IN the dark days of the Second World War, it was the redoubtable Halifax bomber that helped turn the tide and took the blitz to Germany.

Thousands were built and thousands of the airmen who crewed them sacrificed their lives before the victory.

Now only one of the aircraft survives, and that itself is a reconstruction, painstakingly built at the Yorkshire Air Museum near York over more than 20 years.

Yesterday, the completed four-engined bomber was dedicated to all the Allied air and ground crews who served with the aircraft.

They included Britons, Canadians, French, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Poles and Czechoslovakians, and representatives of many of them were present at last night's ceremony at the Elvington museum.

Veterans mingled with serving RAF officers and civic dignitaries at the ceremony, which launched the museum's 60 Years On programme of events.

It was in May 1944 that the first Free French heavy bomber squadrons were formed at Elvington using the Halifax.

After the war, they relocated to Bordeaux and formed the nucleus of the new French air force.

To honour their contribution, half of the restored Halifax has been painted in the colours of one of those units, 346 Squadron.

Museum director Ian Dewar said: "We originally rolled out the Halifax in the mid-1990s, but now she has been fully completed.

"A team of dedicated volunteers have worked on her. Many of them are in their seventies and eighties and some worked on Halifaxes all those years ago."

Published: 13/05/2004