The Comet was not the predecessor of the Mosquito although it was built earlier. Entirely unrelated aeroplanes.
I saw the Shuttleworth Comet fly at a Great Warbirds display at Wroughton Airfield back in the nineties. It flew in and away, never touched the ground, and looked very majestic indeed. I understand the wing design makes it very touchy at low speed and not an aeroplane to take lightly.
Actually, I would prefer a Caudron 714, which I understand was based on a racer and saw combat with Fin land (was it six or twelve airframes delivered?) but I can't remember if the French used it in combat.
Yes they did
It was GC I/145, mainly formed by Polish Pilots, they scored victories, but also suffered losses, and major default of the plane was the unreliabilty of the Renault engine.
The AC was underpowered, an improvement was made by the successor Caudron C 760, but only one prototype was built before France defeat in June 40.
And as far as I know, the few (6 if I remember well) delivered to Finland where assembled and flight tested, but nether saw combat because of those reliability problems. One of these planes is preseved in Finland air museum.
I'm no engineer but it almost looks like this one has more in common with the Dragon Rapide than with the Mossie.
Cheers
Nico