Rolls Royce Merlin Mk 25 (cutaway)
This is remains of the Starboard engine of a Mosquito night fighter HJ719 built in 1943 in Hatfield.
Mosquito HJ719 was assigned to 418 (City of Edmonton) Squadron, RCAF, based at RAF Ford in Sussex, and given the squadron letters TH-U. It was initially flown by an American. James Forrest “Lou” Luma, who arrived in England in the summer of 1943. Lou was assigned to No.418 squadron to fly night intruder missions. His Navigator was F/O Colin Finlayson. Lou Luma was the only American Mosquito pilot who was classified as an “Ace”.
This Mosquito was unusual in that it sported nose artwork; a pipe smoking, gun toting Hillbilly girl called “Moonbeam McSwine”, who was a character from the “Li’l Abner” comic strip which was popular at the time.
Later on the plane was flown by pilot W/O J.J.P (“Pat”) McGale, & navigator F/O Edward J. Story.
On 24 June 1944, Pat McGale and Edward Story flew over the English Channel in “Moonbeam McSwine”, with the mission to intercept and shoot down V1 flying bombs aimed and England. Pat McGale later reported what happened:
“We lined up behind a V1 and fired their Cannon and Machine Guns and hit the V1. However, debris cam back and hit the starboard engine which caught fire. We climbed away, shut down the engine and activated the engine fire extinguishers and got the fire out. However, then the port engine lost all power and we had to shut it down to reduce the heavy drag. We were now committed to ditching or bailing out.”
Edward Story bailed out of the aircraft. Pat McGale got out at only 800 feet above the ground, and sprained an ankle when he landed. “Moonbeam McSwine” crashed into the ground and was lost.
In 1990 a team was able to recover the starboard engine of the Mosquito under nearly eight metres (25 feet) of clay in the River Adur valley in Surrey.
When the engine was presented to the Museum, it was very heavily damaged. So the decision was taken to display it as a “cutaway” model so you can see the internal workings.
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