Mosquito Men: The Elite Pathfinders of 627 Squadron

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For those fans of the Mosquito aircraft recently described by Rowland White, Mosquito Men will add the human element to this iconic plane. The author does a nice job of expounding on the power struggle between 5 Group and 8 Group (PFF) that resulted in 627 Squadron moving to Woodhall Spa and 5 Group. Nicknamed The ‘Wooden Wonder’ for its timber frame and superb performance, the de Havilland Mosquito ranks alongside the Spitfire, the Hurricane and the Lancaster as one of the RAF’s greatest-ever flying machines.

From the summer of that year, as RAF Bomber Command intensified its saturation-bombing campaign against German cities and industrial centres, Mosquitos were used by the RAF Pathfinder Force, which marked targets for night-time bombing, to potent and devastating effect.Novel in design, operationally flexible and exceptionally fast, it inflicted mayhem on the German war machine as night-fighter, fighter-bomber and pathfinder. Nicknamed the 'wooden wonder' for its balsawood frame, the two-man Mosquito excelled in several different roles, from reconnaissance to the bombing of sensitive priority targets. Novel in construction and exceptionally fast, the new plane was soon outpacing the Spitfire, and went on to contribute to the RAF's offensive against Nazi Germany as bomber, pathfinder and night fighter. This may only be a history of a short lived squadron at first glance but the background that is uncovered of the people, places, machines, politics and history make this an unmissable treat and a fitting testimony to those who we owe so much to. Grace lives alone in Ballybrady, a little village on the sublimely beautiful east coast of Northern Ireland.

As the government’s national archive for England, Wales and the United Kingdom, The National Archives hold over 1,000 years of the nation’s records for everyone to discover and use. She hasn't left the village since a traumatic stay in London as a young woman at the end of the 1980s. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. In November 1940, a remarkable prototype aircraft made its maiden flight from an airstrip north of London. Mosquito Men traces the contrasting careers of the young men of 627 Squadron, including that of Ken Oatley – last living member of an illustrious group – who flew twenty-two operations in Mosquitos as a navigator.

When Grace saves his life in a kayaking accident - if it was an accident - and Evan's troubled son arrives to stay, all three are drawn together in a way that forces a reckoning with their personal traumas and draws them back into society. The story of one of the most remarkable – and feared – British aircraft of the Second World War: the de Havilland DH.

I was hoping for something more like Michael Cumming's excellent "Beam Bombers" about 109 Squadron, As a result, I was sometimes distracted by anecdotes that I felt were non-sequiturs (and why I did not rate this 5 stars). She fills her days with swimming, fishing, quilting, and baiting the tourists who arrive from the city with more money than sense.

This is a truly heart-warming story of loss, recovery and above all, of community' Bernie McGill, author of The Watch House. Its more familiar name was the de Havilland Mosquito, and it used lightning speed and agility to inflict mayhem on the German war machine. Richly detailed and superbly evocative in the telling - this is a compelling account of the wartime RAF's most glamorous plane and some of the brave men who flew it. The amount of work entailed in putting in the detail must have been enormous but worth it for me because there is so much about each airman’s life and family. If the Squadron's history has not been well-served in print up to now, this volume sets things to rights.

The Founder of the Pathfinders [Donald Bennett] lacks sufficient coverage, but the politics with Cochrane are well articulated. Unfortunately we cannot offer a refund on custom prints unless they are faulty or we have made a mistake. I have learnt a great deal about the operations undertaken by Mosquito Squadrons and enjoyed every minute of my read. He has come to try to process his grief and make himself desirable again as a husband, a father and a business partner.The Mosquito Men remain very mysterious characters - nothing personal is known of them but that they're in some capacity henchmen of Masketta Man, and that as mere henchmen they're presumably rather small guys.