My secret to reaching 105! Fearless RAF ace who saw off Hitler explains all

What is the secret of a man who had a death wish during the Second World War but has lived to 105?

“You have to be lucky with your genes,” says Flight Lieutenant Colin Bell who flew Mosquito Bombers during daring raids over Germany.

“If you have the right genes and you live a sensible life you might, if you are lucky, live to be 100 or, in my case, a little bit longer. That’s the honest answer.

“But there’s much to be said for a combination of exercise, alcohol, and the love of a good woman – with the odd bad one thrown in.”

They certainly don’t make them like Flt Lt Bell anymore.

Still driving, still drinking, and having set a new world record for the oldest person to ever abseil, the air ace is one of the oldest and most exemplary members of the greatest generation and one of the last surviving members of Bomber Command.

Flt Lt Bell joined the RAF aged 19 and after flying training joined 608 (Pathfinders) Squadron based at Downham Market in Norfolk, successfully completing 50 missions, including 13 over Berlin.

The RAF legend, who flew Mosquito Bombers, turns 105 on Thursday.

In an exclusive interview with the Express at Biggin Hill, the famous Battle of Britain airfield in Kent, he said: “You might call it blessed, but I call it luck. I have been lucky all my life.

“A shell exploded underneath us over Berlin and chopped both engines. I remember saying afterwards to my navigator Doug Redmond, ‘You weren’t frightened were you Doug?’ And he replied: ‘No, I wasn’t frightened, I was bloody terrified.’ It later became the name of a book written by his son, Ian.”

To celebrate his momentous milestone Flt Lt Bell has penned his autobiography Bloody Dangerous which is published on his birthday.

In it he recounts extraordinary courage and sheer good fortune at surviving the war as an aviator with Bomber Command, the elite task force led by Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris, who engineered a plan to blitz Nazi Germany into submission by reducing the Third Reich’s industrial heartland to rubble.

Born in East Molesey in 1921 Flt Lt Bell was married to Kath in 1943, having wooed her in 1940 by taking her to the premiere of Gone with the Wind at the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square. They were married for 73 years. She was his inspiration, his rock, and his refuge.

The couple had two children, Martin and Vivienne, and today he lives with his granddaughter Karen in Eltham, south east London.

He is still a regular at the RAF Club in London. And it is where he will toast his landmark birthday with a luncheon for 105 friends that will “probably damn nearly bankrupt me”.

But he is bemused by all the fuss, saying: “I am not a celebrity. My only claim to fame is I am (almost) 105. I can think of other people who qualify at being a celebrity but not me.

“I don’t see myself as having given exceptional service. I stepped up when the need was there and I did a job that had to be done. I had the great privilege of having flown the best aircraft in the Second World War.

“I have been incredibly lucky all my life and continue to be lucky.

“When I was in my teens I used to hear my mother and father debating the possibility of war with Germany and they were appalled by all the casualties during the First World War and they would have done anything to avoid another war. They were appeasers to a man and, of course, we now know that appeasement doesn’t pay. They wouldn’t heed the warnings given by Churchill who of course correctly identified the Germans as arming up for another war. So they continued with this stupid line of appeasement and I think it is fair to say all their contemporaries were all the same. It was quite appalling and incredibly naive. Churchill said appeasement is like feeding a crocodile hoping you will be the last to be eaten.

“I hear some veterans say (the war) wasn’t worth it and I think they are just plain stupid. It was absolutely vital for us to fight and win and thank god we did. And I only played a minuscule part in it but I am proud of the fact I was able to contribute to the German defeat.

The purpose of Bomber Command was to go out and destroy the German manufacturing capacity – that and nothing more. We were not interested in killing the Germans, although inevitably by carrying out raids, large numbers did get killed.”

Across the road from the RAF Club where he will raise a glass with friends stands the stunning Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park – opened by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 her Diamond Jubilee year – and which honours the sacrifices of the 55,573 airmen who lost their lives.

Flt Lt Bell said: “So many brave young men lost their lives fighting the war against an enemy that should never have been.

“You must understand that what we were doing at the time was a battle for survival, and that’s what we were concentrating on. And it’s not just a matter of the people.

“Some people feel gratitude for what we did, but really we had no option. We just had to make sure that we won the war. And thank God we did.

“The situation is different now, but the dangers are the same. People talk too much about their rights and not enough about their duties.”

He added: “I was extremely lucky that my first raid, over Hanover in September 1944, was not my last. The only word I can find to describe the air overhead the city that night is to say that it was boiling. It boiled, like Dante’s Inferno.

“The world has changed so much in my lifetime. And yet, in some ways, it has not changed at all. How we do things changes, but we humans do not change much at all. There is still kindness and fun and there is still fear and

loathing. I flew exactly 50 raids over Germany, 13 of them over Berlin itself, which supplied enough terror to last a lifetime.

“It is certainly true that the intensity of those few months has never left me. Yet I remain optimistic for the future – just so long as we don’t forget what it is we stand for and just so long as we are prepared to fight for our freedom.”

John Nichol, 61, the hero RAF pilot shot down, captured and tortured during the first Iraq War in 1991, said: “Colin is a legend in military circles and his wartime story is an incredible inspiration to those of use who followed him into the RAF. Bloody Dangerous is a terrific read from one of the last of our nation’s great Second World War figures.”