Mosquito: Menacing the Reich: Combat Action in the Twin-engine Wooden Wonder of World War II by Martin Bowman Page A
Authors: Martin Bowman
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS027140
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Lancasters and eleven Mosquitoes of 5 Group attempted to bomb Karlsruhe. Cloud cover over the target caused the raid to be a complete failure and the Mosquito marker aircraft that dived over the city failed to establish the position of the target. To make matters worse, fourteen Lancasters were lost on the raid. German cities were continually bombed early in the month and all were marked by Mosquitoes of 8 and 5 Groups. On 5/6 February sixty-three Mosquitoes attacked Berlin. By way of a change, on 7/8 February 177 Lancasters and eleven Mosquitoes of 5 Group attacked a section of the Dortmund-Ems canal near Ladbergen with delayed action bombs but all missed their target. Meanwhile, thirty-eight Mosquitoes attacked Magdeburg, sixteen bombed Mainz and forty-one others attacked five different targets. On 8/9 February Mosquitoes of 5 and 8 Groups marked Pölitz oil refineries for 472 Lancasters, twelve of which were lost. The first wave’s objective was marked by the 5 Group method. The Pathfinder Mosquitoes of 8 Group marked the second. The weather was clear and the bombing was extremely accurate and severe damage was caused. On 10/11 February eighty-two Mosquitoes bombed Hanover and another eleven raided Essen. The night following, 12/13 February, seventy-two Mosquitoes attacked Stuttgart and fifteen others hit Misburg and Würzburg.
At Woodhall Spa on 13 February Mancunian Flight Lieutenant William Worthington Topper RAFVR and his navigator Flying Officer Victor W. ‘Garth’ Davies went to the ops room to be told, ‘It’s Dresden tonight and Topper will lead’. A fair-haired giant of a man, Davies had teamed up with Topper in June 1944. Topper could see why he was called ‘Garth’. He was straight out of the cartoon strip in the Daily Mirror . He noticed too that under his navigator’s badge Davies wore the oak leaf of a ‘Mention’ [MiD, Mention in Despatches] and learned later from him that he was now on a second tour. In December 1943 while flying on 466 Squadron, Davies had been shot down over Belgium in a Halifax, picked up by the Resistance and had then walked back over the Pyrenees into Spain and back home via Gibraltar. He had never been far afield in his youth but he walked for miles and this and his mother’s strict upbringing, which included senna pod tea every Friday, stood him in good stead in the five days and nights walk through the Pyrenees in continuous rain. While Garth was the country lad, Topper was the ‘posh city gent’ who owned an open top 3-litre Bentley Red Label that his dog ‘Rostov’ rode in standing erect in all his glory as the two aircrew motored over the Pennines. (The story was that Topper had bought the Bentley from a lady in Bournemouth for about £20). Topper and Garth Davies had their differences, settled many times over pints of beer and they became, like many Mosquito crews in wartime, almost inseparable. In addition to Topper and Davies there were seven other crews in the marking team. 162 Bill Topper remembers:
We went into briefing where we heard that the defences were not known (the city had received attention once before, early in the war, but by common consent it had been considered a ‘safe’ one, full of art treasures and architecturally superb). There would probably be light flak from trains in the marshalling yards as the Germans were sending supplies up to the front, about 70 miles East. The Russians had asked for the target because of this. There were a lot of refugees moving West. If we got into difficulty, that is where we should head, West, in no circumstances force-land to the East. The problem was going to be a weather front with 10/10 cloud over the target – unless it cleared as we got there.
For most of the participating aircrew the Dresden raid would just be another bombing attack. 163 Dresden would be bombed in two RAF assaults 3 hours apart, the first by 244 Lancasters of 5 Group and the second by 529 Lancasters of 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups. No. 5
At Woodhall Spa on 13 February Mancunian Flight Lieutenant William Worthington Topper RAFVR and his navigator Flying Officer Victor W. ‘Garth’ Davies went to the ops room to be told, ‘It’s Dresden tonight and Topper will lead’. A fair-haired giant of a man, Davies had teamed up with Topper in June 1944. Topper could see why he was called ‘Garth’. He was straight out of the cartoon strip in the Daily Mirror . He noticed too that under his navigator’s badge Davies wore the oak leaf of a ‘Mention’ [MiD, Mention in Despatches] and learned later from him that he was now on a second tour. In December 1943 while flying on 466 Squadron, Davies had been shot down over Belgium in a Halifax, picked up by the Resistance and had then walked back over the Pyrenees into Spain and back home via Gibraltar. He had never been far afield in his youth but he walked for miles and this and his mother’s strict upbringing, which included senna pod tea every Friday, stood him in good stead in the five days and nights walk through the Pyrenees in continuous rain. While Garth was the country lad, Topper was the ‘posh city gent’ who owned an open top 3-litre Bentley Red Label that his dog ‘Rostov’ rode in standing erect in all his glory as the two aircrew motored over the Pennines. (The story was that Topper had bought the Bentley from a lady in Bournemouth for about £20). Topper and Garth Davies had their differences, settled many times over pints of beer and they became, like many Mosquito crews in wartime, almost inseparable. In addition to Topper and Davies there were seven other crews in the marking team. 162 Bill Topper remembers:
We went into briefing where we heard that the defences were not known (the city had received attention once before, early in the war, but by common consent it had been considered a ‘safe’ one, full of art treasures and architecturally superb). There would probably be light flak from trains in the marshalling yards as the Germans were sending supplies up to the front, about 70 miles East. The Russians had asked for the target because of this. There were a lot of refugees moving West. If we got into difficulty, that is where we should head, West, in no circumstances force-land to the East. The problem was going to be a weather front with 10/10 cloud over the target – unless it cleared as we got there.
For most of the participating aircrew the Dresden raid would just be another bombing attack. 163 Dresden would be bombed in two RAF assaults 3 hours apart, the first by 244 Lancasters of 5 Group and the second by 529 Lancasters of 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups. No. 5
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