers were secretly carried inside the horse each time it was taken onto the compound. The horse was placed on the same spot and, while prisoners above ground went about their daily vaulting exercises, the tunnellers worked away beneath.

At the end of each session, in the nine-month project, the diggers closed the hole and climbed back inside the horse, with bags of dirt from their tunnelling. The dirt was later spread surreptitiously about the camp.

McKay took his turn as a digger. While not designated to escape with the first bunch, he went underground with them, assigned to close the, tunnel after them so it would not be found.

He told the family he would-have been in the next bunch of escapers.

There was no next bunch. Three got away but the tunnel was found before more could follow. McKay spent the rest of the war a prisoner.

He returned to Southland after the war and worked as an electrician and electrical inspector before becoming a science technician at Gore. High School.

Errol

[hardman]

Hi Errol,

I'm Donald Hardman great nephew, I don't know much info or history about my great uncle, I am very keen to learn more about him, If you can share any history that would be great and much appreciated

Regards

Dirk Hardman