The courage of 14 young men who lost their lives during a wartime mission 80 years ago were remembered in Moray on Sunday 9th February.
‘Black Friday’, as it came to be known by the survivors, took place on February 9, 1945, and involved the air crews stationed at RAF Dallachy, a wartime base near Spey Bay.
By that late stage of the Second World War the Nazis were already on the retreat.
German ships transporting vital iron ore from occupied Norway had begun to sail only at night. By day they would instead attempt to hide from Allied aircraft.
Early during the morning of Friday, February 9, reconnaissance planes spotted a Nazi destroyer and several support vessels sheltering in a fjord near the Norwegian coastline.
At 1.30pm, that same day, a group of 31 Beaufighters took off from RAF Dallachy and headed out across the North Sea. Accompanied by fighter planes from other air bases across the North East, they reached Norway just over two hours later.
However, by that time, the enemy vessels had manoeuvred themselves into an even stronger defensive position within the deep and narrow fjord. Adding to the difficulty in launching an effective attack, a group of planes from the German Luftwaffe then chose that moment to appear on the scene.
One of the Beaufighter crash landed on its return to RAF Dallachy.One of the Beaufighter crash landed on its return to RAF Dallachy.
The ensuing dogfight saw two German ships damaged. However nine Beaufighters and one Mustang were shot down by flak or enemy aircraft.
In addition to the 14 Allied aircrew who lost their lives in the melee a further four were taken prisoner.
Black Friday was the darkest single day in the history of the Dallachy Strike Wing, which had begun operating from Moray in October 1944.
Led by Wing Commander Colin Milson, who was aged just 25, the force comprised homegrown air crew as well as personnel from New Zealand, Canada and Australia.
It would continue flying missions against enemy shipping until the eventual defeat of Hitler in May 1945, by which point more than 70 of its number would have lost their lives.
