Black Friday (1945) - Aftermath

Aftermath

After departing the Førde Fjord area the surviving Beaufighters, many of which were damaged, returned to Dallachy. Several had difficulty making safe landings, and two were forced to land on their bellies due to undercarriage damage, but no further aircraft were lost. The air and ground crew were shocked by the scale of the losses, and the battle became known to them as "Black Friday". The losses suffered by the Dallachy Wing on 9 February were the highest any of Coastal Command's strike wings sustained in a single operation during the war.

The German fighters, many of which were short of fuel and ammunition, also broke off at about 4:25 pm and returned to base. On the night of 9/10 February the German ships left Førde Fjord and continued their journey to Trondheim. A subsequent Allied attack on the ships by a different strike wing was also unsuccessful. Z33 arrived in Trondheim on 11 February and was repaired. She subsequently departed for Germany on 26 March and safely arrived in Swinemünde on 2 April. She did not see any further combat, and was decommissioned at Brunsbüttel in late April as the Navy lacked the fuel needed to operate her.

The losses incurred during the raid on Førde Fjord led to changes in the tactics used by RAF Coastal Command's anti-shipping squadrons. Following the attack, the Admiralty agreed to a proposal by Air Chief Marshal Sir Sholto Douglas, the commander of Coastal Command, to assign a higher priority to attacking merchant vessels than to destroyers and small warships. A second squadron of Mustangs was also assigned to protect Coastal Command aircraft operating near Norway from early March. Milson was awarded a bar to his Distinguished Service Order on 13 July 1945 for his leadership and personal courage during the raid on Førde Fjord, which was described in the citation as a "brilliantly executed operation".

The raid was commemorated in Norway after the war. A monument to the aircrew killed in the battle was dedicated in the town of Førde on 8 May 1985, the 40th anniversary of Norway's liberation. This monument was later moved to Bergen Airport. The Air Combat Museum in the town of Naustdal also houses photos, maps, aircraft parts and other artifacts relating to the battle.

At least one of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters of JG 5 that crashed as a result of the "Black Friday" aerial engagements, an F-model airframe with factory serial number, or Werknummer of 931 862, was found and recovered as a salvageable aircraft wreck in September 1983. It currently resides in Kissimmee, Florida, and is under restoration by the "White 1 Foundation" towards a resumption of full flightworthy status. In 2005 its last pilot, the former Luftwaffe Unteroffizier Heinz Orlowski visited it and sat one final time in the cockpit of his "under-restoration" Fw 190F-8, some sixty years after he last flew it and five years before his death in 2010.