4 Reasons Why The Luftwaffe Was Scared of the Mosquito

Why did the Luftwaffe fear about the Mosquito that they were constantly name-dropped or talked about?

1. It upset the kill chain that the Germans had in place

It had the speed that can evade interceptors – it can even evade flak. Because of its speed, it’s relatively different from other bombers. While it’s not really a bomber, it does things that bombers do but with almost a fighter’s performance.

For a Mosquito, you need to be in the right time and place to get an attack and spot that Mosquito in time. It’s a nuisance plane that upsets the normal proceedings. Germans often face the dilemma of whether to react to it or not.

2. From the enemy’s perspective, the Mosquito’s speed and ground vectoring radar controller perspective is quite problematic

Enemy planes cannot predict where the Mosquito will go, unlike the bombers. It can literally fly zigzag over Germany without nobody knowing where it’s going.

3. The Germans lacked the necessary countermeasures

While the Luftwaffe had fighters, only very few were equipped and were available to tackle the Mosquito threat. More often than not, it required special provisions, and unfortunately, most German aircraft don’t have these.

When the Germans are confronted with the Mosquito’s performance, they couldn’t believe that there was a record of the Mosquito’s assumed speed.

4. The Germans were concerned about the increasing number of Mosquitoes

This growing number of Mosquitoes compounds the previous problems that the Germans have. While they can ignore a couple of them, they certainly can’t ignore a large number of Mosquitoes.

During the war, they were produced at an alarming rate for the Luftwaffe. Also, the fact that the Mosquito is made of wood gave it a parallel production run.