An Australian and New Zealand squadron formed part of the attack group.

As the air battle raged, Flight Lieutenant  Watt radioed that he was being attacked by two German Fw109s and later a faint position report was heard.

He failed to return from the mission and was posted as missing by RAF 65 Squadron based at Peterhead, Scotland.

A history of the air war over Norway claimed that Flight Lieutenant Watt was missing forever.

Last month, in Norway, his daughter, Caroline Rundle, wife of the former premier Tony Rundle, was able to set the record straight.

Her father had been shot down over Sognefjord, but bailed out of his P51 Mustang, was rescued by fishermen, then captured by the German occupiers and interned.

But no record of his capture or imprisonment was ever found.

After the war, Flight Lieutenant Watt and his wife Jeannette migrated to Tasmania in the 1970s.

They lived first at Mole Creek and later Reedy Marsh.

Trout fishing was his passion and he spent many happy hours up in the Central Highlands - an area not dissimilar to parts of the Fjordland of Norway.

Like many World War II veterans, he barely mentioned the war.

Ironically, the Norwegian historians were able to produce reams of his combat records . . . all unknown to his family.

Norwegians are still intrigued by the country's World War II occupation.

 Resistance groups were active and often attracted ruthless retribution.

The air war against German forces was waged from Peterhead, where the fighters were based, and Dallachy, home of the attack squadrons of Beaufighters and Mosquitoes.

RAAF 455 Squadron and RNZ Squadron 489 were based at Dallachy and suffered heavy casualties.

The most famous attack on German shipping occurred on February 9, 1945, when 32 Beaufighters, two Warwick air sea rescue aircraft and 10 Mustangs pounced on shipping sheltering in Forde fjord.

The attack group was led by Australian Wing Commander Colin Milson. It was a costly engagement with nine Beaufighters lost, one Mustang gone, and minimal damage to ships.

Five German Fw109s were shot down. It was dubbed Black Friday and recorded as Coastal Command's worst single loss of the war.

Mrs Rundle's Norwegian visit came following an internet inquiry from historian Kjell Arve Vorland seeking any relative of Flight Lieutenant Watt.

In Norway, having spent years staying discreetly out of the limelight during her husband's political career, Mrs Rundle found herself confronted by a media scrum eager to tell her story.

The mystery of the missing flight lieutenant was finally solved for the Norwegians.

After the war, her father had a long career as a commercial pilot, ironically often flying into Norway where his life and death battles took place.

``My father didn't talk much about the war, so it was moving to see the spot where he was rescued and to unlock the mystery of his survival to a group of wonderful Norwegians,'' Mrs Rundle said.

``But it remains a mystery why my father was the invisible man in both Norwegian and German records.''