All language subtitles for Air.Warriors.S10E04.Mosquito.1080p.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE[eztv.re]_track3_eng

[music]

[Narrator] In an age
of aluminum and steel,

it's a plane made out of wood.

The RAF said, "Yeah,
that's a silly idea.

We don't need it."

[Narrator] Laughed at as
the "Balsa Wood Bomber",

its performance soon
silences the critics.

Right from the start, the
Mosquito was associated with

daring special
operations missions.

The attack on the German
State Broadcasting Company

is one of the greatest
propaganda coups

for the Mosquito and
for the Royal Air Force.

[Narrator] Mosquito crews
fly the riskiest missions

over the heart of Berlin.

Put the parachutes on,
opened the trap door

and looked down to
the darkness and said,

"Well, on second thought,
let's not do this!"

We were all flying at
over 300 miles an hour.

[Narrator]
World War II veterans

remember missions
like they were yesterday.

[George] The speed.

The height.
The maneuverability.

It just felt beautiful to fly.

It was speed that
was the requirement

because our job was
to bomb and get out.

[theme music]

[Narrator] December 15, 1944,
England.

Five years into World War II,

flight crews of
the RAF's 608 squadron

are anxious to know
where they're bombing tonight.

Among them is
23-year-old pilot Colin Bell.

The target would be revealed
when a curtain was pulled.

And if it was Berlin, a groan
used to go up in the room

because if you're
going to be shot down,

it was more likely to occur
over Berlin than anywhere else.

[Narrator]
Unfortunately for Bell,

tonight's target is Berlin.

The most heavily defended
of all German cities,

Berlin boasts three
huge concrete flak towers,

each bristling with
anti-aircraft guns.

The German air defenses
were very sophisticated.

German searchlights
and German antiaircraft

take a devastating toll
on RAF Bomber Command.

You were always picked up
by ground radar.

You would see
searchlights everywhere .

And as you got closer to Berlin,

you would be engaged
by anti-aircraft fire.

If you weren't frightened,

there was something wrong
with you.

[Narrator] Medium and
heavy British bombers,

like Wellingtons and Lancasters,

take ten hours to fly
to Berlin and back.

Losses mount.

Nearly half their aircrews die.

The solution?
A plane like no other.

Lighter, wooden framed, and
capable of 400 miles per hour,

the De Havilland Mosquito
can do the bomb run

in far less time,

and it outruns the
German night fighters.

[Colin] The German
propeller-driven aircraft

couldn't keep up with us.

If we saw them coming,
we could avoid them.

And by the time
they had made a pass,

it was too late
for them to turn around

and catch us up again.

[Narrator]
The lightweight Mosquito

has two winning design features.

It's almost all wood.

Just a few components,

like engines and wheels,
are made of metal.

Even its crew is lightweight.

Just a pilot with his
navigator sitting alongside,

but slightly behind him.

Its second design masterpiece?

Not one, but two Rolls Royce
Merlin engines--

a power to weight ratio
guaranteeing superb performance.

As those engines power
Colin Bell's Mosquito

on tonight's mission to Berlin,

there's another reason
he ought to be scared.

His Mosquito bomber doesn't have
a single gun to defend itself.

But who needs weapons
when you outpace

almost everything
else in the air?

[Colin] If we'd had guns,

it would have slowed up
the aircraft.

It was speed that
was the requirement,

because our job was
to bomb and get out.

[Will] The Mosquito can
fly at very high altitudes,

22, 24, 26,000 feet,

which means it can stay
out of range of all

but the biggest of the
German anti-aircraft guns.

[Narrator] Nearing
Berlin, Bell must hope

the flak can't reach up to him,

as he searches for his
target in the darkness below

and releases his bombload.

[whistling]

[blasts]

[Narrator] But tonight,
the Germans scramble a plane

they hope will
swat the Mosquitos.

It's a fast and fearsome
new fighter.

And Colin Bell's now
outgunned, out-paced,

and in deadly danger.

