AN exhibition marking the Battle of Britain that raged over the Pembrokeshire skies was recently held in Cardiff.

Pembrokeshire’s aviation heritage was flying high at Cardiff City Hall with Pembroke Dock Heritage Trust – which runs the town’s heritage centre – and the Pembrokeshire Aviation Group manning a display centred on two full size replicas of Spitfire and Hurricane instrument panels, built by Dr Andy Watkin, a Heritage Centre Trustee.

In 1940, when aerial battles against the German Air Force raged in UK skies, there were 14 RAF stations in Wales, three of them in Pembrokeshire – at Pembroke Dock, Carew Cheriton and Manorbier. All feature in the exhibition panels, along with the stories of the Welsh airmen and women and those of other nations who were involved.

Among them are four pilots with Pembrokeshire connections who were killed during the air battles – Charles Ayling, buried at Monkton, Cecil Bull, buried at Hundleton, Rodney Wilkinson, remembered on a plaque at Angle Church, and R. V. Jeff, who had Tenby links. A Polish pilot, Stanislaw Piatkowski, who died when his Hurricane crashed near Carew, is also remembered.

The ‘Wales and the Battle of Britain’ exhibition was staged by the RAF Wales team, headed by the Air Officer Wales, air commodore Adrian Williams, and was officially opened by the chief of the air staff, air chief marshal Sir Mike Wigston. He took the salute at a parade of RAF personnel from RAF St Athan which was followed by a flypast by the Red Arrows aerobatic team.

Originally planned for July 2020, for the 80th anniversary of this key World War II campaign, it was postponed several times due to the coronavirus crisis.

A county link on the day was through the St Athan Voluntary Band whose leader is Alan Bourne, from Pembroke.

The Pembroke Dock Heritage Trust has offered to help host the exhibition which will be touring Welsh centres in the coming months. Local Battle of Britain connections are recalled in displays at the Heritage Centre.