Mosquito details

[chevvron]

Originally Posted by Liffy 1M

The upper guns are the machine guns, the cannon being mounted in the belly.

I thought they were the other way round.

[megan]

I thought they were the other way round

No, Liffy has it correct, the breeches for the cannon are in the bomb bay.

[DHfan]

The cannon breeches only occupied the front half of the bomb bay, which meant that as well the guns, the FB.VI could still carry two 500lb bombs internally.

Impressive when you consider that the Mossie bomber's original design bomb load was 1000lbs.

[sandringham1]

Originally Posted by bobward

I think the larger 'hole' is for the gun camera. The smaller hole, between the guns, is where the arrowhead antenna for the early versions of AI radar was fitted om night fighter variants.
Maybe this was a common fitting/access point on all the fighter Mosquitoes?

The first generation Mosquito night fighters had AI Mk IV/V Longwave Radar, the forked aerial for that was fitted between the barrels of the four machine guns and more aerials on the wings. Cannons were in the belly.
The second generation NF Mosquito's had AI XII/XIII Centimetric Radar and the machine guns were deleted and the nose now housed the radar dish scanner. Only the four cannons installed.
The third version had AI X which was the american produced AI Radar and this used a larger scanner and the nose shape changed to a more bulbous style, again just the four cannons.

[rolling20]

Originally Posted by DHfan

The cannon breeches only occupied the front half of the bomb bay, which meant that as well the guns, the FB.VI could still carry two 500lb bombs internally.

Impressive when you consider that the Mossie bomber's original design bomb load was 1000lbs.

Even more impressive when they were modified to carry a 4,000lb 'cookie'.

[reynoldsno1]

Mosquito NF Mk.XIII at ALG5, Normandy 8 Aug 1944. The crew had shot down a Ju.88 the night before, the aircraft exploding some 150yds in front of them, hence the wee bit of fire damage (plus holes in both wings). My uncle on the left - sadly killed some 3 days later.

[GeeRam]

Originally Posted by bobward

I think the larger 'hole' is for the gun camera.

Yes, large offset hole is for the gun camera.

And yes, its a Mosquito FB.VI.