Cannibalism or conjecture? Joe Biden's claims on uncle's World War II fate are off

Joe Biden’s remarks aimed to draw a sharp contrast against Donald Trump's disparaging remarks towards fallen service members.

US President Joe Biden inadvertently sparked controversy by misstating key details surrounding the death of his uncle 2nd Lt. Ambrose J. Finnegan Jr. during World War II. Biden claimed that cannibals in the New Guinea region may have consumed his uncle when, in fact, records from the Pentagon's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency do not attribute Finnegan's death to hostile action or the presence of cannibals in the region.

Biden’s remarks, delivered during a visit to Pittsburgh, aimed to draw a sharp contrast with reports alleging disparaging remarks by former President Donald Trump towards fallen service members.

However, Biden's narrative, laced with references to cannibalism and inaccuracies about the circumstances of Finnegan's death, has drawn scrutiny and raised questions about historical accuracy.

“And my uncle, they called him – Ambrose, they called him Bosie… and he became an Army Air Corps, before the Air Force came along, he flew those single engine planes as reconnaissance over war zones,” Biden said during remarks at the United Steelworkers Headquarters in Pittsburgh. “And he got shot down in New Guinea, and they never found the body because there used to be a lot of cannibals – for real – in that part of the New Guinea.”

He also repeated this story at Scranton, Pennsylvania where he visited a veterans’ memorial to pay his respects to his uncle, memorialised at the site. He is also memorialised on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines

Finnegan, the brother of Biden's mother, died on May 14, 1944, while aboard an Army Air Forces plane that crashed in the Pacific Ocean off the northern coast of New Guinea. The agency's documentation indicates that Finnegan's plane, an A-20 Havoc, was "forced to ditch in the ocean" for “unknown reasons”.

Despite Biden's assertions, there is no evidence to suggest that cannibals played a role in hindering the recovery of Finnegan's remains – that were eventually never found.

While cannibalism in the New Guinea region has been documented in the mid-20th century, the government account suggests that Finnegan and his teammates were lost in the wreck and an aerial search the next day also could not trace them.

The 81-year-old, who has often made faux pas in public, also misstated when his uncles enlisted in the military. Biden said they had joined the forces “when D-Day occurred, the next day,” in June 1944, when, in fact, they joined weeks after the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbour.

In his 2008 book “Promises to Keep,” Biden briefly mentioned his uncle, describing him only as a flyer killed in New Guinea.