Mosquito over Copenhagen during Operation Carthage, 21st of March 1945

Thank you Derek for the background to this incredible photo.

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The photograph posted by Jon Petersen was originally published in the Danish newspaper Nationaltidende on May 5 1945. Attached is a photo of the newspaper page. I also have a copy negative from the original and can safely say that it is NOT a composite.

The Mosquito depicted is PZ378 SB-U of 464 Squadron RAAF, flown by Flt. Lt. A.(Arch) J. Smith with Flt. Sgt. E. L. (Les) Green as Navigator. I interviewed both Arch and Les, some years ago regarding their participation in the attack on Shell House.

464 Sqn. were the second wave to attack and initially they were attracted by the smoke from the Mosquito crash site at Frederiksberg (W/C Peter Kleboe). 5 of the 6 aircraft in the wave realised that the crash site was not the target, 1 bombed the area by mistake, 2 carried on towards the real target whilst the remaining commenced orbits to locate and line up to attack.

One of these was Arch Smith and he was forced to make 2 orbits over the city. He eventually approached and attacked the Shell House from the North East, hence the tight turn as depicted over Gl. Strand in the city.

Both Arch and Les have confirmed that the Mosquito in this picture was their aircraft.

The nose appears to be slightly up which would make the turn more likely.
Only today I watched the disturbing videos of both the B52 and C17 crashes .
In both cases, apart from the ridiculous situations of them being manoeuvred at such low level , the noses were low during the turn ruling out any recovery.

Hi,

I think the bit of fuselage sticking up is the bomb bay door.

The problem you have with determining the height of the Mosquito relative to the surround buildings is the lack of lens information. Having seen actual film footage taken of the raid on the Shell House – the Mosquitoes were doing some quite tight low level turns. I think that picture is probably 100% genuine.

Derek Carter is the person to get hold of – he’s probably got more information about this raid than anyone.

Cheers,
Neil

Thanks!

I take it as the pic may be genuine.

This aircraft is said to be one that took an extra round, and at this point is only beginning to make its 360 degree circle, having flown pretty wide on its first passing of the Shell House.

Thanks to all.

Jon

Certainly an each way bet, it could be the bomb door, with the angle of bank and the light making it appear rounded.

Cheers Mike

Looks like steep turn happening in this view of the raid….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Carthage#mediaviewer/File:Shell-Huset-mosquito.jpg

The photo credit says it’s from the Danish Royal Library but when I searched their collection there’s no sign of that particular picture. 🙁

Looks like he’s possibly in the process of a rate 4 turn.

What’s the thing apparently hanging off the starboard side of the fuselage? I wondered if it was a target winch, suggesting a composite image, but can’t find a picture of a Mossie tug carrying one.

Adrian

I think one of the Mossies was shot down and crashed near to the target. Maybe this is the one?

It’s an unlikely manoeuvre at this low-level but, as Moggy says, not impossible. There’s no aileron deflection but then again, the shot might have been taken as the left roll was reversed and caught the ailerons at neutral. Such brisk twisting and turning was pretty much essential at this height to avoid light flak and small arms fire. I would think he was also going pretty fast, too, for the same reason.

I’d say the shot was genuine.

Anon.

Does anyone here KNOW – or otherwise judge?

I don’t ‘know’

The reproduction here is too poor for any judgement to be made on if it was retouched / composite.

But many pilots under the pressures of wartime carried out manoeuvres that were not in the textbook. Some got away with it, some didn’t.

Stalling speed increases with the angle of bank. In that shot it would be pretty high. But then against that we don’t know what airspeed he had. If it had been me over potentially hostile territory the throttles would have been to the bulkhead.

Was it a turn, or have we got an image of a 1/4 or 3/4 complete aileron roll?

I doubt anyone can say. But it certainly isn’t an impossible image, or an image of a manoeuvre from which survival was impossible.

Moggy