That comment by one unit commander sums up the views of many in the US Army Air Forces on the de Havilland Mosquito, an aircraft that served the AAF in relatively small numbers, but was arguably superior to anything American makers offered
The day dawned unseasonably mild as the US Army Air Forces’ Lt John Green climbed aboard his Mosquito belonging to the 25th Bomb Group (Reconnaissance) at Watton, Norfolk on 27 February 1945. The navigator’s seat was vacant because he had been tasked with a ‘Redtail’ mission, in which senior officers flew as command observers to monitor the progress of bombing raids by the ‘heavies’. Green was tasked to fly first to a nearby base, probably Hethel, to pick up the individual who would be acting as command observer for a B-17 raid on Leipzig. When he arrived there, he was introduced to the distinctive figure of Col Jimmy Stewart, the movie star and pilot, and at that point chief of staff of the 2nd Combat Wing, who would be occupying the second seat in the Mosquito.
