Banff Wing claim 30 Oct 44

[Tom Semenza]

In A Separate Little War Andy Bird describes the downing of a Ju 88 on 30 Oct. 1944 by four Mosquito pilots of the Banff Wing; W/C Atkinson and F/L Jacques of 235 Sqn. plus two unnamed pilots of 248 Sqn., one of whom was flying a 57mm armed Tsetse!

The narrative of the engagement seems to indicate that all four fired on the Junkers. However in Those Other Eagles Chris Shores shows that Jacques was alone in receiving full credit. Can anyone comment as to whether or not the other three were in fact credited with shares. If so does anyone have the names of the 248 pilots involved?

Thanks,
Tom

[SteveB]

Hi

Alex Crawford in "Shipbuster - Mosquito Mk XVIII Tse-Tse" has something on this.

He says there were two a/c from 248Sqn NT225/O (F/Offs Cosman/Freedman) and PZ301 (F/Offs Hayton/Day) with two a/c from 235Sqn. The Ju88 was sighted at 8000ft to NW of Holmengra. Cosman made the first attack using six Molins rounds plus m/g no hits observed. One of the 235Sqn Mosquitos attacked next and the Ju88 was severely damaged. Cosman attacked again but no hits observed. Finally Hayton attacked from dead astern and the Ju88 blew up and crashed into the sea.

Crawford does not state how the claim was credited to pilots.

Steve

[Chris Goss]

According to my records, it was credited to Y & E/235 and O/248 (Wg Cdr Atkinson) at 1555 hrs Sogne Fjord

[andy bird]

Hi Tom,

Having recently had A Separate Little War come out on Kindle, I'm currently working on the "human aspect" and have trawled the archives and found quite a few air combat and strike reports not known to exist at the time when the paperback came out in 2008. I'm therefore thinking of reworking ASLW, but also release that homage should be paid to North Coates, Langham, Wick and Dallachy perhaps before I redo ASLW.

Kind Regards and hope you enjoyed the read?

Here is the air battle information for the date in question:

On Monday October 30, 1944 235 Squadron Mosquitoes E and Y/235 were on an offensive patrol off the Norwegian Coast in formation with two other Mosquitoes of No 248 Squadron. While flying southwestwards they sighted a Junkers 88 at 800 feet about 3 miles away on the starboard beam. The Mosquitoes at once increased their speed and began a climbing turn to starboard towards the enemy aircraft, which began to weave back and forth like a clocks pendulum. E/235 attacked from the starboard quarter and then from the port quarter opening fire from 400 to 100 yards. The pilot saw his fire hitting the enemy’s port engine, fuselage and starboard wing root. He then saw the port side of the Junker’s was ablaze, inside the Luftwaffe pilot could be seen struggling to maintain control and the aircraft began to lose height rapidly to water level as if preparing to ditch. Y/235 then attacked from dead astern, closing from 100 to 75 yards, cannon and machine gun rounds seared through the metal work on the fuselage and wings. The Junkers 88 was then enveloped in flames and at 45 feet above the water it exploded. Shards metal projectiles cascaded towards Y/235 as it flew through the debris some embedded themselves in their wings. The observer (Flying Officer Valentine ‘Val’ Charles Upton) scribbled the position down using a pencil 60 degrees 55’ N., 04 degrees 35’ E. No survivors were seen. During this engagement the Junker’s 88 defensive fire was well aimed, but neither aircraft suffered damage nor casualties. Aircraft Y/235 had 350 rounds and E/235 had 462 tracer rounds remaining.

[Tom Semenza]

Steve and Chris,
Many thanks for the additional information, which is very useful to me.

Andy,
Thanks for the update. I am mostly interested in the air-to-air engagements and am currently reading through your excellent book to extract the pertinent details for my files. Best wishes for your future enterprises which we look forward to.

In reading the various descriptions of this engagement it seems to me that if F/O Cosman had connected with one of the 57mm rounds it would have had immediate and dramatic results. And as he observed no hits, it seems that the other three pilots actually shared in the kill.

Cheers,
Tom