THE role of the ‘Welsh Few’ in the Battle of Britain is being showcased in a poignant exhibition at Newtown Library this month.

The Wales and the Battle of Britain exhibition was officially opened on Tuesday with civic leaders and members of the public in attendance and will remain at the library on Park Street during Remembrance weekend.

There the story of The Few, those who served in the RAF during the Second World War, and in particularly the Welsh Few, comes under the microscope with stories of the brave servicemen who fought to protect the British skies against Nazi Germany.

The role of the people of Powys is included in the form of the stories of the RAF servicemen and the people who remained and supported the war effort while often coming under attack themselves.

Four Powys men feature in the exhibition though tragically only one - Pilot Officer Dugald Thomas Moore Lumdsen - survived the war.

Pilot Officer Jack Royston Hamer crashed a Hurricane P3316 into North Weald aerodrome on July 24, 1940 and is buried at Knighton Cemetery.

Pilot Officer Harry Jeffrey Jeffcoat took off from Waddington to lay mines off Brest on December 13, 1941 and never returned to his home in Builth Road and is today commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

Newtown’s Sergeant Russell Chapman Hamer, known to his friends at ‘Lofty’ is buried at Llanidloes Cemetery.

Sgt Hamer died a hero on September 9, 1942 when he was part of a Beaufighter V8265 crew which sustained damage after shooting down an enemy plane above Dorset and ordered his crew to bale out over the Isle of Man before crashing in Hampshire.

However it is not just the story of the men who served in the skies which feature in the exhibition.

The people of Montgomery raised enough money for a Spitfire VbW3844 to be built thanks to fundraising efforts.

The Spitfire had become a symbol of defiance and the nation’s favourite aeroplane as communities across the country clubbed together to raise the money to continue the monumental war effort in the skies above them.

The County of Montgomery was among them by September 1941 - at a cost of 282k in today’ money, joining 30 other Spitfires built thanks to the fundraising efforts of Welsh people to the tune of 8.4m in modern terms.

Newtown Library has also unearthed newspaper articles from the time which shine a light on the impact of the war locally.

On September 4 1940, a German Junkers 88 crashed near Machynlleth with four crew and a Gestapo officer captured.

Remarkably farmer John Jones had entrusted one of the stricken German airmen, complete with an Iron Cross, with looking after his son while the farmer had found help in the form of the local Home Guard.

The blood, sweat and tears of Britain had proven too much for Luftwaffe and the Nazi’s abandoned hopes of bombing Britain into submission by October 1940.

The war would wage on for five more years by sea and land, causing untold death and suffering, though ‘The Few’ had ensured the skies above their homes and loved ones remained free of Nazi tyranny.