[Will] There was only really one
aircraft that the Germans had

that was able to
outrun the Mosquito,

and that was a jet aircraft
called the Me 262.

[Victoria] The Me
262's capabilities

really are frightening.

The Mosquitos have been used
to actually having free reign

over the Third Reich.

But now the Me 262
is closing in on it.

[Narrator]] The Messerschmitt
is the world's first

jet-propelled fighter

with a top speed of
540 miles per hour.

That's over 100 miles per hour
faster than the Mosquito.

Bell's unarmed wooden prop plane

is suddenly looking
very vulnerable.

[Colin] If he got a visual
on you, you were dead ,

because the firepower of
the Me 262 was so great,

it would turn you into
confetti at the first blast.

[Narrator] The Me 262
doesn't only have

overwhelming firepower,

it's also got new radar
mounted on the nose cone--

perfect for targeting Mosquitos.

To fight that, Bell has just
a little white warning light.

We had a device on the back.

If you had a white light
come up,

it meant that there
was a German fighter

using his air-to-air
radar to pick you up.

And that was very bad news.

[Narrator] Bell's
white light is on.

In a split second,

he's transformed from
hunter to hunted.

[Victoria] To have a jet
fighter coming towards you

when you've been raised on
piston engines

and on radial engines must have
been absolutely terrifying.

[Mike] The Me 262 is an
incredibly powerful weapon,

especially at high altitude,
where the jet engines thrive

rather than drink
all the--all the fuel.

[Narrator] Bell and his
Mosquito have seconds to act.

[Colin] I put the
aircraft over on one side

and drop down 10,000 feet.

That would take me right away
from the night fighter's radar.

[Narrator] The white light
goes out.

[Colin] But after a while,
on came the white light again.

And I then did other actions,
like going up 10,000 feet,

turning off at 90 degrees.

And eventually I went
down very low over Berlin.

[Narrator] It's Bell's
last throw of the dice,

and he knows it's a huge gamble.

Flying low over the most heavily
defended city in Germany

takes Bell out of the frying pan

and into the fire.

In desperation,
Bell hurtles downwards,

right into the sights of every
anti-aircraft gun in Berlin.

It seems crazy, but
Bell knows what he's doing.

[Colin] I knew that
when you went down low,

jet fighters use up an
enormous amount of fuel.

And I knew this guy
had only got 45 minutes

from the time that he took off
to the time he got back to base.

And after I'd done a bit of
whizzing around down low,

the white light went
out, never to return.

[Narrator]
Bell's quick thinking

and the Mosquito's speed and
maneuverability saves his life.

He heads home.

[Victoria] Any pilot,
experienced or otherwise,

would have easily panicked
in that situation.

And the fact that he has
the wherewithal to remember

how much fuel is consumed by
jet fighters at lower altitudes

is incredibly important
in that moment.

[Narrator] In the skilled hands
of pilots like Colin Bell,

the Mosquito proves
its worth in combat.

But it's an aircraft
that almost failed

to ever get off the ground,

a design first dismissed by
those preparing the RAF for war.

September 1936.

Britain faces the threat
of war with Germany,

but lacks bombers which could
reach the enemy's cities.

Britain needs a new aircraft,

capable of carrying a
3,000-pound bomb load

at 270 miles per hour

for 3,000 miles

at 15,000 feet.

Most manufacturers put
forward heavy bomber designs

bristling with guns.

But air warriors
aren't always pilots.

They're sometimes the designers.

One suggests a radical solution.

Geoffrey de Havilland already
has a stable of aircraft

to draw ideas from.

Including the Comet Racer

The Mosquito was so different
from other fighter bombers

because its heritage came
from the Comet Racer.

This was De Havilland's
successful plane

that had broken the speed record

flying from England
to Australia in 1934.

They're really good
at racing airplanes,

especially twin-engine racing
airplanes like the DH 88.

When they approach the
Air Ministry and said,

"Hey, we've got a great idea
for a brand new airplane.

It's gonna be made
entirely of wood",

the RAF said, "Yeah,
that's a silly idea.

We don't need it."

