Solent Sky Museum is set to mark the story of the 'remarkable' Spitfire

But the Spitfire’s success in outmanoeuvring and ultimately pummelling the Germans hung in the balance in the early days of the Second World War.

Now heads of a Hampshire aviation museum will mark the plane’s 80th anniversary by shedding light on the remarkable story of how workers launched a mammoth operation to save the war effort after the destruction of a key fighter-plane manufacturing plant.

And the historians are urging both veterans and civilians with memories of that chapter in history to share their stories.

The call comes as a separate campaign has been launched to raise £4million for a Spitfire statue in Mayflower Park after planning permission was granted.

Now the Solent Sky Museum is launching an open day to lay bare the horrors of the Blitz and focus on the dispersal of operations at the Spitfire factory in Woolston when it was bombed by the Luftwaffe – killing 110 men.

Employees from the supermarine workshops immediately set up makeshift bases in the city within weeks in venues such as barns, bus stations, garages and laundries to make Spitfire parts around the clock before they were fully assembled in Eastleigh.

Of the 22,000 planes made this way – 8,000 were built in the city.

Museum director Alan Jones, a former RAF squadron leader, is asking people to send photographs and stories of that time and will also film them during the open day on Saturday, March 5.

The 74-year-old said: “We are keen for people to share their memories of the Blitz so we can record them. We want people to send comments and anecdotes and share their stories even if they were children at the time, so people can know what they went through.

“The Spitfire was instrumental to the war effort and if they hadn’t done it this way we may not have been here today. This is a tribute to the people who built the Spitfire.”

Paying tribute to the pilots, Sqn Ldr Jones added: “These were young men, barely 20 years of age, who gave everything for us and flew those aircraft in appalling conditions.

"The Spitfire was cutting edge at the time due to its genius of design, and was fast and agile."

“The 80th anniversary is very important because in the next ten years many people who remember will be in their late 90s.”

Flypasts marking the anniversary of its first flight on March 5, 1936, from Eastleigh airfield, now Southampton Airport were cancelled.

The open day starts at 10am with members of the public invited in to share their stories from 12.30pm.

Share your views by calling 023 8063 5830, emailing aviation@spitfireonline.co.uk, or writing to Albert Road South, Southampton, Hampshire, SO14 3FR.

• The planned, 40ft-tall Spitfire monument earmarked for Mayflower Park is part of the £400million Royal Pier development and there are hopes it will be a world-famous landmark.
• The National Spitfire Monument charity is spearheading the plans and anyone wanting to contribute towards the campaign can do so by logging on to www.crowdfunder.co.uk and searching for ‘The National Monument to the Spitfire’.