STANLEY Hartill helped keep Spitfires flying during two vital conflicts – the Battle of Britain and the aftermath of D-Day.

In recent years, Mr Hartill, who has died aged 97, gave interviews to the Daily Echo and the BBC, and was treated as a hero at Bournemouth Air Festival.

Stan Hartill came from Wolverhampton, and as a youngster he took care of many repairs at his father Abraham’s bicycle shop.

In February 1940, he joined the RAF and became an airframe fitter with RAF 609 Spitfire Squadron at Middle Wallop, Hampshire. That summer, the Spitfires took part in the Battle of Britain, as Hitler tried to destroy the air force ready for an invasion.

“We weren’t allowed to leave the Spits. We had to sleep under the wing all night, ready,” he recalled.

For the rest of his days, he could vividly remember the routines for getting a Spitfire airborne. “After about an hour, they would start to return and we knew straight away if they’d been in action,” he said.

“We jumped onto the wing, pulled the canopy back and the first words were ‘Have you had any luck, sir?’

“They’d say ‘Yes, I downed one’ or ‘I think I’ve downed one so I’m only going to claim a half’ and things like that.”

The ground crew would check for bullet holes and refuel the planes for take-off.

“Once that was all done, we were simply stood down and we just talked amongst ourselves, read a book, listened to an old-fashioned gramophone, the Andrews Sisters, things like that. We’d hang about until suddenly there was a bell and when the bell rang, that meant action and everybody knew what to do,” he said.

By 1944, Mr Hartill was in RAF Servicing Commando, a group of around 180 highly skilled ground crew who were sent to Normandy to operate an airstrip.

His ship landed just south of Juno Beach in the early hours of June 7.

“When we landed, the first of our lorries went off and it hit a mine,” he said.

“The army lads had blown a breach in the sea wall for us to get back out onto the road and the very first thing I saw was an army lorry full of German prisoners of war. I’d never seen a German POW before that.”

Servicing Commando worked through the night to have an airfield ready at St Croix Sur Mer.

Canadian Spitfires landed there at 10am, prompting cheers from the ground crew “as if a football team had scored a goal”.

Two days later, an American Flying Fortress escorted by 10 fighters brought a VIP visitor – Supreme Commander-in-Chief General Dwight D Eisenhower, making his first trip by air to Normandy.

While the army was building the airstrip, Mr Hartill had visited Vur-Sur-Mer.

“Three of us went into this church and the whole length of the aisle, very neatly laid out on the left hand side, were dead Allied soldiers – and an equal number, exactly on the other side, were dead German soldiers," he said.

“It was quite pathetic because our lads, they didn’t one of them look a day over 18.

“That’s when I started to cry, because I felt,God almighty, they’re some mothers’ sons you know and they’ve given their lives. Let’s hope as they’ve given their lives, it’s for good and it’s appreciated.”

Mr Hartill was married for many years to Alice, who died in 2010. Several of her family were bookmakers and Mr Hartill took up the trade.

He owned a betting shop in Wolverhampton moving 58 years ago to Bournemouth, where he already had a holiday home. He owned two betting shops locally and took bets at race courses.

In retirement, he continued to watch sports of all kinds.

In 2014, he was among veterans given VIP treatment at the D-Day anniversary commemorations in Portsmouth. He met the Princess Royal there and also met Prince Harry.

In recent years he was helped by the RAF Benevolent Fund and was featured in some of its campaigns. He appeared in television appeals which are due to be screened later this year.

Stan Hartill’s funeral will be on Thursday, July 19, 1pm, at Bournemouth Crematorium. No flowers, but donations are invited to Macmillan Caring Locally and RAF Benevolent Fund, via funeral director Harry Tomes Ltd.