Bader (fourth from right)
with the predominantly Canadian flying personnel of No. 242
squadron. He quickly dispelled suspicions that he planned to
lead the squadron from behind a desk.
Few men become legends in
their lifetime. Douglas Bader was one of these men. Fighter
ace, international sportsman, constant rule-breaker and
incorrigible escaper, he spread exasperation and irritation
wherever he went. Yet his courage and determination in the
face of crippling injuries continue to inspire people all
over the world to this day.
Douglas Robert Steuart
Bader was born on February 10, 1910, in London, England, son
of Frederick Roberts Bader and Jessie Bader. From the start,
his life followed no placid pattern. When Douglas was a few
months old, his family returned to India, where his father
worked as a civil engineer. Young Douglas was left behind
because his family thought him too young for India's harsh
climate. He did not rejoin them until he was 2 years old,
beginning a long life as a loner. The Bader family returned
to England in 1913. The following year, when World War I
began, Frederick Bader went with the British army into
France. It was the last time Douglas saw his father, who
died in France of complications from a shrapnel wound in
1922 and was buried near the town of St. Omer. Twenty-one
years later, his son would be held prisoner in a hospital
not far from where his father was buried. Jessie Bader later
married a mild Yorkshire clergyman, Reverend William
Hobbs. Throughout his early years, Douglas showed a fierce
spirit of independence and nonconformity. He excelled in
sports such as rugby football; when he was captain of the
rugby team, his natural leadership abilities became
apparent.
In 1923, Douglas stayed
with his aunt Hazel Bader and her husband, Flight Lieutenant
Cyril Burge, who at the time was adjutant at the Royal Air
Force (RAF) college in Cranwell. That's when he first became
interested in airplanes. In 1927, Douglas decided he wanted
to fly in the RAF, despite disapproval of his family. In the
summer of 1928 he had won his cadetship. Bader reported to
Cranwell in September 1928, and his flight training went
satisfactorily. Not all of his flying was regulation and his
superiors did not like his rebellious nature. Halfway
through the two-year course, when the cadets took progress
exams, Bader came out 18th out of 21 cadets. Cranwell's
commandant, Air Vice Marshal Halahan , warned him: "You're
young, I can understand your trouble, but the air force
won't go on understanding. They want men here, not school
boys." Bader emerged from Halahan's tirade considerably
shaken, knowing the commandant was right. He studied harder,
and his flying became better than ever. Bader missed being
awarded the sword of honour, which was given to the top
graduating cadet, but he came in a close second.
After graduating from
Cranwell in 1930, Bader was commissioned a pilot officer and
posted to No. 23 Squadron at Kenley Airfield, flying tubby
Gloster Gamecock biplane fighters. Soon afterward, 23
Squadron was reequipped with Bristol Bulldog fighters. The
Bulldogs were faster than the Gamecocks but heavier and
liable to loose height rapidly in low-altitude manoeuvres.
On Monday, December 14,
1931, Douglas Bader flew from Kenley to Woodley airfield
along with two other pilots from his squadron. In the
Woodley clubhouse a young pilot was discussing acrobatics
with Bader, the Hendon star, and suggested that he give a
demonstration of low flying. Bader refused, citing his
inexperience flying acrobatics in a Bulldog. The matter was
dropped until Bader and the other pilots were leaving.
Someone dared him to do it. In some agitation Bader took
off, then turned back toward the field. Flying low and fast
across the field, Bader began a slow roll, but in his
inexperience with the Bulldog he flew too low. The Bulldog's
left wing struck the ground, and the plane cart wheeled
quickly into a tangle of wreckage. Both of Bader's legs were
crushed, his left leg under the seat, his right tom by the
rudder pedal. Bader was pulled from the Bulldog's wreckage
by shocked onlookers and taken immediately to the Royal
Berkshire Hospital, where he was placed in the care of Dr.
Leonard Joyce, one of England's best surgeons. Joyce
immediately amputated Bader's right leg above the smashed
knee and, several days later, the left leg six inches below
the knee. After his second amputation, Bader's condition
worsened. None of the doctors expected the 21-year-old pilot
to survive. But Bader had great will to live.
After a long, painful
recovery, Bader was transferred to the RAF Hospital in
Uxbridge in 1932. While there, he became acquainted with the
Dessoutter brothers. Marcel Dessoutter had been an aircraft
designer until he, too, lost a leg in an air crash.
Afterward he started a firm that made artificial legs of
light metal alloys like aluminium. Douglas Bader was the
first customer to require two artificial legs. Despite the
physical impediment, Bader began to remake his life both
physically and mentally. After several months of agonizing
and determined effort, Bader learned to walk on both "tin"
legs. He refused to use a walking stick, saying, "I'm going
to start the way I mean to go on." He soon began driving a
car again, with the pedals modified to accommodate his tin
legs. Bader's thoughts then returned to flying. After a
weekend spent with the Under-secretary of State for Air, Sir
Phillip Sasson, in June 1932, Bader's desire to fly reached
fever pitch. His host, who lived near Lympe airfield,
arranged a flight for him in an Avro 504 trainer. Bader's
handling of the Avro left nothing to be desired. Later, an
RAF medical board found him fit for restricted flying
duties. Soon afterward, in April 1933, Bader was informed by
the air force that he was to be retired on grounds of ill
health, which left him feeling shocked and numb. Within
weeks, Bader left the RAF on a total disability pension.