The Air Ministry laughed at him.

What, a wooden aircraft?
You must be joking!

[Narrator] But De Havilland
is deadly serious.

He's not giving up his dream.

And he's about to gamble his
own fortune and his reputation

on the "Wooden Wonder" plane.

[Narrator]
The British Air Ministry

is desperate for a new bomber,

and British designer
Geoffrey De Havilland

thinks way out of the box.

[Rebecca] De Havilland
was really thinking

two steps ahead
of everyone else.

He knew that the
bigger, heavier bombers

had to be armed to the
teeth to defend themselves.

Big and slow was a losing idea .

Speed was the answer.

[Jeff] The hidden fight
during World War II

was the fight for
strategic materials.

Any new aircraft took
away steel and aluminum

from other aircraft.

[Rebecca] De Havilland knew that
strategic metals like aluminum

were in short supply .

So he resolved to use
something else--wood.

[Narrator] But by early
September 3, 1939,

Great Britain is no
longer preparing for war.

It is at war.

No time now for fancy ideas.

Defense chiefs want
proven designs,

not wooden experiments.

They give De Havilland
an order--

stop work on the
Mosquito immediately.

But he ignores the doubters.

Using his own money,
De Havilland

presses on with his plans

at a tiny factory
outside London,

developing new techniques
of wooden construction.

The Mosquito was nicknamed
the "Balsa Bomber",

but it was nothing like
the biplanes of World War I.

The wood construction technique
is actually much closer to

our modern techniques
of composite construction.

And by pressing together layers

of specially selected
spruce and glue,

De Havilland ended up with
a surprisingly strong,

yet light and fast aircraft.

[Narrator] De Havilland works
in secret, and with speed.

In less than a year,
his design work's complete.

His Mosquito is ready
to take to the air.

Although getting it airborne
is a bit of a problem.

[Rebecca] His aircraft factory

didn't even have a
runway adjacent to it.

They had to take the prototype
Mosquito out to a field nearby

for its first flight.

[Jeff] De Havilland
stuck to his guns,

and after the
first prototype flew,

there was no question

this is an airplane that needed
to be in the hands of the RAF.

It was only Geoffrey de
Havilland's persistence

that the Mosquito was ever made.

[Rebecca] Seeing
the Mosquito fly,

and fly much faster
than everything else,

they realized their mistake,

and they quickly got the
Mosquito into mass production.

[Narrator] Mosquito production
reveals a new side

to De Havilland's genius idea.

Britain's huge
aircraft factories

are targeted by the Luftwaffe.

But skilled carpenters
build Mosquitos

in small furniture factories

spread out across
Southern England.

There's no single Mosquito
factory for the Germans to bomb.

[Victoria] Geoffrey de Havilland
really pushes this idea

of a wooden aircraft
because of the fact that

it's going to be
tapping into industries

that actually can't really be
used in the general war effort.

It was a concept that nobody,

apart from Geoffrey
de Havilland,

had even thought of.

[Narrator] The Mosquito's birth

seems almost too
good to be true.

But De Havilland's
design theories

have yet to be tested in combat.

It looks good on paper
and on the workshop floor.

But the Mosquito
and De Havilland

still have a lot to prove.

The Mosquito gets the
chance to show its worth

on August 17, 1943,

as eight of the bombers
head for Germany.

Lead navigator on the flight
is 26-year-old Ulric Cross.

Ulric Cross is one of
the standout figures

from the Second World War,
in my opinion.

Of all the people from the war
I think I would like to meet,

it would be Ulric Cross,
because he is truly inspiring.

[Will] Ulric Cross is
born in 1917, in Trinidad.

He and his friends are aware
of what Hitler's up to.

They're aware of
what's going on in Europe.

He says later, "We
had Hitler down cold.

We'd read Mein Kampf ".

[Narrator] Cross even
helps attract other recruits

from across the British Empire.

And now I'm going to ask
flying officer Ulric Cross

to speak for West Indians
in the services.

Ulric is a navigator in
one our own bomber squadrons.

Well, it's a job to
know where to start.

