AS John Anderson takes you through his meticulously completed RAF pilot's log, you would be forgiven for thinking he was reading straight from a Boys Own comic.

During hundreds of flights over North Africa and Europe during the Second World War, the Derby pilot shot German planes out the sky as he protected bombers repelling the advancing Nazis.

He saw comrades fall, lives lost, and bloodshed on the battlefields while living every young boy's fantasy – flying the legendary Spitfire plane.

And now, 65 years after he last got into a cockpit and the day before the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, he has once again flown as an early present for his forthcoming 90th birthday.

John, who was raised in Alvaston, said: "It was absolutely great being back in the air.

"The 65 years were gone in a flash and the inside of the cockpit had not changed one bit in that time.

"The pilot alongside me let me take the controls for 30 minutes and although I couldn't try any acrobatics like I used to, it was still a wonderful experience.

"The only other things I wasn't allowed to do were the take off and landing.

"I don't think the pilot was brave enough to let me have a go at those."

Pat Morley, John's youngest daughter, said the unusual present had been 20 years in the planning.

She said: "We first wanted to arrange it for his 70th birthday but we simply could not find a flight.

"Of course, most Spitfires are single seaters and those that had been converted to carry a passenger were privately-owned, so finding a flight became like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

"Then we found out that RAF Duxford offered flights in a Harvard, which is the next best thing, and it went from there."

Pat, 61, of Whatstandwell, who works as a teaching assistant at South Wingfield Primary School, said that with her father having two daughters, it was not until her son, Neil, was born that the interest in John's illustrious flying past really came to the fore.

She said: "When Neil was young he used to wear a T-shirt that said 'my granddad flew Spitfires'.

"He's 26 now and probably won't thank me for reminding him of that!"

A former Derby School pupil, John said he only ever wanted to fly Spitfires and enrolled at the Derby RAF Volunteers Reserve while still wearing his school uniform.

After training in Sussex, London, Cheshire, Weymouth and Cornwall, his first wartime assignment was guarding the coast of Kent in 1941.

John said: "The first solo flight I ever did was so exciting.

"Any pilot will tell you they never forget the first time they fly on their own.

"I was in the air for 40 minutes but I remember every second of it.

"It just felt so liberating."

The first time John flew a Spitfire he said he struggled to shift the grin off his face for days.

He recalled: "It was what I had trained for and the feeling of pulling back the throttle and feeling the power and noise of the engine just gave you a kick up the backside. You just had to scream, 'yeeee-haaa'."

However, it was not until he was shipped to Egypt, leaving England on his 21st birthday on November 9, 1941, that the real hardship of war hit home.

For months, as part of 33 Squadron based in El Alamein, he and his fellow pilots acted as top cover protecting British bombers as they targeted the oncoming German army.

John said: "During one bombing raid two Messerschmitt 109s appeared and one headed straight towards us, targeting my squadron leader's Spitfire.

"We returned fire and it ended up in a spin and I hit its body with the bullets.

"It nose-dived and exploded on impact.

"Another time eight of us were heading back from a mission and we were low on fuel.

"We were radioed that there was a German Junkers bomber above us at 25,000ft.

"We circled back and it spotted us and started to dive so we gave chase at high speed eventually shooting it out of the sky."

During his four years fighting abroad between 1941 and 1945, John shot down or damaged four German planes.

By the time he left Africa and went on to Greece his Spitfire became armed with bombs.

He said: "You would carry either two 250lb bombs under the wings or one bigger 500lb bomb under the body, keeping low and targeting German convoys or trains. It was like playing darts in a way.

"You needed that accuracy to press the button to drop the bomb at precisely the right moment, making sure you weren't too low to get hit by the blast as it landed."

While on a mission over what is now Macedonia, he saw one of his comrades shot down.

John said: "We were targeting these German bombers on the ground and I heard the gunfire and looked to my left to see the plane in flames.

"It nose-dived and crash landed."

John's last operational flight saw him pass the 1,000 flying hours mark and remarkably, despite the hundreds of missions, John's plane was never hit.

He had started in the RAF as a sergeant and worked his way up to flight lieutenant by the time the war ended.

John had met his wife, Doris, just before the war broke out in 1939.

Her mother and father were the landlady and landlord of the Blue Peter pub, in Alvaston.

After he returned home to Derby at the end of the war they married and, along with Pat, had daughter Gay Hennessey, 63, who lives in Oxfordshire.

John took up a role in the purchasing department at Rolls-Royce, a job he admitted was not quite as adrenaline-filled as flying a Spitfire.

"It wasn't anywhere near as exciting," he said, "but it was a lot safer."

Gay's husband Daniel followed in his father-in-law's footsteps and joined the RAF, finishing as a squadron leader, and the couple have daughters Rachel and Alexandra.

Pat, who is married to Colin, also has two children, Neil and Nicola, who accompanied John to RAF Duxford for his flight.

Doris died six years ago and recently John has moved in to live with Pat and Colin at their home in Hinderstitch Lane, in Whatstandwell.

Pat said: "It was wonderful being on the ground and watching dad fly again yesterday.

"He swooped down low at one point and we all waved.

"Then we finished off a perfect day with smoked salmon and champagne."