Monument to the dead fishermen and sailors and US airmen
Memorial site

250 metres south-west of Battery 6 is the Monument to Fishermen and Sailors, with a plaque to the US Navy PB4Y-2 Privateer scout plane shot down off Liepaja on 8 April 1950. The aircraft, nicknamed Turbulent Turtle, was part of Patrol Squadron 26 and took off from Wiesbaden airfield in the early hours of 8 April and, via Copenhagen, set off on a surveillance and possibly radio reconnaissance mission. According to the order, the aircraft could not approach closer than 20 nautical miles to the Kurland coast, but for some unknown reason it flew into the USSR's self-defined 12 nautical mile zone. Two La-11s of the Soviet 30th Guards Fighter Regiment intercepted and shot down the unarmed reconnaissance aircraft. The fate of the 10-strong crew of the downed aircraft is not known with certainty; there is conflicting information that all were killed or, alternatively, that some of the pilots survived and ended up in prisoner-of-war camps.

The crew:

AT1 Frank L. Beckman

AL3 Joseph J. Bourassa

ENS Tommy L. Burgess

AD 1 Joseph H. Danens

LT John H. Fette

CT3 Edward J. Purcell

LTJG Robert D. Reynolds

AN Joseph N. Rinnier

LT Howard W. Seeschaf

AD 1 Jack W. Thomas