There are so many of us doing
so many different things,

in the army, the navy,
the air force,

in air sea rescue,
and the marines.

Even before World War II
had started,

there was this understanding
that they were global citizens.

They just believed that
Hitler had to be stopped.

And his part was getting here
and, and playing his role.

For me, it's a question
of did the RAF attract

these remarkable men,

or did they become remarkable
once they got here?

I think it's a bit of both.

They were obviously choosing
a certain type of man,

and he was one of those men.

[Narrator] Today's
mission for Ulric Cross

and his fellow aircrew

is to fool the Germans with
an elaborate deception plan.

It's a diversionary raid.

The British call it a spoof.

[Colin] We had made
attacks on spoof targets.

We would mark a target,

which was not the real target,

and this led the
German night fighters

to come hurtling
after us in the belief

they had located
where the activity was

for that particular night.

[Narrator] Ulric Cross's mission
is taking just eight Mosquitos

and somehow making them
look like 1,000 bombers

heading for Berlin.

Meanwhile, the "real"
RAF bomber force

can bomb another target

with less risk of
meeting enemy fighters.

We used to hurl out
these metallic strips,

which were known as window,

and they created the impression
of a large attacking force.

[George] It was
designed to confuse.

I mean, all these
aluminium strips

floating around in the air

completely disorganized

the German radar defenses.

It was an excellent decoy.

[Narrator] Cross
and his colleagues

do drop a few bombs on Berlin

and succeed in making
themselves a target

for the German fighters.

They're poking a hornet's nest

and putting themselves
in mortal danger

from enemy fighters and flak.

[blasts]

He and his pilot, Roy Crampton,
are flying over Berlin,

and they drop their bombs.

And then all of a sudden,
there's a huge crash,

a bright light, and they've
been hit by anti-aircraft fire.

And they have to
fight to control.

They have to fight so hard to
keep the aircraft in the air.

[Narrator] Ulric Cross
describes to his daughter

how the crew almost
bail out that night.

And I think Roy said, put, you
know, "Put the parachutes on."

And Ulric said,
"Yes, of course",

and did so, and
opened the trap door,

and looked down to the darkness

where possibly there were
searchlights and lots of noise,

and I don't know
who else after them,

and said, "Well, on second
thought, let's not do this!"

[Narrator] Meanwhile, as
the enemy is distracted

by the fleeing Mosquitos,

a larger force of Allied bombers
is already on it's way.

The real bombing target tonight
is a secret laboratory

developing Germany's
V2 rockets.

A terrifying threat to London.

Has Cross's spoof Mosquito
mission drawn off enough heat

to let that vital raid succeed?

[Narrator] The pilot of
Ulric Cross's damaged Mosquito

fights for control

as they distract
German fighters

in a spoof raid over Berlin.

The real bomber formation

targets Germany's top-secret
rocket base at Peenemunde.

The Nazis deadly new weapons

could change the course
of the war.

Now, poorly defended,
thanks to the Mosquitos,

the rocket sites
must be destroyed,

whatever the cost.

Operation Hydra, the
attack on Peenemunde,

is a very consequential raid
within the Second World War.

At the outset, Bomber Command
make it clear to their crews

that they were going
again and again

to this research establishment
until they finally destroy it.

It's considered to
be that important

to the German war effort.

[Narrator] As Ulric Cross's
eight Mosquito crews risk death

distracting night fighters
over Berlin,

600 heavy bombers head
for Peenemunde,

100 miles away.

And that first wave is able
to attack very effectively,

and without suffering high
losses to night fighters.

[Narrator] But the deception
over Berlin can't last for long.

Realizing they've been tricked,
Germans fighters regroup

and attack the second wave of
bombers heading for Peenemunde.

[music]

Operation Hydra doesn't
come cheap for the RAF.

288 airmen are killed

and 40 bombers end up shot down.

However, saying that,
if it wasn't for the Mosquitos

and the feint and the spoof raid
that they carry out,

the Luftwaffe reckons
that it would have shot down

another 200 British aircraft.

