A war veteran who built a model of a German plane has hit back at a critic who said it was insensitive to display it.

The full-size model of a crashed Messerschmitt Bf 109 has been on display for months at the Lincolnsfields Children's Centre, in Bushey, as part of an exhibition on the Second World War.

It was created by Bushey resident and Second World War veteran Ian Peak, 81, three years ago to help educate children about the war.

It was based on a plane displayed at the RAF Museum in Hendon. Messerschmitt Bf 109s were responsible for more aircraft kills in the Second World War than any other plane.

Last week, however, the centre received a complaint from local resident Adam Becker who was quoted by totallyjewish.com as saying: "It is alarming to see a Nazi plane sitting metres away from where my grandfather, who fought in the Second World War, is buried at Bushey cemetery."

The centre decided to temporarily tape over the swastika and black cross but a spokesperson said the plane was not intended to cause offence and was there to help with education and to tie in with the site's historical links as an American airforce command centre.

The spokesman added that the centre had many Jewish trustees and had discussed the issue with people in the Jewish community.

Mr Peak said: "If this chap went to Hendon or Duxford or the Imperial War Museum there would be so many planes with crosses and swastikas. What do you want to do, paint them all over?

"I was rather upset at that. It's a part of our history.

"It's a completely authentic thing that happened during the war. When we saw something like it, we were delighted. It was a crashed German plane."

The centre specialises in out of school care and residential holidays for schools and youth groups, including Children at War education events letting children experience wartime life within original period buildings.

Mr Peak volunteered for the Royal Air Force when he was 17 years old and later spent four and a half years in the army.

He said: "I want to keep this going and teach people today all about it. So many children don't know who Churchill was. I feel it's so important, it's such a big part of our history that people need to learn about it.

"The thing that appals me is people who say that the Holocaust never happened. There's so much documented evidence, proof and living people with a number on their arm."