THIS week in Down Memory Lane I recall the fantastic fundraising efforts during war time in Thurrock.

This month 70 years ago the Grays & Tilbury Gazette (now Thurrock Gazette) featured the first advert for the forthcoming Wings for Victory week, to be held between May 29 and June 5.

The aim was to collect enough donations to purchase 15 Mosquito bombers at a total cost of £300,000 (£20,000 each) to increase the aircraft available to the Royal Air Force.

The de Havilland DH98 Mosquito was a British multi-role combat aircraft, with a two-man crew and was one of the few operational, frontline aircraft of the era to be constructed almost entirely of wood and, as such, was nicknamed the Wooden Wonder, while the crew named it affectionately the Mossie.

The aircraft started production in 1941, entering widespread service in 1942.

The Air Council requirements for the aircraft included remotely controlled guns, a top speed of 275 miles per hour (443km/h) at 15,000ft (4,600m) on two-thirds engine power, and a range of 3,000 miles (4,800km) with a 4,000lb (1,800kg) bomb load.

It turned out to be very successful as a fast bomber, fighter-bomber, night fighter, maritime strike aircraft and fast photo-reconnaissance plane.

The de Havilland Aircraft Company was a British aviation manufacturer founded in 1920 when Airco, of which Geoffrey de Havilland had been chief designer, was sold to BSA by the owner George Holt Thomas.

De Havilland then set up a company under his name in September of that year at Stag Lane Aerodrome in Edgware, near London. The company later moved to Hatfield in Hertfordshire.

De Havilland Aircraft Company was responsible for producing the first passenger jet and other innovative aircraft after the war.

I wonder if the fundraising campaign was successful – results in Down Memory Lane at the end of June!