WWII Spitfire story

[b29flteng]

My Dad is 88 years old and has been talking war stories. He was a crew chief in the 109th. Tac Recon Sq. in England during WWII and worked on Mk.V Spits. At one of the airfields the local children would sneak through the hedgerows and hang out with the GIs. One of the crew chiefs was gruff looking, deaf (so he yelled a lot), and scary looking to a child. He caught some children coming through the hedgerow and yelled "Hey you, come here!". Of course the children were scared and came warily up to him, he said "Have you ever been in one of these Spitfires?". So he put them in the cockpit of one and asked "Have you ever run the engine on one?". So he reached over and started the engine for these children while they're sitting in the cockpit. Can you imagine these children ever forgeting that? Wow!