A DIGNIFIED burial for a Blackburn airman killed when the plane he was flying was shot down over enemy territory during the Second World War is to take place tomorrow.

Sgt Norman Nuttall was 21 at the time of the tragedy, on May 11 1941. He was flying as part of XV Squadron above Holland when the plane was attacked by a German night fighter.

He, along with six others, were thrown from the plane as it crashed and their remains have remained just a few feet beneath a field in Opmeer until an excavation earlier this year. Only the pilot was given a proper burial at the time.

A search by the RAF -- through the Lancashire Evening Telegraph -- to locate relatives of the dead men has resulted in them travelling out to Bergen, in Germany, for tomorrow's ceremony.