Some More on the Loss of Edward Burke and James Beardley

From August  18, 2017, Forces/Net "Bodies of two WWII Airmen found after  more than 70 years." 

The graves of two World War II naval aviators lost in one of the most disastrous aerial attacks in history have finally been found.  Seventy-six years ago, the two men were seen  climbing into a dingy after their aircraft went down and that was the last anyone ever saw them alive again.

The final resting place of Sub Lt. Edward "Seymour" Burke and  his gunner Leading  Airman James Beardley have now been located in Russia.  The two men crewed  a Fairey Fulmar fighter plane, launched from the British aircraft carrier HMS Furious.

The mission they were on when they were lost involved a task force  strike at German forces in two key ports in German-occupied Norway  close to the Russian border:  Petsamo and Kirkenes.  These forces posed a severe threat to the Allied efforts to keep the Soviet Union supplied during the war.

During the operation, 13 of the 29 aircraft launched  were lost and nothing was accomplished.  The two dozen aircraft launched by the Furious found the harbor of Petsamo empty.  One Albacore bomber and two Fulmars were lost, including Burke and Beardsley's.

The men survived the crash and were witnessed scrambling into a dingy, but then they were lost.  No effort was made at the time to rescue them because of the possible presence of German planes and submarines.

Seventy years ago, their bodies washed up at Vaida Bay on the Rybachy Peninsula about 70 miles north of Murmansk and 30 miles from Petsamo.  Here locals buried their bodies.

GreGen