ROYAL Air Force reservists of 4624 Squadron marched through Witney this morning to mark the beginning of Battle of Britain Week.
It was the first time the airmen and women had exercised their Freedom of the County, awarded to them last May by Oxfordshire County Council.
They were received by civic officials from Witney, including Town Mayor Jeanette Baker, and joined residents for a commemoration service in St Mary’s Church afterwards.
More than 100 people attended the event.
Mrs Baker said: “We are very honoured in Witney to have hosted the squadron’s first freedom parade, it was amazing and actually made me feel quite emotional.”
The Battle of Britain was a turning point for Allied forces during the Second World War, which saw the RAF pilots repel a massive assault by the German Luftwaffe fighter planes.
It prompted then Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill to famously note: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
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