From 1943, the de Havilland Mosquitos of 684 Squadron ranged far and wide over Southeast Asia, supplying the RAF with most of its strategic reconnaissance, as Tom Spencer describes
During World War Two, the dearth of information about Japanese activities in occupied Burma (now Myanmar) led to an urgent requirement by the RAF in India for a longrange reconnaissance capability that only the de Havilland Mosquito could safely fulfil.
Thus, in August 1943, 681 Sqn based at Dum Dum in Calcutta (now Kolkata) under Wg Cdr S G ‘Bill’ Wise, received a handful of Mosquito IIs to trial the type for the photo-reconnaissance role in the theatre. A month later, on September 29, the Mosquito Flight was split off to form the new 684 Sqn with a mix of two Mosquito IIs and three Mk VIs alongside a handful of ex-Dutch B-25Cs.
