Fighters made frantic trails across the Hampshire skies, chasing one another to escape almost certain death at the hands of the enemy.

With the passing of 70 long years, the numbers of local people who can vividly recall those distant days are gradually dwindling.

Today’s generations can only imagine what it must have been like to be a pilot, perhaps not that long out of his teens, running towards a Spitfire after hearing the order to “Scramble”.

Grainy old newsreel of the dogfights give the modern day viewer only a vague inkling of the enormous bravery, and sheer skill the pilots needed to perform the lethal, aerial ballet.

The Echo archives hold many memories.

One particular report, its brevity somehow adding to the story, describes the scene at the crash site of a German aircraft, which had ploughed into a field near Baddesley.

“A special police constable had been detailed to investigate the site where a German fighter had been shot down and plummeted to earth.

“The aircraft had crashed with such force that the pilot and plane were completely buried. There were craters where the plane had exploded, destroying all trace of machine and men.’’ One woman was shot at by a German raider which swooped low over the playground of her Hampshire school, while a desperate duel in the skies was unforgettable for a Hedge End man as he rushed from his bath into the street to see a passing plane, and then remembered he was stark naked.

Another man recalled an incredible meeting between himself and a German pilot, who had bailed out and landed in a field near Twyford.

The German pilot said his orders were to attack Winchester but as he looked down through the bomb aiming sights he could not bring himself to release the explosives.

“I just did not have the heart to do it as I had been educated at Winchester College,’’ the pilot is reported to have said.