A force of twenty Beaufighters from Dallachy, Morayshire 18.Group, took off at 13:09. They were accompanied by a Mustang fighter escort and a Warwick carrying an airborne lifeboat.

The Beaufighters approached the target from inland. It was on climbing away as it left the fjord, the two Beaufighters collided. The two crew, both from New Zealand, are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

RD463 managed a succesful ditching. Both crew members getting out, walking along the wing and entering a dinghy. Called up by one of the other Beaufighters, the air-sea rescue Warwick flew overhead and dropped its lifeboat. One of the crew swam towards it, but the parachutes’ release bolts had failed on touch down, and it was carried away from him in the wind.

The following day four of the Squadron’s aircraft returned to the scene. Although they located two dinghies and the lifeboat before being chased away by enemy fighters, they were found to be empty.
from "For Your Tomorrow" by Errol Martyn.

The ships attacked this day was Schnellboot "Adolf Lüderitz" Tanker "Schleswig" UJ-1430 and M-496

Far left: View from the memorial at Jøssingfjordheia.Titania factory harbour seen down by the fjord.

Left: Memorial plate mounted on a rock at the roadstop on top of Jøssingfjordheia.

Bristol Beaufighter Jøssingfjord Rogaland

489.Squadron RNZAF TF.X NT888/Y "Dallachy Strike Wing" 14.4 1945

Collided with Beaufighter TF.X RD463/A1 on a strike against shipping in Jøssingfjord. The aircraft plunged into the sea, neither of the two crew were seen to bail out. Pilot: Off John Mostyn Brightwell, age 23. Navigator: Plt Off Edgar Joseph Foy, age 24.

489.Squadron RNZAF TF.X RD463/A1 "Dallachy Strike Wing" 14.4 1945

 Pilot: Fg Off Graham George Parkin, age 22. Navigator: Fg Off Royden Leslie Nugent, age 26.

Photo K.Sørensen/ M.Moe 2003
©Gerry Mullen