"Keith Willshaw" \
Badly, think of what happened to the Me-110's in the
Battle of Britain. The Mosquito was lightly built and couldnt
manoeuvre as well as the Me-109. It was fast to be sure BUT
couldnt cruise at high speed for the range required.
I agree, it would have difficulty against a BF109 or an BF190. As for
range, the Mosquito dropped bombs on Berlin and they acted as path finders
for the RAF night bomber missions. One, I think would have to weigh the
loss of a B17 crew against the effectiveness and loss of a two man Mosquito
crew. I just read the book. Schweinfurt, disaster in the skies, by John
Sweetman. During the early raids the USAAC believed the B17 could protect
itself but they were sadly proved wrong by the high losses. A Mosquito
escort may have saved some of these crews. Until the Mustang came on seen,
Spitfires had an escort range of 175 miles, the P47-230 miles, the
P38 -520 miles and then the Mustang, listed as over 600 miles which took it
past Berlin.
I wonder how much better a P38 was when compared to the Mosquito. I have
heard in some case, with the P38 they weren't sure who was escorting who!
Can't remember where I read that!
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