De Havilland Mosquito B.35 - "Flying Footnote"

Would you like to see the Mosquito B.35 in game?
  • Yes, as a tech tree vehicle
  • Yes, as an event vehicle
  • Yes, as a premium vehicle
  • Yes, as a squadron vehicle
  • No, I would not like to see the Mosquito B.35 in game.
0 voters

🇬🇧 Mosquito B.35 🇬🇧

Three Mosquito B.35s of 139 Squadron wait on the runway at RAF Hemswell. Outwardly it is difficult to tell the difference between a B Mk.XVI and a B.35 but there are some giveaways. Visible in this photo are the antennae on the ends of the wings used for a new navigational radio. Not visible are the revised carburetor scoops inherited from the PR.34A. 139 Squadron operated B.35s from 1948 to late 1953 before converting to the Canberra B.2.


Introduction

      How do you introduce a variant of a plane that has all of three sentences in an average history book? The best way, I suppose, would be to start with the overall vehicle itself, though the Mosquito needs no introduction. Its exploits and speed in hostile skies are legendary. de Havilland’s Wooden Wonder was invaluable to the RAF for reconnaissance, ground attack duties and bombing missions, and they were in high demand throughout World War II. The same, however, cannot be said of the Mosquito after the war. Faced with downscaling and a sudden lack of adversaries, major air forces around the world began to cut back on piston-engined aircraft as they focused on the jet age. Usually propeller-driven aircraft stuck around in one of three areas - naval use, ground attack platforms or bomber aircraft. The Mosquito stuck around in naval use briefly, but it is its bomber version that I will highlight today. While not quite on the level of the Hornet’s performance, the B.35’s souped-up Merlins and time of introduction put it squarely in the low end of superprop territory - which, of course, ended up being not quite good enough after a few years.



TL;DR

  • Pure bomber variant of the famous Mosquito
  • No offensive or defensive guns, relies on speed for protection
  • New Merlin 113A/114A engines with two-stage superchargers for high-altitude flight
  • One of the fastest Mosquito variants
  • Bomb load of up to 5,000 pounds
  • Bombardier and bomb sight for accurate attacks

Why it should be in the game: The Mosquito B.35 is the ultimate bomber Mosquito. Britain lacks an effective medium bomber in the mid-late WW2 BR range and the B.35 fits the bill perfectly. I am loath to draw comparisons, but this is about the closest thing the RAF has to the Tu-2S. Both are medium bombers with good speed and accurate bomb sights which make them excellent support aircraft for ground battles. While the Mosquito has no defensive armament and carries less tonnage, it should run circles around the Bat speedwise and can reach altitudes the latter could only dream of.



History

      To avoid padding out a section that derives from footnotes in history books, I will not spend a lot of time on the background of the Mosquito itself since it is well known and has been relayed in other suggestions concerning earlier versions of this aircraft. Sir Geoffrey de Havilland described the concept of an otherwise unarmed bomber relying on pure speed to evade its opponents in 1939 to Sir Wilfrid R. Freeman. Air Marshal Freeman put a lot on the line in support of this radical idea - bomber philosophy at the time believed that defensive armament was a necessary component of design, and bombers matching fighter speeds (much less outrunning them) was a ludicrous idea. All of this was promised from a plane made mostly of wood, which despite what one may think was inferior to materials such as aluminum alloys in terms of density. This means that pound for pound, a plane with some aluminum alloy components is lighter than an equivalent aircraft made entirely of wood. However, at high speeds it tends to be drag that impacts top speed much more than weight, and as such the Mosquito’s low-drag design with sleek Merlin inline engines allowed it to reach speeds beyond even de Havilland’s expectations.

The first bomber version of the Mosquito was the B Mk.IV Series 1 with ten units produced. This photograph is of the much more common B Mk.IV Series 2 and is the first picture you will find on the aircraft’s Wikipedia page (what can I say, it’s a good photo). Note the flame dampeners covering the Merlin’s exhaust pipes and glass nose for the bombardier’s sight.

