IT WAS a Saturday in 1940 many people in the North-East and North Yorkshire would never forget. As the sun began to climb on that February morning, a barrage of anti-aircraft fire burst in the skies above the Tyne.

On the coastal batteries around Teesside and Whitby, guns roared continuously as a wave of German bombers swept in from the North Sea.

In the prelude to the Battle of Britain, patrolling RAF fighters swooped on the German planes and shot down a Heinkel near Tynemouth in one of the first aerial conflicts over the UK. Another bomber was seriously damaged and crashed in the North Sea on its return to the Fatherland.

Of the 20 aircraft that raided the coast that day, a third bomber was shot down near Whitby by an RAF pilot who was, in years to come, to upset more than the Luftwaffe. He would send a tremor through the constitutional foundations of the British establishment.

"The wreckage of a Heinkel is lying on the moors near Sneaton, about four miles from Whitby," said The Northern Echo on Monday morning, when the fuss had died down and a fresh fall of snow softened the muddy ruts of the bomber's final landing.

"One of its crew was killed and another died in hospital on Saturday. Another had his foot amputated and the fourth was taken to an internment camp."

A local resident, a Mr Wright, described the kill over Whitby.

"The fighters were giving it the big stick and their machine-guns were going for all they were worth," he told the Echo.

"The Nazi plane was flying so low that on the outskirts of town it just missed the roof tops before crashing into the field."

Satisfied the Heinkel would never fly again, Group Captain Peter Townsend returned to his airfield with his two companions, where - full of admiration for their enemy - they told The Northern Echo the German pilot had carried out a very skilful landing.

And so are heroes made.

Two-hundred-and-fifty miles away, Margaret Rose Windsor, a girl of nine, was oblivious to the drama. Another four years were to pass before the Princess and the war hero were to meet, and several more before they would fall in love.

PRINCESS Margaret was born on August 21, 1930, in Glamis Castle, the home of her maternal grandparents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and, as legend has it, the site of Macbeth's 11th Century stronghold.

She was the second child of the Duke and Duchess of York, and the first member of the Royal Family to be born in Scotland for more than 300 years.

At the time of Margaret's birth, her father was second in line to the throne and had no aspirations to take on the mantle of State from his elder brother, Edward, heir to George V.

But with the death of the King in 1936, and Edward's abdication 11 months later over his unconstitutional love affair with American divorcee Wallis Simpson, the duke found himself thrust upon the throne, where he ruled for 15 years as King George VI with his queen, Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, who was later to become the Queen Mother.

Unexpectedly, then, the young Margaret was pushed into the limelight from being the second child of a duke to the second child of a monarch, and once in that limelight found herself overshadowed by her elder sister, Elizabeth, first in line to the throne.

Margaret was educated at home with her sister. She learned to ride, enjoyed swimming and became a keen gardener. In 1937 she joined the Brownies, and when she was old enough enlisted in the Girl Guides, with which she retained strong links throughout her life.

Margaret's life was to change with the appointment of a dashing Battle of Britain pilot as equerry to King George in 1944. Group Captain Peter Townsend was a decorated officer, 16 years her senior, and every inch the epitome of a Boy's Own war hero in his speech, his sentiments and his mannerisms.

"One just did the job one had to do," he once told The Times in an article about his life. "I was furious the day I was wounded. We were having lunch. Can you believe it? And those so-and-so Germans came and interrupted us. It was the most basic bad manners, and we just had to go up and chase them."

Townsend was no opportunist, no upstart from the ranks with a penchant for the high life.

He was very much an officer and a gentleman, regarding those above and below him with equal respect.

"Even at the age of six, I knew my family belonged to the gentry," he said.

Of the working class he said: "I knew I must be neither familiar nor condescending, but courteous, respectful of their sterling qualities. They were the backbone of England, the archers of Agincourt, the Tommies who stuck it out in the trenches."

As the years passed, this charming man, this war hero who had praised the skills of his enemies, fell deeply in love with the young Princess Margaret. And she fell deeply in love with him.

At first, rumours of the affair were confined to the corridors of the royal palaces. She was 23 and needed the monarch's consent to be married. He was 38, had two children, and was divorced - and that was his downfall.

They first admitted to being in love in Windsor Castle's red drawing room in the New Year of 1953.

The rumours spilled from the palaces and ran through the country like wildfire. Speculation mounted, and confirmation of the love affair was beamed around the world on Coronation Day - June 2, 1953 - when television cameras caught a tell-tale gesture as the Princess brushed fluff from the group captain's uniform.

The world was entranced, but the establishment was rocked to the core. The Queen, as head of the Church of England, could not give her consent to marriage because divorce was taboo. It was unconstitutional within the Church of England for a princess to marry a divorced man.

"The situation in which the Princes and I found ourselves might be criticised, ridiculed, it might not last," Townsend said, many years later. "But at that moment it existed. It was a reality and a pretty dramatic one, considering all the other factors involved."

The Church of England and the monarchy found themselves in crisis. The debate about the love affair raged in the national and international press for two years.

There was talk of Margaret renouncing her claim to the throne, Cabinet members were said to be ready to resign if the marriage went ahead, and the Archbishop of Canterbury advised her strongly to think again.

If the Princess married Townsend she would forfeit her royal rights, her duties, her income from the royal list, even her right to live in Britain.

After spending periods apart and still finding their love irrepressible, the couple agreed to put duty before happiness and ended the affair with a public announcement on October 31, 1955.

The Church and the State could not suppress their relief. The Archbishop of Canterbury was said to have commented on hearing the news: "What a wonderful person the Holy Spirit is."

The love affair was over, never to be resumed.

Princess Margaret devoted herself to her royal duties. Townsend, the officer and gentlemen, left the country for a life of exile