And we have to remember,
there were only eight Mosquitos

on that spoof raid over Berlin.

[Narrator] But one of them
is in trouble.

Limping home,
Ulric Cross and his pilot.

[Harry] They lose
one of their engines,

and they have to fly back
to base on just one engine.

And so they're
progressively losing height

as they're trying to
reach back into Britain.

But they make it.
They get to an airfield.

They're about to land, and
the second engine cuts out,

and the Mosquito crashes.

[Narrator] They overshoot the
runway, end up in a quarry,

yet miraculously survive.

All that was left standing

were the two metal seats
of the Mosquito.

Everything else was
just in splinters.

And so that's when he realized

how close to death
they had come.

[Narrator] Despite crashing
after his Berlin spoof raid

Cross demands to keep flying,

even after completing his
normal 35-mission tour of duty.

[Nicola] They were
supposed to go on leave

after the number of
sorties that they've done.

And they both said, "No,
we're not going on leave.

We absolutely don't want to".

Their commanding
officer got fed up and said,

"You know what?

If you two want to
kill themselves, go ahead".

And the next flight,

his friend didn't come back,
and he did.

[Narrator] It is
only years later,

at a veterans'
event in Trinidad,

that Ulric Cross's daughter

learns how brave
her father truly is.

[Nicola] And this guy
came up and he said to me,

"Is that the Ulric Cross?"

And I was like,
"Well, it depends

which one you're talking about.
I mean, which one?"

So he said, "Ulric Cross,
who flew 80 sorties".

And I said, "Yes".

And the look on the
face explained to me

what 80 sorties meant.

Like, I couldn't even
fathom, but it was...

Yeah, it was an important thing.

[Narrator] Ulric Cross gets
the Distinguished Flying Cross

for his gallantry

and goes on to be
a High Court Judge

before dying at the age of 96.

The Mosquito's exceeding
all expectations.

Now, it's evolving
for new roles.

In the course of World War II,
the Mosquito changes

from reconnaissance
and bomber variants

carrying four 500-pound bombs

into a fighter/bomber,

with four 303 machine guns

and four 20-millimeter cannons,

ideal for low-level
precision missions.

Early on, the Mosquito
proved its versatility,

and so air commanders
started to call on it

to take on missions that no
other airplane can carry out.

[Paul] In the Mosquito, you have

an amazingly versatile
weapons system.

You have a stable aircraft

that can carry just enough
explosives,

go in onto the target,
destroy the target,

and get out again.

[Narrator] Though the Luftwaffe
is well aware of the Mosquito,

it's still a secret
to the general public.

But in September 1942,

Mosquitos make a daring
hit-and-run raid,

bombing Nazi collaborators
in occupied Norway.

[music]

[Narrator] The next day,
the British media

reports the mission's success.

[Rebecca] This
was the first time

the existence of the Mosquito
was revealed to the public.

So right from the
start, the Mosquito

was associated with daring
special operations missions.

[Narrator] By the
beginning of 1943,

the Mosquitos are regularly
bombing Germany,

infuriating the
Nazi High Command.

Although they never
admit it in public

and strive to keep up
their nation's morale.

The Germans are planning to
celebrate the anniversary

of the Nazi seizure of power.

[Narrator] They plan
a radio broadcast

of Nazi anniversary speeches
to the German people.

The RAF has its own
ideas about that.

They're going to put
the Germans off the air,

and they're going to embarrass
Hitler at the very worst time.

[Narrator] 11:00 AM,
January 30, 1943.

German radio listeners hear
Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering,

chief of the Luftwaffe,

take to the stage.

Goering is famous for promising
that no enemy bomber

will ever fly over
the Nazi Reich.

A strange sound is
heard over the radio

in almost every home in Germany.

[Goering speaks in German]
[plane engines]

[Narrator] The distinctive
and soon to be famous sound

of the Mosquito's
Merlin engines,

and bombs exploding.

The Germans pull the plug
on the broadcast

as the bombs hit Berlin's
radio station headquarters.

