After all the uncertainty about the future of the D.H.98 throughout the previous two years, an official order for fifty Mosquito bombers and reconnaissance aircraft was placed with De Havilland by the Air Ministry on the 1st March 1940. These machines (serialled W4050-4099) included the prototype, which was under construction at Salisbury Hall. Many wood-working firms, hitherto limited in their war work commitments, were contacted to undertake, sub-contract, the construction of this new type. These included Gommes, the maker of 'G Plan' furniture at High Wycombe, Dancer & Hearne and Mulliners of Chiswick. With the fall of France in 1940, the newly created Ministry of Aircraft Production, under Lord Beaverbrook, rc-appraiscd all new aircraft designs and attempted once again to axe the Mosquito. Production was to be concentrated on five major types: the Hurricane, Spitfire, Wellington, Whitley and Blenheim. Dc Havillands were instructed to drop the Mosquito and concentrate on Tiger Moth and Airspeed Oxford production, which was considered to be of far greater importance. On three separate occasions Lord Beaverbrook told ACM Freeman to stop work on the Mosquito.
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