Bellica Mosquito Attack (1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle)

Mosquito Attack (1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle)

The De Havilland Mosquito was manufactured mainly of wood, earning the nickname “Wooden Wonder”. It was one of the most effective and fastest operational aircraft in World War II. The aircraft was used in several roles; light bomber, fighter bomber, night fighter, photo reconnaissance and as depicted here, maritime strike aircraft. It was also used in various specialist raids such as Operation Jericho and the attack on Amiens Prison in 1944 and precision attacks on enemy targets, such like the Gestapo Headquarters and security and military intelligence sites. During a daylight raid over Berlin on 30th January 1943, Mosquito Mk IVs from 105 Squadron knocked out the main Berlin broadcast station during a speech from Hermann Goering (head of the Luftwaffe) and Joseph Goebbels (the Third Reich’s Propaganda Minister). Goebbels often cursed of the nuisance of the Mosquito raids on Berlin. Heavily armed with four 20mm cannons in the nose, and wing racks of either eight 60lb (27kg) rockets or up to 20,000lb (907kg) of bombs, the Mosquito was a formidable warbird. This scene depicts rocket armed Mosquito fighter bombers, from bases in the North of Scotland, attacking German merchant shipping transporting ore from Norway.

Keith Burns is an award winning aviation artist and commercial illustrator. He has illustrated comics for the past decade with Johnny Red being the most recent. In 2012 he joined the Guild of Aviation Artists. In 2015 he won the Messier Dowty award for best acrylic painting in show, in 2016 he was made a full member of the Guild, had his first solo exhibition at the RAF Club in London and won Aviation Painting of the Year. He is currently illustrating the Ladybird WW2 series written by James Holland.