The attack on the German
State Broadcasting Company

is one of the greatest
propaganda coups

for the Mosquito and
for the Royal Air Force.

It's a crushing blow
to the status of Goering

within the popular perception
of the German people.

[Narrator] Rubbing salt
into the Nazis' wounds,

the Mosquito crews parade in
front of British news cameras

and make fun of their exploits.

We approached
Berlin above cloud.

We unloaded our contributions
to the festivities.

[Rebecca] When the
Mosquitos bomb Berlin,

it was a moment of
abject humiliation

for the Nazi leadership

and for the Luftwaffe.

[Narrator] The Mosquito
is proving its worth.

But greater
challenges lie ahead.

With D-Day now looming,

the Mosquito takes
on low-level missions

which test the
accuracy of its bombing

and the skills of its
pilots as never before.

[Narrator] February 1944.

Plans for the D-Day invasion
of France are under threat.

The Allies are relying
on the French Resistance

sabotaging vital German targets.

But key resistance
leaders are under arrest,

locked in the cells
of Amiens Prison

just north of Paris.

[Robert] When the
request came from

the Secret Intelligence Service

to break down the
walls of Amiens Prison,

where a number of members
of the French Resistance,

were, uh, being held
in February 1944,

this is an ideal target.

The aptly named
Operation Jericho

must break down prison walls,

but try not to
kill the prisoners.

The only solution is
dropping bombs precisely

on one single room.

It's a level of accuracy
never attempted before.

To reduce the risk to prisoners,

the Mosquito bombers and
their Typhoon fighter escort

time their attack to catch the
German guards having lunch

in a separate dining hall.

[Man on radio] Our ETA
will under five minutes.

There it is, dead ahead.

[Narrator] The first waves
bomb the outer prison walls

giving the next waves
a clearer shot.

[blasts]

[Narrator] The following
waves breach the north wall,

demolish the
guards' dining hall,

and then hit the
main prison building

to spring the prisoners.

So you've produced
a hole in the wall.

You've hit the cellblock
to open up the cells.

And you've killed the guards.

And whilst a number of prisoners
are killed during the raid,

in terms of the skill with
which this raid is conducted,

it's just outstanding.

[Robert] They
demonstrated, actually,

with no practice
runs on the target

that the Mosquito was the
ideal precision fighter/bomber

for strategic targets.

The wall was broken,

and members of the
French Resistance

did manage to escape.

[Narrator] It works so well,

that the Allies plot other raids
to help the resistance.

But each has its own dangers.

March 21, 1945.

20 Mosquitos fly from England

on a top secret and
high-stakes mission.

In the first of three
waves of Mosquitos

is 28-year-old wing
commander Peter Kleboe.

All these years later,

nobody knows him better
than his niece.

He was very young,
very brave, very talented.

Exceptional flyer.
He used to train pilots to fly.

He was a very special pilot.
He'd done everything.

[Narrator] Kleboe
and his squadron

have a double mission,

to free Danish
Resistance fighters

and strike at the heart of
the Gestapo in Copenhagen.

Its codename?
Operation Carthage.

The Gestapo has
basically uprooted

pretty much the entire
resistance movement

around Copenhagen.

They had prisoners there,

but also significant
information archives

about the resistance
networks in Denmark.

[Narrator] Danish Resistance
will collapse

unless Gestapo intelligence
records are destroyed.

But the imprisoned
resistance fighters

and the Gestapo Headquarters

are in the same building,
the Shell House.

In the grim calculus of war,

surviving resistance leaders
demand the mission goes ahead,

even though it may kill
their own imprisoned comrades.

These prisoners are being
kept as a human shield

for the Gestapo Headquarters.

They know that any attack

is likely to produce
heavy casualties.

[Pamela] The prisoners
were on the top floor,

so they had to sort
of try and save those.

Bomb the bottom, but leave
the top so they could escape.

[Narrator] It seems
an impossible task,

but Kleboe has a plan.

The key is surprise,

staying under the radar
by flying fast and low

for the whole 500 miles
from Britain to Copenhagen.

