WHEN Les Kerswill woke up on the morning of his 93rd birthday he had no idea what the day would hold.

But the early mist worried his 84-year-old partner Betty Jarvis, who feared her very special present might have to be called off.

Fortunately the skies cleared, the sun came out and at lunchtime Les was strapped into a two-seater Robin HR200 light aircraft belonging to Bournemouth Flying Club for a fantastic flight.

Betty had treated him to a flying lesson for his 90th birthday and the Second World War veteran couldn’t wait to repeat it.

And to his great surprise and delight, he got a second chance.

“It was absolutely smashing up there,” he said after coming back down to Earth.

“It’s really a beautiful day to be up flying and they let me take the controls for a little while.”

On a flight that took him over the Isle of Wight and the Needles, his instructor showed him just how manoeuvrable the little plane was by banking and climbing.

“I really love it,” said great-grandfather Les, who lives at the Bournemouth War Memorial Homes, and knew from the age of 10, when he went up with Sir Alan Cobham’s Flying Circus, that flying was for him.

A veteran of Dunkirk, Les was among 600 troops who formed a last defensive line in a bid to prevent German troops from reaching the beaches.

More than 300 were killed in battle but their actions allowed more than 300,000 troops to be evacuated by a flotilla of little ships.

However, he was captured and taken to a PoW camp in Poland where he escaped and walked 1,300 miles across Europe before meeting Allied soldiers.

Still driving his car, he said of his flying lesson: “I would do it again. I’ll keep doing everything I can.”