A BENCH in Ludlow is to be dedicated as a war memorial to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

The bench, which has been provided by Ludlow in Bloom, will have plaques in remembrance of pilots and an airman who fought in the skies above southern England in the late summer and early autumn of 1940.

It was the event that followed the evacuation from Dunkirk and was at its peak between early August and the end of September 1940.

Because of the victory by RAF pilots flying Hawker Hurricane and Spitfire fighters, the Germans abandoned a planned invasion and turned their attention away from attacking airfields to the bombing of cities, including the London Blitz.

One of the plaques is in memory of a gunner in a Halifax bomber crew who was listed as missing, aged 22, in January 1945 just four months before VE Day. The others are a pilot officer shot down in September 1940 and a second pilot.