A SPECIAL flypast was the focal point of the 12th annual service of remembrance and thanksgiving by The Friends of Leiston Airfield.

Colin Adwent

A SPECIAL flypast was the focal point of the 12th annual service of remembrance and thanksgiving by The Friends of Leiston Airfield.

Aircraft from the RAF's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight performed three passes for the opening at the Mustang Memorial to the 357th Fighter Group USAAF.

Crowds flocked to yesterday's service at Cakes and Ale Park, which included music from the band of the Royal British Legion in Leiston.

The Friends of Leiston Airfield have never forgotten the debt owed to the American Air Force crews stationed there during the Second World War.

Nicknamed 'The Yoxford Boys' the 357th and their Mustang aircraft escorted bombers deep into enemy territory.

By the end of the war the fighter group had lost 77 pilots.