War veteran, 88, foiled knife-wielding intruder by grabbing him and forcing him out of his home

Instead, the steely pensioner responded by grabbing the raider, trying to shake some sense into him and then chasing him out of his home.

Yesterday, after the career criminal was jailed for seven years, Mr Babik told how instinct took over and he risked his life to tackle the intruder.

Fighting form: War veteran Jan Babik fought off a knife-wielding burglar

The Second World War RAF radio operator said: 'I could have died that day, but at the time I didn't think about that. I just wanted him to get out of my house.'

Heroin addict Leigh Lees had first turned up at Mr Babik's home and asked if he had change for £20. Moments after widower Mr Babik said he could not help, Lees, 30, came in through the back door.

Grandfather Mr Babik, who was watching television in his living room in Mickleover, Derby, said: 'He was really frantic, rushing around my desk and screaming: "Where's the money? Where's the money?"

'He had picked up a knife off the kitchen table. I told him over and again that I didn't have any money. I tried to run to the front door to get out.'

Brandishing the eight-inch blade, Lees tried to shut him in but Mr Babik - whose experience of danger includes deciphering Morse code messages on the beaches of Normandy - was undeterred.

'Not a very athletic man': Leigh Lees, 30, who was jailed for seven years for aggravated burglary

He said: 'The keys were in the door, but as he was locking it I grabbed him from behind by the coat and neck and shook him.

'He wasn't a very athletic man, and the next thing I knew he was running towards the back door with the knife and keys to get out.'

Lees fled the scene empty-handed, but was later arrested and linked to a string of burglaries in which he targeted elderly people to fund his drug habit.

In one raid, carried out just three days earlier, he left pensioner Daniel Kumchyk, also in his 80s, with a bruised wrist after grappling with him.

Lees, of Hilton, near Derby, admitted aggravated burglary and possessing a blade in the raid at Mr Babik's home.

He also pleaded guilty to burgling Mr Kumchyk's house and asked for six other offences, including burglaries, to be taken into consideration.

Sentencing Lees at Derby Crown Court, Judge Rosalind Bush said veterans who had fought for their country and freedom deserved better than having to confront petty criminals in their own homes.

She told Lees: 'Someone who has had bad experiences in his life should expect to have a peaceful old age.

'Your trade is theft and burglary. House burglaries when there is a person in the house are the worst kind of burglaries and attract a heavy sentence.'

Mr Babik was born in Garvolin, Poland, and studied law in Warsaw before the war, which saw him captured by Soviet troops and sent to a labour camp.

He was brought to England in 1941 after Stalin agreed to an amnesty for more than a million Poles who had been deported to camps.

He was trained as a radio operator at RAF Madeley, Hereford, and took part in the Normandy landings, taking and deciphering messages.

The father-of-two, who moved to Derby in 1948, has lived alone since his wife Anna-Maria, whom he married in 1953, died 24 years ago.

Yesterday the former railway worker said he hoped Lees would emerge from jail a changed man, adding: 'I'm happy he's out of the way.

'Now he cannot harm any other people, and I just hope that he gets help in prison for the addiction of that drug that is poisoning him.'