      The Mosquito would immediately proliferate throughout RAF squadrons once mass production began in late 1941 and found itself well-suited for a variety of roles. It was a stable platform at low altitude which lent itself well to precision bombing and ground attack, while its high altitude speed made it difficult to intercept effectively. Originally the combat record was not stellar - the gap between the Mosquito and German fighters at low altitude was not large and could easily be closed with a diving attack. In addition, the bomb load was light (only 2,000 pounds with the B Mk.IV Series 2) at a time when heavy bombers were in demand. Slowly, due to improvements to the aircraft and tactics, the Mosquito became harder to intercept and dealt more damage to its targets. By the end of World War II it had proven itself to be not only extremely annoying but had the punch to back it up with a maximum load of 5,000 pounds which could be delivered over long distances. After the end of the war, though, the Mosquito found itself waiting for its inevitable retirement. Jet propulsion was the way forward, and this extended to bomber aircraft.

105 of the 274 B.35s were converted to TT.35 target tugs. This example, preserved at RAF Museum Midlands, was restored to represent a B.35. The plastic shell showing the Merlin 114 is obviously not production standard. The port side engine on Mosquitos such as this was slightly heavier due to an additional supercharger (blower) used to pressurize the cabin for high altitude flight.

      However, until the then-in-development English Electric Canberra could arrive to replace the Mosquito, it still had its work cut out for it. The latest advancement to the Mosquito towards the end of the war was the PR.32, with two-stage Merlin 113/114 engines for high-altitude flight. While the follow-up PR.34 was under development, the idea to use Merlin 113/114s on other Mosquito variants was a pretty obvious improvement to make. With 150 octane fuel the Merlin 113 could put out as much power at 6700 m as the Merlin 76 which powered the previous bomber variant (the B Mk.XVI) could put out at half the height. The new B.35 would be able to carry the same payload further and faster than ever before. However only 40 units were ready by the end of hostilities in Europe, and despite the last B.35 being completed in 1946 it would not enter service until 1948. The B.35 was primarily employed by the BAFO (British Air Forces of Occupation) in Germany, though 109 and 139 Squadrons operated the type in England. These were all phased out by the Canberra by late 1953 as the new jet bomber left the Mosquito in the dust by just about every conceivable metric. Some B.35s were converted to photo-recce versions retaining the bomb bay for use with flash bombs, and besides the previously mentioned target tugs some unarmed B.35s were used by Spartan Air Services for survey work. Due to its time of introduction, the Mosquito B.35 did not see any combat nor export. This was probably for the best since by the time it was introduced the B.35 would have been easy prey to any jet-powered opponent. While it was the ultimate bomber Mosquito, like other land-based piston-engined aircraft it was another case of too little, too late.



Specifications

de Havilland Mosquito B.35

Dimensions:

  • Length: 12.34 m (40 ft 6 in)
  • Span: 16.51 m (54 ft 2 in)
  • Height: 3.81 m (12 ft 6 in)

Weight:

  • 10,433 kg (23,000 lb) all-up weight

Propulsion: 2 x Rolls-Royce Merlin 113A/114A 12-cylinder inline engine

  • Takeoff power: 1,710 hp each; 3,420 hp total
  • Maximum power (@ 2,362 m [7,750 ft]): ~ 2,000 hp each; > ~4,000 hp total
  • High altitude power (@ 6,705 m [22,000 ft]): 1,710 hp each; 3,420 hp total

Maximum speed:

  • ~531 km/h (~330 kph) @ sea level
  • 679 km/h (422 mph) @ 9,144 m (30,000 ft)

Service ceiling: 12,801 m (42,000 ft)


Armament:

  • Bombs:
    • Up to 6 x 500 lb G.P. bomb
    • Up to 6 x 500 lb M.C. bomb
    • Up to 1 x 4,000 lb H.C. bomb
  • Drop tanks:
    • Up to 2 x 50 imp. gal drop tank
    • Up to 2 x 100 imp. gal drop tank

Additional equipment:

  • Sperry T-1 bomb sight
  • ARI.5597 navigational radio



Sources

1 Like

Absolutely +1 I need my bomber mossies in game, until then i cannot die happy

1 Like

this should have been added from day 1, always wondered why we never got the bomber version

Would be a very welcome addition.

The Source Book of the RAF by Ken Delve (1994) states a bomb load of 5,000lbs for the Mosquito B.35. I assume this would be making use of the 4,000lb in the bomb bay and 2x500lb under each wing.

2 Likes

Managed to dig up a doc showing 5,000 pounds bomb load for the Mosquito B Mk.XX running on Merlin 33s. If that can manage it so can the B.35. Thanks for letting me know, I probably wouldn’t have bothered double checking otherwise.