hushkit | Issy issy@unbound.co.uk | undefined
Are you in the mood for Beaufighters and Mosquitoes? Of course, you are, as sure as there is red blood pumping inside you. Before we get there, let’s keep you fully briefed on the latest news on The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes Volume 2. The designs are almost finished, and it looks superb. I’m not allowed to show you a full preview, but here is a tease that I hope is not too small to read. Volume 2 is even bigger and better than Volume 1 and the reviews are already coming in:
‘It’s terrific. As was Vol 1. A seat-of-the-pants balance between wit and knowledge, humour and reflection. ’ – Jonathan Glancey, author of Spitfire: the Biography
‘This volume is as brilliant as the first. It's smart, irreverent, laugh-out-loud funny but also the best-informed writing about aircraft you could ever hope to read. Genius’ – James Holland, historian, author & broadcaster
‘Joe Coles is the only aviation writer I read. This book is thrilling! ’ – Eva Wiseman, journalist
‘Hush-Kit is back! Supersonic, under the radar and with a tighter turning circle than all the other plane books out there, nothing beats Hush-Kit ’ – Al Murray, historian, author and comedian
Out May 2025. Pre-order Volume 2 now to avoid disappointment, the first edition is a limited print run.
Volume 3 update
Volume 3 is now 40% funded thanks to pre-orders. Great work! Thank you. If you have yet to pre-order or wish to offer further support use DISCOUNTF15 for a lovely 15% discount here.
ROUND 2: Cookies and creaming the Reich
We take class warfare to 300mph as we pit the aristocratic Mosquito against the no-nonsense proletariat muscle of the Beaufighter to find out who the real war-winning twin is.
Despite the misgivings of sourpuss ‘Bomber’ Harris, the Mosquito quickly became a mainstay of Bomber Command. According to legend, the Mosquito could fly to Berlin and back twice, dropping a 4,000-pound ‘cookie’ bomb. Though this never actually happened, theoretically it could have. Not only could the Mosquito drop the cookie, but no other bomber could drop bombs with such vicious accuracy.
The Mosquito’s record as a tactical bomber, flying at tree-top height and taking out V1 sites and Gestapo HQs with stunning precision, brought immortality, particularly for an air force that struggled to drop bombs within five miles of their target earlier in the war. This unerring gift for precision bombing was highlighted when the RAF analysed the aerial bombing of V1 launch sites from the end of 1943. The results were stunning: each V1 site destroyed by Mosquitos required only 40 tons of bombs, compared to the 150 tons it took B-17s (150 tons) - and the 182 tons required by the B-26 Marauder force. Added to this the smaller crews, and superior survivability of the Mosquito and the superiority of the Mosquito is readily apparent.
The Mosquito was superb as both a bomber for Bomber Command strategic attacks and as a pathfinder with 5 Group. It undoubtedly greatly enhanced the grim efficacy of Bomber Command’s attacks on German cities and contributed to the destructive mayhem wrought by the Peenemunde and Hamburg raids.
Its nuisance raids, both by day and night, were extremely effective. One brilliantly timed Berlin raid interrupted a speech by Goering, a stinging provocation which invoked fury. As well as creating a shitstorm within the Luftwaffe, it led to resource-sapping attempts to counter the Mosquito, including the failed creation of high-altitude fighter groups.
As a result of these resounding successes, the argument persists that Bomber Harris would have done better and saved many aircrew lives with a fleet of Mosquitos rather than much heavier and more vulnerable Lancs and Hallifaxes. It wasn’t the kind of idea that appealed to the dogmatic and single-minded Harris, who loved all things lumbering, although its feasibility was plain to see. As a key part of major Bomber Command raids, Mosquitoes took on a huge number of diversionary ‘spoof raids’ and ‘siren raids’ away from the ‘main force’, to misdirect Luftwaffe night fighters and create chaos.
Further to this, during February and March 1945, Mosquitos bombed Berlin for 34 nights running, with over 1,700 sorties flown and just six lost. This was an unheard-of loss rate of only 0.035%. This was despite the existence of a Me 262-equipped fighter squadron Nachtjagdgeschwader NJG11/10 focused solely on destroying Mosquitoes. This was during the war's closing months, and the unit led by Kurt Welter, made hugely inflated claims against the Mosquito.
By contrast, the Beaufighter, which wasn’t designed with a bomb bay, was rather overlooked by Bomber Command. Its only role was a brief (if spectacular) spell with 100 Group, in the bomber support role. Yet by avoiding the greedy clutches of ‘Bomber Harris’, this superb aircraft was released to great things with other commands and other theatres.
An easy win for the Mosquito on this one.
Beaufighter 0, Mosquito 1
