The man credited with inventing the Spitfire wanted to name it the Shrew

Pilots in the Second World War might have found themselves being ordered to “scramble the Shrews” if the man credited with inventing the Spitfire had had his way.

Reginald Mitchell, known as R J Mitchell, favoured the mole-like mammal to the name finally chosen by the aerospace company Supermarine for the fighter aircraft that has come to symbolise Britain’s brilliance in its darkest hour.

Paul Beaver, author of Spitfire People, noted that the name was imposed on the plane despite the objections of Mitchell, who described Spitfire as “just the sort of bloody silly name they would give it”.

Beaver, who was given access to the archive of Supermarine, the aircraft’s design company, said that the engineers considered several names beginning with S, including