Originally Posted by
treadigraph
My paternal granddad was a Spitfire pilot in WWII. So my brother told me. A bit of simple investigation shows he was actually in the RFC/RAF in WWI so MAY have been a pilot. I don't know. But the Spitfire bit was cobblers, appropriate as he later owned a shoe shop in Birmingham.
Maybe he flew one for a 'jolly'? I have a logbook to a Cornell instructor who spent the whole war in Canada teaching pilots to fly exclusively them, although he once flew a Hurricane for a 30 minute air experience flight and I guess he would always be known as "a former Hurricane pilot". Maybe that is how your grandad became known as a Spitfire pilot? Although on the flipside, several former WW1 German pilots also flew frontline missions (and scored kills) in the Luftwaffe in WW2, so you never know!
I worked with a lovely bloke a few years back who was insistent that his grandad was a Spitfire pilot in WW2, joining up at 16 and becoming a Squadron Leader at 17. I don't doubt he believed it was true (he was a very honest chap) as it was established family legend, but enough about his story flagged alarm bells to me and I could find no records of his grandad when I tried to help him research this character. Happy to leave him with the story though, could be true I guess but very unlikely and no need to burst his bubble....