page_title: De Havilland Mosquito operational history
section_title: USAAF
hierarchical_section_title: De Havilland Mosquito operational history / USAAF
caption_attribution_description: English: de Havilland Mosquito PR XVI of the 654th Bomb Squadron, 25th Bombardment Group, at RAF Watton England.
context_page_description: The de Havilland Mosquito was a British light bomber that served in many roles during and after the Second World War. Mosquito-equipped squadrons performed medium bomber, reconnaissance, tactical strike, anti-submarine warfare and shipping attack and night fighter duties, both defensive and offensive. Mosquitos were widely used by the RAF Pathfinder Force, which marked targets for night-time strategic bombing. Despite an initially high loss rate due to low-level daylight attack operations, the Mosquito ended the war with the lowest losses of any of the aircraft types in RAF Bomber Command service.
context_section_description: Media related to De Havilland Mosquito in USAAF service at Wikimedia Commons
  The USAAF 25th Bombardment Group (Reconnaissance) was constituted in the days after D-Day and activated at RAF Watton in August 1944 to carry out photographic and mapping missions over mainland Europe, as the Allied armies pushed east. In addition to photo-reconnaissance missions both for weather forecasting and for target identifications, they employed their PR Mk XVI Mosquitos as Chaff (countermeasure) dispensers and as scouts for the heavy bomber force. They also undertook "[Joan-Eleanor Project]" OSS missions using an air-to-ground radio system known as Joan-Eleanor system. This required modifications to the rear fuselage to accommodate an intelligence service linguist to talk to agents on the ground through a VHF radio. 
  Additionally, some aircraft were used as H2X Mickey platforms.
  The 25th BG flew 3,246 sorties (including B-17, B-24, B-25, B-26, A-26 and Mosquito flights) and lost 29 PR Mk XVIs on operations (including takeoff accidents).
  During the latter part of the war, the 416th NFS in Italy used Mosquito NF.30s  claiming one kill.
caption: A Mosquito PR Mk XVI "Z" MM345 of the 653rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, 25th Bombardment Group at RAF Watton, England. This Hatfield-built aircraft was delivered in May 1944.
exif: {"Image Make": "HP", "Image Model": "HP ojp7700", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Paint Shop Pro Photo 12.01", "Image DateTime": "2012:01:28 08:48:01", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 128, 255, 128, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "274", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1112", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4690", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:01:28 08:24:27", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2144", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1126", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "\u0002\u0002\u0002\u0002", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[3, 0, 0, 0]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "970", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF DeviceSettingDescription": "[1, 0, 19, 0, 32, 32, 32, 48, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 55, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 56, ... ]"}