ON a summer's day back in 1944 a brilliant young pilot took off on a test flight in his crack high-altitude version of the Spitfire.

He knew he was at the controls of a miracle of engineering capable of giving Hitler a bloody nose. What a sight to show the folks back home!

The temptation was too much and young Victor 'Jack' Allen took a deadly diversion to Herefordshire. It was to cost him his life.

Jack's brilliant brain and irrepressible spirit had earned him the right to fly the very special Spitfire in the skies above a world at war.

Educated at Larkhill Academy and Lucton School, he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve at the age of 17.

He served a term at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was posted to a flying school in Canada. He made such rapid progress that he won his 'wings', returned to this country and was posted to 616 County of Yorkshire (Spitfire) Squadron, based at RAF Culmhead in the West Country.

Sgt. Allen twice flew on D-Day offensive sweeps.

His Spitfire MKV11, MB762 was the high-altitude version of the fighter and the 38th of only 140 built. Taken on charge on July 16, 1943, it had been with 616 Squadron since September, 1943, and had suffered battle damage on January 21, 1944.

Then, on that fateful day in 1944, Jack took off on a test flight in the vicinity of the aerodrome. Soon, he was 90 miles away, 'beating up' his parents' home at Buskwood Cottage on Dinmore Hill.

On his second pass up the valley, watched by his grandparents and sister, Pearl, the proud pilot made a fatal error of judgement. His propeller touched the ground.

The aircraft hit the pear tree orchard in front of the house and broke up, the Merlin engine becoming detached and bounding up the hill, narrowly missing Pearl.

Soon, villagers, including schoolboys Glen George and Bob Jaynes, were hurrying to the scene. An ambulance from RAF Shobdon arrived and PC Dick Tanner, later a well-known garage proprietor, assisted in removing the body which bore hardly a blemish.

The 19-year-old had died in his beloved fighter - not tackling the foe in some distant land, but just a matter of yards from his cottage home in the heart of the Herefordshire countryside.

His shattered aircraft, an incongruous sight amid serene beauty, symbolised the abrupt end of a life of enormous potential.

A Spitfire crashing on a 'flight of fancy' was not the sort of propaganda the RAF relished and accounts of the tragedy were few and far between.

But Dilip Sarkar, of the Malvern Spitfire Wreck Recovery Team, and his researchers were undaunted and their untiring efforts were rewarded with the discovery at the Public Records Office at Kew of detailed accounts emanating from Shobdon.

In fact, the tragic homecoming of Jack Allen featured in Dilip's book 'Through Peril to the Stars', which featured stories of fighter pilots who lost their lives during the Second World War.

One of the most heroic tales was that of pilot officer, Jack Pugh, a 20-year-old Spitfire pilot who selflessly gave his life to save that of another at Dilwyn.

Attempting a forced landing at Alton Cross, at the last second he saw a man working a horse in front of him.

P/O Pugh pulled back to avoid a collision and the aircraft stalled, hit a tree and exploded.