Mosquito Men: The Elite Pathfinders Of 627 Squadron

David Price Apollo £25 ★★★★★

In February 1945, some 2,000 British and US aircraft descended on the city of Dresden. Bomber Command had ordered 3,900 tons of explosive to be dropped on the rail and communication hub, and the devastation was terrifying, the largely wooden city centre burning so intensely that it sucked the oxygen from the atmosphere, asphyxiating those nearby. It is estimated 25,000 were killed, and the scale of the destruction prompted Churchill to question whether ‘increasing terror’ should be the aim of such attacks.

Whatever our moral conclusions about the raid, its devastating success, narrated in David Price’s new book, was only possible thanks to the de Havilland Mosquito bomber. In early 1944, Bomber Command had adopted a radical and risky new strategy. Rather than smothering Germany in vast area-bombing attacks to break the Nazis’ morale, the RAF placed greater emphasis on its Pathfinder squadrons. They flew at low altitude before diving on specific targets and marking them with flares. The larger bombers would then use these markers to deliver their deadly payload.

The Mosquito, nicknamed the ‘Wooden Wonder’ thanks to the speed and agility of its timber chassis, was the key to this new strategy. Price’s expansive book covers the history of the plane and, more specifically, the exploits of 627 Squadron, a brave team of pilots drawn from across Britain and the Commonwealth who conducted these pathfinding operations.

His book is a tribute as much as a history, written with real passion and enthusiasm for these mechanical marvels.

But central to it are the real men who flew them, most memorably Ken Oatley, the baker’s son from Frome who is the last remaining member of 627 Squadron.

Price’s interviews with the 100-year-old Oatley and the stories of his fellow pilots add immeasurably to this thrilling and cinematic account of the bombing war.