BECK ROW, England — Sixty years later, the lads were back.

About 100 Royal Air Force veterans who served at RAF Mildenhall during World War II returned to the base this weekend to mark the 60th anniversary of the war’s end and their role in it.

“I was so relieved,” recalled Bernard Dye, 81, who manned a gun on Sterling and Lancaster bombers. “I knew I got my life back.”

More than one remembered the good news being celebrated with a pint or two of ale.

“I think we had too much to drink,” recalled Douglas Davis, 82. “I think I was trying to ride a bicycle around a pool table.”

By the time the United States entered the war in the wake of Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, British forces had been fighting Germany for more than two years, beating back an attempt by Adolf Hitler in 1940 to bomb their island nation into submission.

Part of that defense was RAF Mildenhall, constructed as the winds of war began to blow on the continent and opened for business in 1939, months before the war began.

For 25 years, the men who served at the base, known collectively as the Mildenhall Register, have gathered there. This weekend, as in recent years, the 100th Air Refueling Wing served as host.

At midday Saturday, several of the veterans gathered at Bird in Hand, a watering hole near the base popular with airmen then and now.

“Happy, happy times here,” said Dye.

Around him, men sat together and reminisced, pulling the curtain from the years and becoming young men again.

For his part, Dye remembered the first German aircraft he shot down from his vantage point at the top of his Lancaster. It was night and the fighter came out of the clouds, pulling alongside only 50 to 60 yards from the bomber.

“He must have known we were close by,” Dye said after telling how his bursts sent the enemy aircraft spinning downward, “but I saw him first, didn’t I?”

Ken Monether, 81, said he joined the RAF with the hope of becoming a pilot.

“I could take off beautifully,” he recalled, “but when it came to landing, that was difficult.”

One of the oldest veterans present was Fred Coney, 89. “Behind my back, they called me Dad,” he remembered.

He was in Belgium when the war ended. “We knew the day before. They grounded us,” he said.

He said the local Belgians were invited to a party, but were subdued and quiet. He was told the Flemish-speaking locals were afraid to say anything for fear the Brits would think they were talking about them. That was the result of the years spent under the German occupiers, he was told.

“We put a stop to that,” he said.

Sixty years later, the resolve that won the war is still evident. Davis was asked about the long, dark years of the war as the cities of Britain were bombed and the country suffered shortages and deprivation.

“Defeat was never in the cards,” he said. “We just knew damn well the Germans weren’t going to win.”