The Oslo Mosquito Raid (1944) was a World War II air raid targeting the headquarters of the Gestapo in Oslo.

[1] 12 Mosquito bombers [2] of the RAF No.627 Squadron [3] were used in the raid on the Victoria Terrasse on the 31st of December 1944, they attacked in 2 waves, they managed to hit the building however sadly 44 Norwegian Civilians died when a bomb hit a nearby tram[4] On the 30th of December No.

627 Squadron RAF flew from their base (RAF Woodhall Spa) to RAF Peterhead to help reduce the flight time of the Mosquitos on their way to Oslo 12 De Havilland Mosquito departed from RAF Peterhead at 9:30 on the 31st of December in 2 waves, the first was led by Wing Commander G.W.

Curry and the second by Flight Lieutenant P.F.

Mallender Roughly around noon the mosquito's arrive at the Norwegian coast at the approximate altitude of 2,100m (7,000ft), the weather is clear so they easily spot Victoria Terrasse, however they are also spotted by AAA emplacements and come under intense anti aircraft fire The first wave of mosquitos commence an attack run at an altitude 300-450m (1000-1500ft) and score several hits against the target, however when the second wave comes in, Flt Lt P.F Mallender realises that due to the previous attack that the buildings have been obscured by smoke and so told his pilots to not release their bombs unless they can visible confirm the target, however multiple pilots ignore this order and drop bombs anyways resulting in 1 bomb hitting Tram No.115 killing nearly all onboard, overall the bombs kill 78 civilians, injuring 58 while the German Forces only lose 27 mostly among Luftwaffe auxiliary staff (Luftwaffenhelfer) By the end of the operation all Mosquitos managed to return back to their home base of Woodhall spa but all received varying levels of flak damage The raid had failed, Victoria Terrasse was still standing despite being hit and multiple civilians had lost their lives in the raid however it did force the Gestapo to move to a new base and disrupted its work in Oslo.