Hi Bruce,

Several things;
LR 507 was on 105 Sqd’s Charge before Tony arrived. So the photo was taken well into operational life, with 105 Sqd. The Mossie doesn’t look as though it’s just been repainted, very recently, if at all.
Would the RAF go to the trouble of repainting an aircraft? 105 Sqd Mosquitoes still kept their original day bomber colour scheme, even after they were transferred to night bombers. Why repaint an aircraft that might be shot down on the next sortie? LR 504 still retained it’s black underside, even after it changed from 109 to 105 Sqd.
I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed high flying aircraft, but it doesn’t matter what colour scheme they have, at altitude, they’re just a black cross in the sky!

Cheers,
Neilly

Hi Robhi,

Firstly, I would like to point out that my main aviation interest (as you may notice – Mosquito Anorak, under my name) is the Mosquito & particularly 8 Group PFF, of which 105 & 109 Squadrons were a part of.

I knew exactly where you got your information from, as I have all those books & many more! I would add that if you’d read Combat Colours 5 & looked at the colour drawing (the line drawing on my earlier post came from this book, & that’s taken from the official de Havilland Mosquito colour guide), then you would notice the grey/green camoflage pattern is the wrong way round. This is just one example.

I would add that just because you see something in a book, doesn’t mean it’s correct! A simple example; You give the the aircraft code for DZ 353 as GB-F, taken from Combat Colours? This is wrong, the correct code is GB-E & this is probably the most photographed Mosquito of all! So you see it’s very easy to say this is right, just because it’s in a book! I think if you check Mosquito by Sharp & Bowyer you’ll find a line drawing of LR 507, showing black underside, dated 12/04/44.

I also checked with S/Ldr. Tony Farrell DFC, who flew LR 507 regularly & he was very disappointed that Corgi had; a. painted ‘his’ Mossie in the wrong colours & b. no-one had bothered to get in touch with him to check the details. To answer Bruces’ question, Tony flew with 105 Squadron

I still maintain I’m correct & if you’d like to pop round, anytime I’m at home, I’d be most pleased to show you all my Mosquito info. I live in Leicester, just off the Uppingham Road.

Which brings me to a question, for you to answer. If you were going to have a Mosquito B IX model, why did you not use LR 503? This Mosquito flew a record breaking 213 operational sorties, no other Allied aircraft flew more sorties.

And finally I’ve added another picture. It’s in Classic Aircraft No7 Mosquito:)

Cheers,
Neilly

ps. take a close look at the last sentence.