๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ณ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ง๐.๐ ๐ธ.๐ซ ยซ๐๐น๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ยป
On 9 February 1945, a force of Allied Bristol Beaufighter aircraft suffered many losses during an attack on the German destroyer Z33 and its escorting vessels; the operation was called ยซBlack Fridayยป by the Allied survivors. The German ships were sheltering in a strong defensive position in Fรธrde Fjord, Norway, forcing the Allied aircraft to attack through massed anti-aircraft fire.
The Beaufighters and their escort of Mustang Mk III fighters were intercepted by twelve Fw 190s of JG5. The Allies damaged at least two of the German ships for the loss of seven Beaufighters shot down by flak guns. Two Beaufighters and a Mustang were shot down by the Fw 190s and four or five of the German planes were shot down by the Allied aircraft, including that of German ace Rudi Linz.
Due to Allied victories in France and Eastern Europe, Germany's surface shipping was largely confined to the lower Baltic and Norwegian waters by late 1944. This left ports in Norway as Germany's last remaining bases to continue the Battle of the Atlantic and conduct trade with Sweden. When the Baltic iced over during the winter of 1944โ45, Germany was forced to transport its vital imports of Swedish iron ore from the port of Narvik in northern Norway.
In response to the growing importance of German maritime transport routes through Norwegian waters, the RAF's Coastal Command transferred squadrons of anti-shipping aircraft to northern Scotland 1944. Four squadrons operating Beaufighter were based at Dallachy. The Dallachy Wing comprised the British No. 144, Canadian No. 404, Australian No. 455 and New Zealand No. 489 Squadron. These four squadrons were veterans of many anti-shipping operations over the North Sea.
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Text-Source: Wikipedia
