An Army Air Corps helicopter flew over the Memorial Stone which marks the end of the former RAF Harwell runway from which aircraft took off on June 5, 1944, with the first British troops on the eve of D-Day.

Former RAOC corporal David Brinsden at the D-Day service Six Albermarle bombers of No 38 Group RAF carried troops of the 6th Airborne Division, who landed in Normandy ahead of the main allied invasion force for the Liberation of Europe.

Representatives of all three services gathered to commemorate the action as a Lynx helicopter from Odiham, Hampshire, swooped across veterans and their families at 200ft to provide a dramatic flypast at the start of the annual memorial service. John Macfarlane-Horgan, of Reading Pipe Band, led a parade of 13 standards -- branches of the Royal British Legion and other ex-service groups including the RAF Association, the RAOC Association and HMS Collingwood Association.

The service and Act of Remembrance was conducted by the Rev Chris Stott, Rector of St Matthew's, Harwell, with All Saints, Chilton, when wreaths were laid by the Glider Pilot Regimental Association, the Guinea Pig Club -- representing injured aircrew who received pioneering plastic surgery treatment -- the Parachute Regimental Association, the British Legion, the Didcot United Services Association and the Army Air Corps.

Wreaths were also laid by Dr John McKeown, chief executive of the Atomic Energy Authority, and Dr Andrew Taylor, of Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.