A RARE wartime Dakota aircraft from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight performed a flypast over a former Dorset airfield yesterday, as part of the commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

Tarrant Rushton airfield played a vital role in the D-Day invasion of France during World War II.

On Sunday a special gathering took place at the former RAF base, attended by dignitaries, to remember and honour those who flew from, and served at, Tarran Rushton.

As part of D-Day, 6 June, 1944, three waves of four-engine Halifax bombers from 298 Squadron and 644 Squadron took off from the hill-top airfield – in the shadow of Badbury Rings, between Wimborne and Blandford – towing wooden gliders carrying vital soldiers, tanks and other equipment bound for Normandy.

Sunday's memorial, which included the flypast at 1.45pm, took place at the former airfield's stone memorial, on the Tarrant Rushton to Witchampton Road, and was organised by the Royal Air Forces Association's Wimborne branch.

Among those gathered was Bob Seymour, whose late father was a young navigator on the Halifax bombers that flew from the RAF base in 1944.

Bob said: "It is important that we remember the brave young aircrew who flew on dangerous missions from Tarrant Rushton and didn’t come back as well as all the people who worked at the airfield. Luckily, my father survived and I was able to fly him back to his old airfield before he died in 2017 at the age of 95.

“Between April, 1944, and May, 1945, Tarrant Rushton’s 298 and No. 644 Squadrons flew an impressive 2,284 challenging missions into occupied Europe, from southern France up to Norway.

“Twenty-seven Halifax bombers were shot down and 160 airmen lost their lives – British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealanders and men from other Commonwealth countries. Also killed were glider pilots, airborne troops and the Special Operations Executive secret agents dropped behind enemy lines."

During Sunday's commemoration Bob also got the chance to meet up with Robert Wakeling, who helped maintain his father's Halifax bomber, and who remembers his dad's pilot, Squadron Leader 'Buster' Briggs.

After the war Tarrant Rushton airfield became the home to aviation research and manufacturing company Flight Refuelling in 1947, the company leaving the airfield in 1980 after which demolition followed.

Flight Refuelling later became the international Cobham PLC based in Wimborne.