It was the Royal Navy's worst aircraft carrier strike of World War II.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill was determined to cement his new alliance with Soviet Russia's Chairman Joseph Stalin with a grand gesture.
The only readily available option was to raid the German-occupied ports of Kirkenes and Petsamo in the north of Norway and Finland.
Believing the harbours to be lightly defended and filled with ore-carrying cargo ships, the carriers HMS Victorious and HMS Furious were dispatched with a strike wing of Fairey Albacores and Swordfish, supported by Fairey Fulmars and the first Hawker Sea Hurricanes.
But Germany was in fact using Kirkenes as a military hub. It was heavily defended with anti-aircraft guns and ground troops. And several airfields hosted squadrons of Me 110s and Me 109s, along with Ju 87 Stukas, tasked with attacking Russia's harbours and shipping lanes.