Two Bf109s claimed by Mosquito at night
 

Hi guys

This is a bit vague, but I have a note that a Mosquito pilot claimed two Bf109s as they were taking off from an airfield near Berlin on the night of 16-17 January 1945. The Mosquito was also shot down by flak, pilot badly wounded and POW

Any ideas as to losses/unit?

Cheers
Brian

Re: Two Bf109s claimed by Mosquito at night
 

Hi Brian:

The Mossie was on the way back from Berlin, but the attack actually took place at Fassberg.

IIRC, the pilot believed he'd strafed a 109 at the taxi point, and another which had just taken off. His captors told him he'd destroyed these two, plus one which spun into the ground attempting to avoid him.

Going largely from memory here - I think there's an account in "Confounding the Reich" by Martin Bowman.

Re: Two Bf109s claimed by Mosquito at night
 

Hi.

Seen same 'request' some time ago but no info on the 109's.
someone suggested that it was from a test school.

The Mossie:

Sqn.23 Mosquito VI,YP-C RS507, Flt. T. Smith and A.C. Cockayne.
Intruder Stendal. On the return they attacked Fassberg Airfield.
Crash landed 3km SW Hermannsberg at 2130h.

Kind regards Nick

Re: Two Bf109s claimed by Mosquito at night
 

Thanks guys

The 23 Squadron aircraft details confirm the information I have. Most interesting.

Cheers
Brian

Re: Two Bf109s claimed by Mosquito at night
 

hi brian,
saw the thread-the pilot was my beloved father-who died last year 61 years after the event-he became a macindoe guinea pig, mum being one of the theatre sisters to macindoe.
It was the last time he flew-and i only got the full story 3 weeks before he died-he was truly the bravest man I ever met.
The germans did indeed credit him with 3-but the british one damaged and one destroyed, and didnt give him the third at all. ironically that would have made him an ace i think-butthats history as they say.
If you have a mail address I can send you a couple of winzip files to look at-i know the crash site but it is about 6 square kilometres, at fassberg, or south, south west of fassberg.

Re: Two Bf109s claimed by Mosquito at night
 

Hi Hooter

Many thanks for the info - please contact me on
briancullauthor@fsmail.net

Cheers
Brian

Re: Two Bf109s claimed by Mosquito at night
 

I have the claim in my database, without a confirmation source. Just the combat report, in Air 50/11-108&109. I also have the aircraft as Mosquito VI RS596, which is either from the combat report or the ORB.

Hooter: Could you give me your father's full name, and his service number? All I have is F/Lt T A Smith. I would like to update my database. And by any chance do you have the full name for his observer, F/O A C Cockayne?

Also, this is the only victory claim I have for T A Smith in my database. Do you have any details of his other claims; where, when, unit, etc?

Frank.

Re: Two Bf109s claimed by Mosquito at night
 

Hi Frank,
better late than never!
here are the log book entries for my father-F/L T A Smith.
Diary.
23 Squadron.
Aug. 31 PZ172 Fresher Ops: Zuider Zee Round trip: Hoorne-Harderwjick-Urk- Hoorne-LF& SL from Hoorne
Sept. 1 PZ315 Strafe patrol: Weser Elbe canal, Hannover-Magdeburg
Rly, Schoningen-Hildesheim: Barges hit at Hannover, Braunschweig
Sept.11 HR215 Patrol: Guissen & Lippe airfields, no activity. Strikes on goods trucks at Koblenz, Limburg, Guissen yards
Sept.12 PZ187 Patrol: Stuttgart/Ectodingen A/F activity at Boblingen. Strikes on goods trucks at Kaisers Lautern yard
Sept.14 PZ172 Daylight Escort at 20000ft.-fortress on Dutch coast.
Sept.19 PZ334 Patrol: Achmer A/F No activity retired early. Bad visibility & no R/T
Sept.26 HR215 Patrol: Kitzingen A/F Turned back at Moselle. No pinpoints rad fog
Sept.28 PZ187 Patrol: Handorf A/F no activity. Low stratus. Spoof raid to Terschelling, 22000ft.
Sept.29 PZ187 Patrol: Kolitzheim & Gerolshofen A/F’s no activity
Oct.2 PZ187 Patrol: Hagenow A/F no activity. Train hit SW of Hagenow, 3 trains, and 1 engine Hagenow junction. Train & engine hit S of Luneburg
Oct.15 HR217 Patrol: Sylt A/F. no activity.
Oct.19 HR217 Patrol: Biblis A/F. no activity 2x500Ib. Bombs on A/F
Oct.26 HR217 Patrol: Gutersloh A/F No activity. Attacked motor convoy at Delde on autobahn, 8 vehicles, 1 left burning
Oct.29 HR217 Patrol Stade A/F no activity
23 Squadron Photograph- ‘Oct. 44’ picture.
Oct.30 Escape photographs taken-moustaches shaved off-except Sammy’s
Oct.31 PZ183 NFT and film unit co-op
Oct.31 PZ183 Patrol: Munich/Schleisheim A/F no activity 3 trains damaged: Aalen, Heilbrohn, Worms
Nov.2 HR215 Patrol: Fritzlar A/F no activity tarmac strafed strikes on hangar
Nov.4 HR217 Recalled from ops: struck birds taking off.
Nov.6 HR215 Patrol: Ardorf, Marx, and Varel; diverted to Woodbridge
Ardorf active, Marx lit, Varel inactive: no luck
Bud Badley does ‘belly-landing’ at Woodbridge.
Nov 6 Returned to Snoring with Bud Badley (from Woodbridge)
Nov.18 HR217 Patrol: Plantlunne A/F no activity
Nov.21 PZ231 Patrol: Gutersloh A/F; active one Hun lit up by E.S.N’s No contacts
Nov.25 PZ231 Patrol: Stuttgart/Echterdingen A/F s unident T.E. A/C damaged on G.R. Hailfingen L/G 1 Ju88 damaged on GR. + 2 hangars strafed at Echterdingen A/F Loco & MT hit at Plochingen. Trains hit N. Stuttgart & N. of Karlsruhe
Nov.27 PZ315 Patrol: Ober-Olm A/F no activity low cloud
Nov.28 PZ315 Spoof raid, 20,000ft.2x500Ib on Bonn (on Gee)
Dec.3 PZ410 A.S.R. off Egmond coast for W/C Murphy
Dec.5 PZ410 Patrol: Zellhousen A/F, Badenhousen L/G no activity 2 x 500Ib M.C. on Frankfurt/Rhein-Main A/F
Dec.22 RS517 ASH Patrol: Echterdingen A/F strafed tarmac and buildings + Halfingen L/G strafed train at Heilbronn Hit pyrotechnic store: fireworks still visible 30 miles away
Dec.23 RS517 ASH Patrol: Saschenheim A/F: not lit very foggy. Just cleared balloons at Germersheim
Dec.27 RS507 ASH Patrol: Halfingen L/G & Stuttgart/Echterdingen A/F s no activity: thick haze: generator failure
Jan.13 YPA Operational Intruder: A/F not lit chased own ‘shadow’ on ASH for 15 mins.
Jan.14 YPM Opn: intruder Gutersloh A/F, A/F lit hangars and tarmac strafed: 1 U/E A/C destroyed
Jan.16 YPC Opn: intruder, Stendal A/F, not yet returned


