Douglas Bader
Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader, was a Royal Air Force flying ace during the Second World War, who achieved great success despite loss of the lower part of both his legs after a 1931 air crash, one amputation above the knee and the other below the knee.
Resuming flying in 1939, he became a front-line fighter leader. He was credited with 22 aerial victories, four shared victories, six probables, one shared probable and 11 enemy aircraft damaged.
Bader joined the RAF in 1928, and was commissioned in 1930. In December 1931, while attempting aerobatics at low level, he crashed and lost the lower part of both his legs. Having been on the brink of death, he recovered, retook flight training, passed his check flights and then requested reactivation as a pilot. Although there were no regulations applicable to his situation, he was retired against his will on medical grounds.
After the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, however, Bader returned to the RAF and was accepted as a pilot. He scored his first victories over Dunkirk during the Battle of France in 1940. He then took part in the Battle of Britain and became a friend and supporter of Air Vice Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory and his "Big Wing" experiments.
In August 1941, Bader out over German-occupied France and was captured. Soon afterwards, he met and was befriended by Adolf Galland, a prominent German fighter ace. Despite his disability, Bader made a number of escape attempts and was eventually sent to the prisoner-of-war camp at Colditz Castle. He remained there until April 1945 when the camp was liberated by the First United States Army.
Bader left the RAF permanently in February 1946 and resumed his career in the oil industry. During the 1950s, a book and a film, Reach for the Sky, chronicled his life and RAF career to the end of the Second World War. Bader campaigned for disabled people and in the Queen's Birthday Honours 1976 was appointed a Knight Bachelor "for services to disabled people". He continued to fly until ill health forced him to stop in 1979. Bader died, aged 72, on 5 September 1982, after a heart attack.
Early years
Childhood and education
Bader was born on 21 February 1910 in St John's Wood, London, the second son of Major Frederick Roberts Bader, a civil engineer, and his wife Jessie Scott MacKenzie. His first two years were spent with McCann relatives on the Isle of Man while his father, accompanied by Bader's mother and older brother Frederick, returned to his work in India after the birth of his son.At the age of two, Bader joined his parents in India for a year. When his father resigned from his job in 1913, the family moved back to London and settled in Kew. Bader's father saw action in the First World War in the Royal Engineers, and was wounded in action in 1917. He remained in France after the war, where, having attained the rank of major, he died in 1922 of complications from those wounds in a hospital in Saint-Omer, the same area where Bader out and was captured in 1941.
Bader's mother was remarried shortly thereafter to the Reverend Ernest William Hobbs. Bader was subsequently brought up in the rectory of the village of Sprotbrough, near Doncaster, West Riding of Yorkshire. Bader's mild-mannered stepfather did not become the father figure he needed. His mother showed little interest in Bader and sent him to his grandparents on occasion. Without guidance, Bader became unruly. During one incident with an air gun, Bader shot a noted local lady through a bathroom window, as she was about to enter a bath. Later, an argument with Derick about the suffering inflicted by a pellet saw him being shot in the shoulder at point-blank range. Bader was then sent as a boarder to Temple Grove School, one of the "Famous Five" of English prep schools—one that gave its boys a Spartan upbringing.
Bader's aggressive energy found a new lease of life at St Edward's School, where he received his secondary education. During his time there, he thrived at sports; he played rugby and often enjoyed physical battles with bigger and older opponents. The then Warden, Henry E. Kendall, tolerated Bader's aggressive and competitive nature. At one point, he made him a prefect despite what others saw as a strong streak of conceit in the boy. Fellow RAF pilots Guy Gibson and Adrian Warburton also attended the school. In later life, Bader's prowess on the rugby pitch was such that he was invited to play a trial with the Harlequins, but it is not clear whether he actually played.
Bader's sporting interests continued into his military service. He was selected for the Royal Air Force cricket team, to play a first-class match against the Army at The Oval in July 1931. He scored 65 and 1. In August, he played in a two-day game against the Royal Navy. He played cricket in a German prisoner-of-war camp after his capture in 1941, despite his later disability.
In mid-1923, Bader, at the age of 13, was introduced to an Avro 504 during a school holiday trip to visit his aunt, Hazel, who was marrying RAF Flight Lieutenant Cyril Burge, adjutant at RAF Cranwell. Although he enjoyed the visit and took an interest in aviation, he showed no signs of becoming a keen pilot. Still very sports minded, an interest which dominated Bader's formative years, he took less of an interest in his studies. However, Bader received guidance from Warden Kendall and, with Kendall's encouragement, he excelled at his studies and was later accepted as a cadet at RAF Cranwell. Soon afterwards, he was offered a place at Oxford University, but turned it down as he preferred Cambridge University.
