Wartime plane crash locations found

Kyt · Mar 7, 2008

Nova Scotia News - TheChronicleHerald.ca

It was a sneak attack that should have lasted no more than five minutes.

Make one pass: Fly level, aim just under the water, fire at the last possible second and sink one of the last remaining German destroyers, a ship guarded by enemy ships in a Norwegian fjord.

But the Allied flyers, including mostly Canadian crews aboard 11 fighter bombers from the 404 Squadron, quickly realized they had lost the element of surprise.

German fighter planes filled the daytime sky, and the nine enemy ships below them were ready for the attack.

The disastrous barrage lasted 30 minutes. Planes exploded into cliffs and crashed into the waters of the Fordefjord.

"It was just like flying through metal. These guys really didn’t have much of a chance," said Maj. Chris Larsen, historian for the 404 Maritime Patrol Squadron, which today flies out of Greenwood.

Of the 404 Squadron’s 11 Bristol Beauforts that went into battle that day, only five returned to their base in Scotland. Eleven crew members were dead. One was captured as a prisoner of war. Another three Allied planes were also lost, with mostly British and Australian crews on board.

Known as Black Friday, Feb. 9, 1945, is one of the darkest days in the history of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

But more than 60 years later, a Canadian dive company accompanied by a Halifax film crew has shone light on the tragic tale with the recent discovery of the wreck sites of several of the planes that disappeared in a watery grave.

Maj. Larsen said the divers, led by Rob Rondeau of Calgary, were planning Friday to raise a section of the tail of one of the planes in order to use its serial number to confirm its identity.

"Now that we know where most of the crash locations are, it’s almost like a sense of closure," Maj. Larsen said.

"It’s very symbolic to know exactly where these guys died, where they rest. It can be logged, it can be written about and people can pay their respects."

Maj. Larsen said the courage of those men, who remained in battle knowing that they would likely be shot down, is remarkable.

"A lot of the guys, when they came back, talked about seeing their buddies blow up and hit the cliffs, and yet they carried on and did it. I think we tend to forget that kind of courage is just amazing. It would have been so easy for the guys to cop out . . . even not to put in an attack at all. (But) they were there to get the job done."

The story is all the more harsh for its timing, just a few short months before the war would end in victory for the Allies, and its futility, he said.

"They didn’t sink anybody, which makes it even more tragic. For that kind of sacrifice, it’s numbing."

While the story of Black Friday is well known in Norway and among members of the 404 Squadron, it will soon be brought to a wider audience.

On Friday, John Wesley Chisholm said his company, Arcadia Entertainment of Halifax, is producing a documentary for National Geographic and the History Channel on the search. The documentary is to air this fall.
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YouTube - Beaufighters in Norway

Kyt · Mar 7, 2008

Black Friday

Antipodean Andy · Mar 8, 2008

Great to see something like this getting such recognition.

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Wartime plane crash locations found

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