Cryhavoc101
Donor
I got my hands on the "Germany and the Second World War" volume on strategic bombing during WW2 and it raises an interesting What If about the DH Mosquito being fast and accurate enough to survive and hit precision industrial targets in Germany by day. Was this even possible in terms of accuracy? In terms of surviveability by day apparently the Mosquito, due to it's wooden structure and resulting low radar signature (also a function of the Germans using longer wavelength radar that couldn't pick them up well) as well as speed made it very surviveable even against the single engine fighter defenses of German at altitude. For longer range missions where the target was somewhat obvious they did suffer during daylight, but against say the Ruhr small groups of Mosquitos appear to have suffered low losses historically even by day. The Fighter-Bomber variant was even able to tangle with and win over even Fw190s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Mosquito#Fighter-bombers
As to the bomber model:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Mosquito#Bombers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Mosquito#Operational_history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Mosquito_operational_history#RAF_bomber_operations
Could it have made a precision daylight bomber from 1943 on and done more cheaply and effectively what the USAAF was trying to do and achieve the RAF Bomber Commands mission at a fraction of the cost all around?
I used to work with an oldboy who was a flight engineer on a Lancaster during the war
I suggested to him that it must have been a terrible experience - he shrugged and said they in 40 odd missions his aircraft never got shot at and that his Brother was in the Army and had had a much worse time of it at Monte Cassino!
Point taken!
He also said (and this has stayed with me) that in many of the post mission briefings they were congratulated on their efforts etc and told that - PR Mosquitos had photographed the target - returned back to the UK before the Bombers had all returned - the analysis would show that the target had been damaged but its okay because we sent a couple of Mossie Squadrons to finish it off!
His opinion was and remained - "Why didn't they send the bloody mossies in the first place"
I seem to recall (and this is dredged up from the old grey cells) that a Lancaster squadron would land 2 out of 14 bombs within the target area while a mossie would on average land 2 out of 4!
For my part I have always maintained that the unarmed bomber variant of the Mossie was a better bomber than the Lancaster and other 4 engined types and that if 2 Mossies could have been built for each Lancaster (or other 4 engine bomber) then a very comprehensive and less expensive day light bombing campaign could have been maintained.
And not to mention that a Mossies crew was a Pilot and Bomb Aimer/Co-pilot meaning that in the harsh realities of war a Mossie that was shot down only resulted in the loss of 2 crew while the Lancaster/Stirling etc would lose 7
This would have freed up 4 engine AC for maritime ASW patrols and other duties.
However as this is the internet there are several potential issues with this idea - and I am not sure of the Answers!
Was there enough wood of the correct type used in the laminate wings to build more Mossies than were built OTL?
While we know that there would have been enough Engines - would there have been a limit to the number of Radios, Bomb sights and other 'hi-tech' equipment?
And also while we know there was enough Pilots to allow the Mossie to replace the larger 4 Engine Aircraft on a 1 for 1 basis - was there enough to replace each heavy bomber with 2 Aircraft?
Lastly while the mossie was undeniably 'better' at delivering bombs as has been mentioned it carried just over a quarter of what a Lancaster could carry - so for missions such as Dropping incendiaries or very large bombs the 4 Engine bomber is superior (however large numbers of Mossies' might make such tactics unnecessary in the first place?)
But in answer to the OPs question had the RAF managed to replace each heavy bomber with 1 or even possibly 2 Mossies from 1943+ then this does not bode well for the Axis and I think that such a change would have resulted in a large change to the daylight bombing campaign with greater accuracy and lower losses by the allied Bomber Commands and greater damage to the German War industry.