The Mosquito should be the
perfect match for this mission,

fast and lightweight, and
able to perform superbly

at low level, skimming
the North Sea waves.

But it's got one fault that
nobody recognizes before today--

the pilot's windshield
wipers are unable to cope

with the salty spray deposits
building up over the sea.

So having flown at very
low altitude of the North Sea,

a lot of pilots who are
on the raid report back

salt builds up in
their windscreen.

And that may have
obscured visibility.

[Narrator] But this
mission is time critical.

Now over Copenhagen,

Kleboe weaves between
apartment blocks,

buildings the British
know as flats.

Doing 300 and odd mile an hour
through flats, tall buildings,

he had to go sideways

and very fast.

[Narrator] His windshield is
caked with a salty crust.

And Kleboe's eyes aren't perfect
after an earlier accident.

He could've stood down,

but I think a lot of the pilots

who were involved
in those squadrons,

particularly at this
point of the war,

still feel able to contribute,

and they're not
prepared to step aside

and put somebody else at risk

when they think they're the
best person to do that job.

[Narrator] High-speed, low-level
flying is fraught with danger,

and the last thing
Kleboe's brother says

before the mission is,
"Remember to keep your tail up."

With vision obscured,
he screams over Copenhagen.

[Narrator] A squadron
of 20 Mosquitos,

including wing
commander Peter Kleboe,

heads for Gestapo
Headquarters in Copenhagen.

The target's surrounded
by tall buildings.

Plane suddenly goes sideways
to go past high flats.

[Narrator] But at high speed,

with a salt-encrusted
windshield,

Kleboe doesn't see
a 40-foot-high light post

in a railyard,

and his tail strikes it.

[music]

And then his wing
touched a block of flats.

And then he wasn't able
to steer the plane anymore.

So he's trying to make it
to Fredericksburg Park,

but he didn't make it.

[blast]

[Narrator] The plane crashes in
flames into a garage complex

just beyond a school.

Pilot Kleboe dies
in the inferno.

[Pamela] So sad,
and he was so young.

He was a very brave man.

[Narrator] T ragedy now piles
on top of tragedy.

Next to the crash site is the
Jeanne D'Arc Catholic School

with 500 terrified children,
nuns, and teachers

now running to bomb
shelters in their cellar.

Smoke from the blazing
wreckage of Kleboe's plane

confuses some pilots in the
following waves of Mosquitos.

Some of the crews of
other aircraft coming in

mistakenly took the
school for the target

and dropped the bombs on there.

[blast]

[Narrator] It's the single
largest loss of civilian life

during the Nazi
occupation of Denmark.

Among those killed
are 86 schoolchildren,

14 nuns and teachers.

[Ole] The sorrow and sadness and
shock over the loss of the--

of the many young
children was devastating.

[Narrator] For decades, the
full details of the disaster

are lost to the fog of war.

Kleboe's family
mistakenly believes

he has bombed the children.

But many years later,
the true facts emerge.

My grandma always thought
he bombed the school,

which he didn't.

So she thought he'd killed all
those children all her life.

She didn't know any different.

She died before
we knew all the details.

[Ole] I don't think there's any
significant blame attributed

to the air force pilots.

They took very high
risks themselves.

[Narrator] In the moral
distortion of total war,

the mission is
considered a success.

Many resistance fighters escape

to continue fighting the German
occupiers of their country.

Even so, it's a sad moment
in the Mosquito's history,

although, over the
past 18 months,

the plane has been
steadily evolving.

A new weapon for a vital task
against an enemy

under the seas.

March 25, 1944.

A Mosquito heads across
the English Channel

towards Saint-Nazaire on
the French Atlantic coast.

Its prey, German U-boats.

Diving down on the
water to attack

is a dangerous game
for its crew...

including navigator
23-year-old Des Curtis.

If you're at 25,000
feet and you're hit,

you have time to think
how you're gonna get out.

If you're at 200 feet
above the sea and you're hit,

the sea is very unforgiving.

