CROWDS gathered for a cliff top memorial service.

The third annual Bomber Command ‘Mission Accomplished’ ceremony took place at Beachy Head on Monday.

The event acknowledges the sacrifices made by 55,573 men of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command during the Second World War and commemorates the final mission on April 26, 1945, to destroy Hitler’s Bavarian headquarters Eagle’s Nest.

The audience was addressed by members of the memorial’s committee before a service, where families of airmen lost during the Second World War laid wreaths and wooden crosses by the cliff top memorial, and was followed by a performance of the Last Post.

A committee spokesman, which formed five years ago to organise the memorials, said: “They paid a high price and deserve a greater recognition.

“To those who would query the terminology ‘Mission Accomplished’ in a war of unprovoked aggression in which more than 40 million people died – Bomber Command’s last bombing attack, where they destroyed Adolph Hitler’s “Eagle’s Nest”, can truly be designated as Mission Accomplished.”