THE war-time exploits of American airmen based on the Blackdown Hills were remembered this week with a service to mark the 78th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy.

Members of the US Army Air Force and Navy personnel who flew from Dunkeswell Airfield during the Second World War were recalled during the ceremony on Sunday.

The parish council holds a church service annually on the first Sunday after June 6 to remember those American airmen who flew anti-submarine bombing missions between 1943-45 during the Battle of the Atlantic.

It was followed by a wreath-laying ceremony at the airfield’s American memorial.

Lieut Col Adam Lefringhouse, a US Marine Corps military attaché from the American Embassy, in London, laid the first wreath.

Afterwards, South West Airfields Heritage Trust chairman Brian Lane-Smith presented Lieut Col Lefringhouse with a guidebook on Dunkeswell’s wartime history.

The local aviation group operates volunteer-run visitor centres at both Dunkeswell and Smeatharpe, near Churchinford.