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LR503 was a De
Havilland Mosquito B.IX, built at the Hatfield plant in early 1943 and delivered
to 109 Squadron, in May 1943. In March 1944, the machine was transferred
to 105 Squadron, at Marham, Norfolk, to become part of 8 Group, Pathfinder
Force. Fitted with 'Oboe' (hence the painted out nose glazing) Freddie
(GB-F) flew weather, bombing and target marking flights. In the spring and
summer 1944, Freddie participated in weather reconnaissance flights for H.M.
King George, and for Winston Churchill as well as flying in support of D-Day
invasion troops near Caen, France.
Flown by various
crews, Freddie's last combat mission was on April 10th, 1945, to the Wahren
marshalling yards at Leipzig, Germany.
In early May 1945,
Freddie was assigned to tour Canada on a series of one day stops to promote the
sale of Victory Loan Bonds.
By this time Freddie
had flown a total of 213 missions, thus earning the distinction of being the
allied bomber with the most operational missions.
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On the afternoon of
May 9th 1945, 'Freddie', crewed by Flight Lieutenant J. Maurice W. Briggs, D.S.O.,
D.F.C., D.F.M., Flying Officer John C. Baker, D.F.C. and Bar, and De Havilland
engineer Edward Jack, arrived at Calgary airport and proceeded to treat the
crowds to a demonstration of a Mosquito doing what it did best, 'beating up' the
airfield and surrounding areas at high speed and low level (often at less than
rooftop height).
The next day, after
an official luncheon, at just after 16:00 hrs, Briggs and Baker prepared to take
off to fly to Red Deer and Lethbridge, returning to Calgary for the evening.
Edward Jack stayed behind as he was not feeling well. After take off,
Briggs circled to the North and made two passes over the small crowd which had
gathered around the terminal building to see them off. It was on their
third diving pass that tragedy struck.
Freddie struck the
top of the tower and a metal pole used for releasing weather balloons, shearing
off the port wing, just outboard of the engine, and part of the tail. Out
of control, at nearly 400 mph, 'Freddie' crashed in a field just south of the
terminal. The crew were thrown from the airplane and died instantly.
The petrol soaked Mosquito burned to ashes.
Flight Lieutenant
Briggs and Flying Officer Baker were buried in the Field of Honour, at Burnsland
Cemetery, Calgary, the following day.
Building 'F for
Freddie'
I was asked to build 'Freddie' by
a friend, who had Aeromaster sheet 48-552 'Mosquito Raiders Pt.V'. As the
B.IX is basically a B.IV with two stage Merlins, instead of single stage ones,
the Airfix B.XVI kit is the logical way to go, as it is the only mainstream 1/48
kit with two stage Merlins. The B.IX has no camera ports in the bomb bay
doors, and you will have to find a B.IV canopy with 'teardrop' side blisters (I
had an old Paragon one). The Aeromaster sheet depicts 'Freddie' after she
had completed 203 missions, and many pictures are available which show her at
this time. This was the guise in which I built her, complete with extra
fuel tanks on the wings. Later photos show changes in the nose art and
mission tally. Also, many of the photos show her without the aerial mast
fitted, but later photos of the machine in Canada show the mast fitted.
This is possibly because the 'Oboe' and 'Gee' equipment that was fitted for 105
Squadron operations was probably removed, and replaced with regular radio
equipment (Oboe and Gee were very secret until well after the war).
Building of the kit is
straightforward, and will pose little problems for the experienced modeller.
The joints will require some filler and test fitting, but the effort is
worthwhile. After priming and checking the finish for blemishes, the Ocean
Grey, Dark Green, Medium Sea Grey camouflage was applied, using Xtracrylix
acrylic colours. The nose glazing was painted over on an 'Oboe' equipped
machine, with the flat bomb aimer's panel painted black. The Aeromaster
decals were applied, and conformed and settled down well with applications of
Micro set and sol. Once dried, a coat of Humbrol Mattcote was applied and
a little light weathering applied with pastels, along with exhaust staining.
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All in all I quite enjoyed this
build, and it only took a week from opening the box to completion. I
hope my Canadian friends will consider it a fitting tribute to two brave men,
and a remarkable machine.
As a footnote, the Smithsonian
National Air and Space Museum in Washington claims that the American Martin
B-26B Marauder called 'Flak Bait' has the most operations of any allied bomber
with only 202 missions.
Phil
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