But the pilots recruited to fight were not always the crème de la crème in the eyes of the Air Force. Many had been rejected by the RAF before the war started and were called upon only after the outbreak of hostilities with the Nazis. One such pilot was “Johnnie” Johnson.

James Edgar Johnson was born in 1916 and, despite his university education, was rejected by the Auxiliary Air Force (AAF) in 1937 and instead became a civil engineer. As with many war heroes, Johnson got a second chance to prove his worth when war broke out across Europe.

He was immediately posted to Cheshire where he received training on the Supermarine Spitfire. By 1943 he had climbed the ranks to wing commander and was given command of 610 Squadron.

Throughout the war Johnson carried out more than 1,000 missions, including bomber escort flights as a wingman for Douglas Bader, air cover for the disastrous Dieppe raids – where he narrowly escaped a vertical dive – and four missions over Normandy on D-Day in June, 1944.

Probably the most remarkable aspect of Johnnie Johnson’s tale is that he shot down more enemy aircraft than any other second world war pilot but was never brought down himself – in fact he only sustained damage to his Spitfire on one occasion.

Throughout the war he brought down 38 enemy planes, even though a shoulder injury meant he didn’t join combat operations until after the Battle of Britain.

Johnson remained in the RAF until 1966 when he retired. By the end of his career he had been promoted to Air Vice-Marshal and had received numerous medals, including three Distinguished Service Orders and two Distinguished Flying Crosses.

He died in January 2001 at his home in Derbyshire, aged 85.

Atagirls!

Not all Spitfire pilots were men. One fifth of the pilots in the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) were women who had got their licences before the war. The ATA was the part of the RAF whose job it was to fly aircraft wherever they were needed, frequently to frontline bases. This meant pilots had to be able to fly any of the 143 types of plane that belonged to the RAF, not just Spitfires. They rarely had time to familiarise themselves with new controls before setting off. So the job required a high level of skill, dedication and bravery, because it was not as glamorous as being a fighter pilot but was extremely dangerous. One in six pilots flying for the ATA was killed. Amy Johnson, Britain’s most famous female pilot, died while on an ATA mission. But the “Atagirls” remained undaunted, and talk today with relish of the acrobatic stunts they undertook in the planes they flew. The Spitfire, with its ease of manoeuvre and zippy speed must have been a favourite.