FRENCH Air Force veterans paid an emotional visit to their former home yesterday to remember fellow countrymen who were killed during the Second World War.

A group of about 70 former airmen arrived at the Yorkshire Air Museum, for what could be the last reunion at the bomber base, near York.

Links between the two countries have been strong since the final two years of the conflict, when Elvington was a French base, operating two squadrons of Halifax four-engine bombers.

The veterans arrived in style aboard a French Air Force Hercules for their three-day visit, which included a steam train ride on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and the chance to climb aboard the museum's own restored Halifax.

Museum trustee Derek Reed said: "They had a look inside the Halifax that we have here and that brought tears to a few eyes. Wreaths have been laid and one or two poems were read by veterans."

He said: "They had such a hard task as they were part of RAF Bomber Command during the war and had to bomb their homeland.

"There must have been real mixed emotions and moral arguments inside all of them."

The French personnel who served at Elvington named their part of the region "La Petite France" and several went on to settle in Yorkshire and the North-East.

Mr Reed said: "It has been an emotional time for them. This is a part of history that not a lot of people know about."