A memorial commemorating the service of American Troops stationed in Pembrokeshire during World War II will be unveiled early next week.

More than 3,000 American servicemen lived in the county in 1943 as part of preparations for the D-Day landings.

Saundersfoot and Wiseman’s Bridge were among the locations used to prepare the men for the assault on the beaches of Normandy.

Now seventy-five years later Carew Cheriton Control Tower Trust has now commissioned a dedicated memorial marking their contribution to the Allied war effort – and county life.

Keith Hamer, a volunteer with the trust, said the idea had been years in the making.

"It came to me about three years ago. There are memorials elsewhere, and I thought why can’t we have one here for the people of Pembrokeshire?

“A lot of these men were only boys really, just teenagers, and some of them never made it home.

“It’s so important that we recognise the role they played."

Frank Harries was 13 when the Americans arrived, but still remembers it vividly.

“I only lived five minutes from the barracks and we saw all the jeeps and trucks coming in. A few of the Americans called us over, gave us some dollars and asked us to buy them cigarettes from the village.

“They gave us the shillings that were left over, so we were rich boys then.”