Mission tallies

Hi Guys,

It’s nice to have the forum back.

I was going through my Mosquito Mk XVIII Tse-tse files and tallied up all their mission tallies by going through the various ORB’s. This doesn’t include training sorties.

They are;

HX902 (2), HX903 (30), HX904 (26), MM424 (39), MM425 (48), NT224 (29), NT225 (49), PZ251 (5), PZ252 (19), PZ300 (13), PZ301 (23), PZ346 (8) and PZ468 (15).

Obviously some aircraft lasted longer than others. HX902 was lost on it’s second mission, while NT225 lasted 6 months before being shot down. On the other hand HX904 was in service from September 1943 until written off in a landing accident in May 1945, but it only carried out 26 missions.

I have often wondered why it was only bomber crews that recorded their mission tallies on their aircraft. Every aircraft that went on a mission ran the risk of being shot down, so why not record this on the aircraft.

Now some bombers achieved over 100 missions. Does anyone know the highest mission tally for a Spitfire, Hurricane, Mustang etc,. What was the highest Mosquito tally?

Alex