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WOW337 De Havilland Mosquito 'Hairless Joe'

During WWII, scarcity of strategic materials such as metals, rubber, oil, lubricant, etc, forced engineers to be more creative in order to find alternative ways of keeping armament production unabated. In an age of all-metal fighter/bomber aircraft, engineers in Great Britain, Germany, Japan, and Russian developed capable warplanes made from wood. The most famous and successful wooden warplane was the de Havilland Mosquito. It was originally designed as an unarmed bomber using non-strategic material for construction.

The Mosquito’s excellent wooden design gave it lightweight and high-speed manoeuvrability. The Mosquito excelled in all the roles that it was given to fulfil, including low- to medium-altitude fighter bomber, photo-reconnaissance, night fighter/bomber, maritime strike aircraft and transport.
The initial project was nearly cancelled due to Lord Beaverbrook’s lack of conviction for the wooden wonder, however Geoffrey de Havilland persisted and in 1941 the Mosquito was by then the fastest operational aircraft in the world.

The Mosquito was often flown in special raids, such as the attack on Amiens Prison in early 1944, and precision attacks against military intelligence, security, and police facilities (such as Gestapo headquarters). On 30 January 1943, the 10th anniversary of the Nazi’s seizure of power, a morning Mosquito attack knocked out the main Berlin broadcasting station while Hermann Goring was speaking, taking his speech off the air. The Mosquito flew with the RAF and other allied air forces operating in just about very theatre during WW2.