ST PAUL'S CHURCH in Langleybury was packed this morning for a service marking the 70th anniversarry of the Battle of Britain.

The Battle of Britain service, a Langleybury tradition for at least 50 years, was led by vicar Ysmena Pentelow, and attended by veterans, local councillors, RAF representatives and air cadets.

After the service, in which the church choir sung The Airman's Psalm (Psalm 39) and the congregation heard personal accounts of the battle which raged over the skies of southern England in summer 1940, The Reverend Pentelow conducted a short ceremony at the war memorial outside the church, and wreaths were laid.

She told the Watford Observer: "We forget the past at our peril.

"It is very important to remember what happened 70 years ago, and what we owe those young men.

I am especially pleased the service involved the whole community - from the youngest to some at the end of their lives.

"Only that way can we learn the lessons."

Councillor Alan Burtensaw, chairman of Watford Borough Council, said: "The council always supports this event, but this year is special because it is 70 years.

"I found some of the personal accounts very moving. We heard about a pilot who was being shot at by the enemy as he was parachuting to the ground, but the other Spitfires saved him by flying round him.

"There was a camaraderie there that we seem to have lost.

"If the Battle of Britain has not turned out as it did, who knows where we would be now?

"There were so few of them, and we owe them so much."