His mother refused to allow Bader to attend Cambridge in December 1927, claiming she could not afford the fees. A master at St. Edwards, a Mr Dingwall, helped pay these fees in part. Due to his new connection with Cyril Burge, Bader learned of the six annual prize cadetships offered by RAF Cranwell each year. Out of hundreds of applicants, he finished fifth. He left St Edward's in early 1928, aged 18.
Joining the RAF
In 1928, Bader joined the RAF as an officer cadet at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell in rural Lincolnshire. He continued to excel at sports, and added hockey and boxing to his repertoire. Motorcycling was tolerated at Cranwell, though cadets usually took part in banned activities such as speeding, pillion racing as well as buying and racing motorcars. Bader was involved in these activities and was close to expulsion after being caught out too often, in addition to coming in 19th out of 21 in his class examinations; however, his commanding officer, Air vice-marshal Frederick Halahan gave him a private warning about his conduct.On 13 September 1928, Bader took his first flight with his instructor, Flying Officer W. J. "Pissy" Pearson, in an Avro 504. He made his first solo flight on 19 February 1929 after 11 hours and 15 minutes of flight time.
Bader competed for the "Sword of Honour" award at the end of his two-year course, but lost to Patrick Coote, his nearest rival. Coote went on to become the Wing Commander of Western Wing, British Air Forces Greece, and was killed on 13 April 1941 while flying as an observer in a No. 211 Squadron Bristol Blenheim, L4819, flown by Flying Officer R. V. Herbert when six of the squadron's aircraft were shot down over Greece. Coote's aircraft was the first of 29 aerial victories for the Luftwaffe ace Unteroffizier, Fritz Gromotka.
On 26 July 1930, Bader was commissioned as a pilot officer into No. 23 Squadron RAF based at Kenley, Surrey. Flying Gloster Gamecocks and soon afterwards Bristol Bulldogs, Bader became a daredevil while training there, often flying illegal and dangerous stunts. While very fast for its time, the Bulldog had directional stability problems at low speeds, which made such stunts exceptionally dangerous. Strict orders were issued forbidding unauthorised aerobatics below. Bader took this as an unnecessary safety rule rather than an order to be obeyed.
After one training flight at the gunnery range, Bader achieved only a 38 percent hit rate on a target. Receiving jibes from members of a rival squadron, Bader took off to perform aerobatics and show off his skill. It was against regulations, and seven out of twenty-three accidents caused by ignoring regulations had proven fatal. The CO of No. 25 Squadron remarked that he would order Bader to face a court-martial if Bader was in his unit. The COs of Bader's unit, Harry Day and Henry Wollett, gave the pilots more latitude, although Day encouraged them to recognise their own limits.
No. 23 Squadron had won the Hendon Air Show "pairs" event in 1929 and 1930. In 1931 Bader, teamed with Harry Day, successfully defended the squadron's title in the spring that year. In late 1931, Bader undertook training for the 1932 Hendon Air Show, hoping to win a second consecutive title. Two pilots had been killed attempting aerobatics. The pilots were warned not to practise these manoeuvres under and to keep above at all times.
Nevertheless, on 14 December 1931, while visiting Reading Aero Club, Bader attempted some low-flying aerobatics at Woodley Airfield in a Bulldog Mk. IIA, K1676, of 23 Squadron, apparently on a dare. His aircraft crashed when the tip of the left wing touched the ground. Bader was rushed to the Royal Berkshire Hospital, where, in the hands of the prominent surgeon J. Leonard Joyce, parts of both his legs were amputated—one above and one below the knee. Bader made the following laconic entry in his logbook after the crash:
In 1932, after a long convalescence, throughout which he needed morphine for pain relief, Bader was transferred to the hospital at RAF Uxbridge and fought hard to regain his former abilities after he was given a new pair of artificial legs. In time, his agonising and determined efforts paid off, and he was able to drive a specially modified car, play golf, and even dance. During his convalescence there, he met and fell in love with Thelma Edwards, a waitress at a tea room called the Pantiles on the A30 London Road in Bagshot, Surrey.
Bader got his chance to prove that he could still fly when, in June 1932, Air Under-Secretary Philip Sassoon arranged for him to take up an Avro 504, which he piloted competently. A subsequent medical examination proved him fit for active service, but in April 1933 he was notified that the RAF had decided to reverse the decision on the grounds that this situation was not covered by King's Regulations. In May, Bader was invalided out of the RAF, took an office job with the Asiatic Petroleum Company and, on 5 October 1933, married Thelma Edwards.