This year has marked the eightieth anniversaries of Dunkirk and the battle of Britain and 75 years since VE Day and VJ Day. It’s also 60 years since the Malayan emergency ended; 38 years since the Falklands war; 30 years since our armed forces were deployed to the Gulf, following the invasion of Kuwait; and 25 years since the first phase of UK operations in support of peacekeeping missions in the former Yugoslavia ended.

During the retreat to Dunkirk, both John Edwards and his cousin Llewellyn Lewis fought in the rearguard defence with the first Royal Welch Fusiliers—or RWF. John Edwards was born in Ruthin in 1911 and was an officer’s groom. Llewellyn Lewis was born near Dolgellau in 1919 and was called up at the start of the war. He was 20 when he was captured. Edwards was 28.

On 26 May 1940, Edwards and Lewis were far from the beaches of Dunkirk. They’d been ordered to stand and fight until the last round and the last man in an effort to slow the German advance, whilst others were evacuated. The first RWF fought at the small town of Saint-Venant and nearby villages, retaking bridges over important waterways. However, with the Germans still holding other bridges, the company was surrounded, suffered heavy casualties and the final men were captured in an attempted breakout that night. Edwards, Lewis and the other captured soldiers were marched towards Germany with little food and water, and were eventually taken to Toruń in Poland. Edwards spent the rest of the war in captivity, working as a prisoner of war farmer. He returned to Britain in 1945 skeletal and was unrecognisable to those who knew him. Lewis died in Stalag XX-A in 1941, aged 21.

Eighty years after the battle of Britain, we remember the Welsh few, 67 men from all corners of Wales who served with distinction in the air and made a significant and gallant contribution to the battle of Britain. They were part of the 2,947 air crew from Britain, the Commonwealth and many other countries that fought in the battle. We remember, too, the vital part played by RAF bases in Wales in supplying pilots and aircraft in that desperate struggle during the long, hot summer of 1940.

On 5 September 1940, Sergeant Glyn Griffiths from Llandudno, flying Hurricanes with 17 squadron, shot down a Heinkel He 111 bomber over Chatham. He’d attended John Bright School in Llandudno before joining the RAF as a pilot in 1938. He became a battle of Britain ace—a pilot with five confirmed victories—shooting down 10 enemy aircraft during the battle, for which he was awarded the distinguished flying medal. His medals and flying logbook are now on display in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.

St Asaph pilot officer Denis Crowley-Milling, flying spitfires with 242 squadron, shot down a Messerschmitt 110 fighter bomber over east London. Later in the war, he shot down a number of enemy aircraft and was awarded the distinguished service order, the distinguished flying cross and bar. In August 1941, he was shot down over France, but he evaded capture and, with the help of the French underground, managed to escape back to Britain and rejoin his squadron. In the years after the war, Denis Crowley-Milling had a distinguished RAF career, rising to the rank of air marshal and also being knighted.

For Polish Heritage Day on 9 May this year, I recorded a message for Wrexham’s Polish integration centre, referring to the key role played by Polish fighter squadron 303, flying Hawker Hurricanes, which claimed the largest number of aircraft shot down of the 66 allied fighter squadrons engaged in the battle of Britain. Thirty-one out of the 145 Polish pilots who took part in the battle of Britain died in action.

The role played by the RAF in Wales in protecting the skies above Britain continues today. The crews of our Typhoon jets, which defend our skies 24/7, are all trained at RAF Valley on Anglesey, and St Athan performs a vital role in training engineering technicians for the RAF’s front line.

On 8 May, we commemorated the historic seventy-fifth anniversary of VE Day—Victory in Europe Day—the day on which allied forces formally announced the surrender of Germany, bringing the second world war to a close in Europe. However, many thousands of armed forces personnel were still involved in bitter fighting in the far east. On 15 August, we remembered the seventy-fifth anniversary of VJ Day, commemorating both the surrender of Japan and the end of the second world war.