[Narrator] The Mosquito has been

an unmatched
low-level precision bomber.

And now it gets a new,
immensely powerful gun.

The "Wooden Wonder," dismissed
as the "Balsa Bomber",

is now a flying field gun.

[Narrator] Named after a
deadly fly found in Africa,

the Tsetse Mosquito
packs a powerful bite.

It's got a 6-pounder
anti-tank gun

developed for use
on the battlefield.

For the aircraft,
it gets a loading system

which feeds 21 rounds
rapidly into the barrel.

The whole mechanism squeezes
into the Mosquito's bomb bay.

There's only one
thing giving away

the Tsetse's bite--

a gun barrel sticking
out of its nose.

This gun was about 12 feet long.

The first time we fired it,
the noise level was the thing

that got us, first of all,
uh, feeling

that maybe we'd damaged
the aircraft.

[Rebecca] When the Mosquito
crew fires that anti-tank gun,

the recoil makes it feel like

the plane has
stopped in the sky.

[Narrator] As Des Curtis
approaches the French coast

in his Tsetse Mosquito,

and spots a German
U-boat on the surface.

The German U-boat commander
is Raimund Tiesler.

He's an experience officer,

but he's now in a
dangerous situation.

Because they were
moving in shallow water,

the U-boat had to be on surface

while it made that
transit journey.

[Narrator] But on the surface,
the U-boat's radio chatter

is intercepted and decoded.

The RAF know that U-976 will
be off Saint-Nazaire that day,

rendezvousing with its escort,

which is precisely where
Des Curtis finds it.

Doug called up, "Target ahead,
breakaway, breakaway, go."

[Narrator] While their
fighter escort

attacks the U-boat's
support ships,

Curtis and his pilot climb
before diving in for the kill.

Okay, setup completed.

There it is, dead ahead.

[Des] In that short distance
between 1,500, 2,200 feet,

Doug managed to
fire five rounds.

[Narrator] The
bulk of the U-boat

is hidden below the waves.

To sink it, they need
a deflection shot.

[Des] We did not aim
for the U-boat itself.

We aimed for the water.

When the shell hit the water,
its passage transferred

to a parallel movement
under the sea.

So it would penetrate
through the ballast tanks

into the hull proper.

Brown water appeared
on the surface,

and we realized that it
was spilling diesel fuel.

We didn't stay long enough
around, uh,

to see the result.

[Narrator] The result
is a sunken U-boat,

although there are survivors.

Curtis never imagines
he would one day meet

one of those survivors,

U-boat commander,
Raimund Tiesler.

Years later, when I
had the opportunity

to make the acquaintance
of the commandant of U-976,

that began a relationship
which was extraordinarily good.

[Narrator] In May 1995,

the two men from different sides
of a bitter war join together

to lay a wreath over
the wreck of U-976.

Raimund Tieseler said, "We
were bombed by your aircraft."

And I said, "No, you can ask
the diver who was down there."

The diver said there
were five holes

just below the turret,
enough for it to break its back.

And they had only been made
by a shell, not a bomb.

[Narrator] But the two men
reunited in peace

find that the sinking of U-976

is not their only shared
experience of war.

[Des] One occasion
when we were sitting,

everybody was chatting away,

and I said to him,

"Can you remember the
most horrible thing

that happened to you when
you were a U-boat captain?"

And he said, "When we're
in the Gulf of Mexico,

we set a tanker on fire.

And I can remember
seeing sailors

jumping into
the blazing water

from the tanker.
What was yours?"

And I said, "We were
off the Spanish coast.

We set fire to a tanker.

And I can remember seeing
those sailors jumping."

We had exactly the
same worst memory.

He said to me that same evening,

"Why did I have to wait so long
to find a younger brother?"

It typified the futility of war.

[Narrator] Former
Mosquito pilots believe

that their versatile
and unmatched aircraft

is one factor shortening
that futility of war.

[Colin] I mean,
I loved the Mosquito.

I still love the Mosquito.

We attacked and destroyed
all their cities

producing armaments.

Yeah, I think we did a good job.