The 'ops' totals for each month are
Aug 2.00
Sept 2.10 + 29.30
Oct 25.50
Nov 28.35
Dec 2.45 + 19.05
Jan 8.30 + 4
It would appear that 2.10, searching for sticky is also included in his op total-is that 30-31

I know much more than when I last posted but seem to be no nearer finding out who, or from what unit the german pilots were from.
I did email brian-but since then the computer went bang-terminally-so i guess i have kinda had to start again in certain areas.
I did however receive this one peice of paper from NARA, but nothing else-could any members give this another whirl for me to see if they can turn up anything about fassberg on this date. 16/01/45

Re: Two Bf109s claimed by Mosquito at night
 

An encounter with Bf 109s at night at this date would suggest NJG 11 to me.

Re: Two Bf109s claimed by Mosquito at night
 

Does any detailed information exist about NGJ11?
I know fassberg had a couple of comets, and was a technical school-so using 109s makes sense.

Re: Two Bf109s claimed by Mosquito at night
 

Frank

A quick update with regard to the Mosquito. Cannot have been RS596.
It sure belonged to 23 Sq during the war, but it was handed over to Signal School on 7.9.1954

Also it seems that T A Smith (still no first name?) only was credited with one single victory in WW 2. The 23 Sq only gets credit for a single kill that night.

Cheers
Stig

Re: Two Bf109s claimed by Mosquito at night
 

Looks like "finger trouble" for RS507.

Re: Two Bf109s claimed by Mosquito at night
 

Hi all,
well Tom (Tommy-100570), my father, was credited with one destroyed and one damaged on the night of the 16th of January. It was flying RS507
There was a further 109 up the runway which spun in and blew up of its own accord, the pilot panicking my father said. The german pilots did visit my father in the airfield sickbay, and did tell him that his efforts had scratched three 109's from their strength, all of them were write offs. At this point they did not expect him to live-there was already a grave prepared for him next to his navigator.
And yes it was typical that he was credited with one destroyed, one damaged at the Squadron.
Not tonight but this week i will see if i can scan his little tally sheet showing what he did do-it was just a faint pencil written list on a scrap of paper tucked in his log book-and i will post a scan of the last page of his log book.
A lot of the low level chaps did a full tour with very little to show for it-but as they were reminded by B R O B Hoare (Sammy) it was the psychological effect it had on the enemy, not just the kill rate 1 on 1.
Additionally by january, alot of the airfields had been beefed up with additional flak so rhubarbing an airfield was a different proposition than a year earlier.
to put this into perspective I did hear that while the squadron was 'up' in Italy a year earlier, one night, no one saw a single german plane-it was learned later that 22 axis-german planes crashed because they kept on getting diverted and refused clearance due to the squadrons presence. (Possibly from the Y service)
However sadly i cannot remember where i read this.

Re: Two Bf109s claimed by Mosquito at night
 

Re Arthur Clarence Cockayne-
frank, I'll sort out 'Cockies' details this week as well-i have his death notice with details.
It was one of my fathers last wishes that I get his navigators medals back to the family, (Cockies family had died out we think)-to those who would remember him.
They were very kindly sold back to me by a collector from france who did a very noble thing.