BBC Breakfast News 7th Feb 2023

[@mikepocock575]

Bless his heart,what a wonderful man.

[@koitorob]

Fingers crossed that this gets more donations coming in!

[@909Apparel]

Amazing work, and great exposure! We we're happy to contribute to this fantastic project earlier this year :)

[@wilkowilkins363]

I'm very proud to work for them ♥️♥️♥️

[@oliverbourne9599]

I totally get that. I'd sweep the floors to be involved 🤩

[@gbentley8176]

Fantastic. My late father, a Mossie Recce pilot and instructor would be thrilled. He thought it the best aircraft he flew in the war.

[@philipwardle6820]

So would my late uncle - observer/navigator on photo reconnaissance in SE Asia, operating from a forward operations base in the Cocos Islands 🙂

[@clive373]

@@philipwardle6820my dad (nav with 605 sqdn) said he feared getting posted to the far east because of termites!!! I think there were issues with high humidity, and glue failing.

[@philipwardle6820]

@@clive373 They certainly had issues with that. Ray and Kos returned one of the first Mosquitos from the Far East to the factory at Hatfield for them to inspect, when they landed they were met by Geoffrey de Havilland Jr who took them to the Comet pub nearby for lunch so that he could ask them about their experience with the aircraft (now a Holiday Inn, I think). When they were taking a new aircraft back on the return journey they achieved a new speed record from London to Karachi (via Cairo).

[@clive373]

@@philipwardle6820 I remember driving past the Comet pub, with the beatiful model of the Comet, on a pole I seem to remember.

[@philipwardle6820]

@@clive373 They had so many adventures. In May 1944 Ray and Kos were asked to get the first coverage of Japanese shipping in Nan-cowry harbour on Great Nicobar island. This is what happened next in Ray’s own words: “This trip was thought to be at the extreme range of our aircraft, and it was thought we might not be able to get back to our advanced landing ground in the Cocos Islands. To cover this contingency the Royal Navy had placed caches of food and survival kits on some islands off the Arakan coast. If we thought that we would not be able to make it home, we were to make a forced landing on the sea adjacent to one of these islands and hopefully we would be picked-up by the Royal Navy. Fortunately we were able to make it back, although we flew for 10 minutes with our fuel gauges reading zero”

[@michealpallett5708]

Well done guy and your team i slaute you all you ar legends

[@EdwardThomas-mn5vd]

Go,man,go.!!!

[@DavidGoldstraw]

We celebrated George Dunn's100th Birthday last October (2022) at Duxford. A wonderful man with a fantastic life story

[@thebritishengineer8027]

Me old mate John, sadly no longer with us was a test pilot post war for de Havilland. He flew post war Vampires and Hornets but his favorite was always the Mossie. He once insinuated that following the development of the 6-pounder Molins gun.... Some crazed white coated lunatic post war shoehorned in a 32-pounder into a Mossie with quite accurate results by all accounts....

[@artgreen6915]

"following the development of"....I think you are referring to the Molins autoloader, enabling the use of this 57mm gun in new applications such as the Mosquito FB Mk XVIII 'Tsetse'. I didn't know anyone had upstaged this forward firing anti-submarine gunship! I expect strain on the mounting would have been very significant for the larger 94mm gun. Recoil on the 57mm was bad enough, I gather a few shots could wipe off a bit of airspeed.

[@thebritishengineer8027]

@@artgreen6915 You got off around 4 or 5 rounds before flying through the debris thrown up from your own gun fire. Yep apparently the gun caused damage to the airframe one of the reasons they moved onto rockets. I think the 32lb experiment was something else to use against Russia's super heavy tank groups. As for destruction, are you aware they fitted out 21 Mk18's for carrier use with bomb bays spinning 3 highball anti ship mines. I do have a pic and........when I have the money/time and scrounge up a 1/24th Airfix Mossie. It's conversation time.

[@fenflyer]

Do you sell his book ?

[@PeoplesMosquito]

We do indeed www.peoplesmosquito.org.uk/store/product/resolute-to-war-with-bomber-command/

[@dirkdiggler3552]

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