RAF's disastrous 'Black Friday' raid...."Enjoyable though" !

[Mossie]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... e-400.html

[lucky52]

Just out of curiosity,what is the meaning of "Very enjoyable" after losing 14 dead after a mission?

[JohnB]

Read the news article....it was how the log book writer described the mission.

I might wonder how it got the name "black Friday"....with rather light losses compared to some operations. Obviously, some Bomber Command raids on Germany had horrendous losses, and there were several near suicide missions early in the war (Fairey Battles in the early days and the "Channel dash" with Swordfish to name two) that better deserve the somber name.

[seagull61785]

The article mentions that the attack involved 32 fighter-bombers plus their escorts. If all of these 'bombers' were Beaufighters with a two-man crew each, then to lose 9 aircraft destroyed during the raid (and likely a tenth back at base where both crew survived), then 14 dead aircrew out of 64 Beaufighter airmen taking part in the raid works out at nearly a 22% loss rate.

The RAF's night bomber offensive had some really bad night raids where their losses were around 10% and the infamous American Schweinfurt raids incurred about 19%, so on a solely percentage basis this Beaufighter raid must have been really unpleasant and very costly. On the RAF's 'Dambusters' raid the losses were even worse - 53 aircrew killed out of 133 who took part - nearly 40% loss rate.

As for the log book comment - "Very enjoyable" - who knows why it was written? It could have been a 'line shoot', or more probably a 'reverse comment' written in a sarcastic manner as the writer really felt it was anything BUT enjoyable. When I was stationed at RAF Manston in the early 70's, in the entrance hall to the Officers Mess the station's wartime daily operations book was kept open and a new page turned every day. One entry was made by an RAF Blenheim light bomber pilot who was one of a strike force tasked with attacking the St Nazaire 'U" boat base by day at very low level. I recall his comment about the "Light Flak being so intense he felt compelled to complete his attack run on instruments" as he "couldn't see very much through the windscreen". Was this another 'line shoot'? We'll never know, but it certainly gave me a total respect for the aircrews who fought in that war.

I don't think it really matters whatever name (Black Friday or otherwise) the journalists or other recorders of history give to any of these actions, as the most important point to me is that we should never forget that all of these men were doing their duty, whatever their nationalities, flying into harms way - with a very real chance of not returning. We'll probably never see the likes of this generation again.

That's my ten cents worth.

Barry