Tom Neil: How I came to possess the silver spitfire

During the build up to the Allied invasion of Northern Europe, Battle of Britain hero Tom 'Ginger' Neil was assigned as an RAF liaison to an American fighter squadron. Acting as a British representative, Neil was tasked with negotiating and overcoming the countless culture clashes that existed between the two allies. As the Allies pushed east, Neil commandeered an abandoned Spitfire as his own personal aeroplane. Erasing any evidence of its provenance and stripping it down to bare metal, it became the RAF's only silver Spitfire. Tom Neil is now 92 and lives in Norwich with his wife Eileen who was a Fighter Command plotter when they met in 1940. Here he tells the story of how he came into possession of this unique plane.