For six years following
his retirement from the RAF, Bader worked at a desk job with
the Asiatic (now Shell) Petroleum com-pany. His future, at
least at the beginning, looked bleak, but he was lucky in
his marriage to Thelma Edwards, whom he met while at
Uxbridge when she was working as a waitress at a pub called
the Pantiles. They married in 1935, and she was devoted to
him for 37 years. Once asked how he survived, Bader replied,
"I wouldn't have stuck it out without Thelma."
Despite his new life,
however, Bader longed to fly again. In September 1939, after
the start of World War II, Bader again applied to the RAF
for flight duties and was helped in his quest by an old
squadron friend, Geoffrey Stephenson, who was posted to the
Air Ministry. He attended a selection board headed by his
old Cranwell commanding officer, Air Vice Marshal Halahan,
who suggested to "give him A1B (flying duties) category and
leave it to the Central Flying School to assess his flying
abilities." Bader walked out of the Air Ministry feeling
that he was picking up life again from the moment he had
crashed. Bader's acceptance was conditional on his passing a
flying test at the RAF's Central Flying School (CFS) in
Upavon.
On November 27, 1939,
eight years after his accident, Douglas Bader flew solo
again at the controls of Avro Tudor K-3242. Once airborne,
he could not resist the temptation to turn the Tudor biplane
upside down at 600 feet inside the circuit area. Bader soon
moved up into the Fairey Battle, a single-engine, two-
seater day bomber, then to the Miles Master, the last step
an RAF pilot took before going on to Supermarine Spitfires
and Hawker Hurricanes. Two weeks after flying the Master,
Bader was delighted to get his chance inside the cockpit of
a Hurricane. From the start he felt a part of the Hurricane,
which was the most responsive aircraft he had yet flown;
after 20 minutes in the air, he made a smooth landing. In
February 1940, Bader joined No. 19 Squadron at Duxford. At
age 29 he was older than most of the other pilots in the
squadron. Two months later he was appointed flight commander
in 222 Squadron, another Duxford-based unit, reequipping
from Blenheim bombers to Spitfires. Before he took up the
appointment, Bader carelessly took off with his section with
his Spitfire's propeller set to coarse pitch (used for low
rpm cruise) instead of fine pitch that gave high rpm for
takeoff power, and he crashed.
Bader was uninjured, except
for bent legs and a badly dented ego. Shocked by his
stupidity, Bader freely admitted his mistake to 12 Group's
commander, Air Vice Marshal Trafford Leigh Mallory, who saw
it as a one-time mistake and did not cancel Bader's
appointment to 222 Squadron as flight commander, or his
promotion to flight lieutenant. Bader immediately began
training his 222 flight pilots in his own style of fighting,
quick to see that the standard Fighter Command tactics were
a waste of time. Afterward came hours of dog fighting
practice and convoy patrols. Yet nothing happened at Duxford
for 222 Squadron until June 1940. The squadron was sent,
along with other RAF squadrons, to cover the British and
French evacuation from Dunkirk. On one mission over Dunkirk,
while leading his flight after some fleeing Messerschmitt
Me-110s, Bader sighted four Me-109s approaching his flight.
Bader went after the German fighters. "A 109 shot up in
front; his thumb jabbed the firing button and the guns in
the wings squirted with a shocking noise," wrote Brickhill,
Bader's biographer. The 109 burst into flames and spun into
the ground - Bader's first kill.
In June 1940, Bader was
given command of 242 Squadron. A Canadian unit, the only one
in the RAF at the time, 242 had been badly mauled in France,
and its morale was low. When Bader first arrived at the
squadron's headquarters at Coltishall airfield, most of the
squadron's pilots were skeptical of their new legless
squadron leader, who, they thought, would lead them from his
desk. Bader quickly dispelled the idea by taking one of
242's Hurricane fighters and performing acrobatics over
Coltishall for a half hour, deeply impressing 242's pilots.
Bader quickly transformed 242 into a tight, tough squadron
through his courage, leadership and uncompromising attitude
toward his pilots, ground crews and the RAF high command,
with whom he soon had a major brush. After taking charge of
242 Squadron, Bader soon discovered that the unit did not
have the spare parts or tools to keep its 18 Hurricane
fighters operational. After trying to sort out the problem
through official channels, Bader signalled 12th Group
Headquarters: "242 Squadron operational as regards pilots
but non-operational as regards equipment." And he refused to
announce his squadron as operational until its lack of tools
and spares was rectified. Within 24 hours, 242 Squadron had
all the tools and spares it needed, and Bader signalled 12th
Group: "242 Squadron now fully operational."
The squadron, however,
took little part in the early stages of the Battle of
Britain, flying only convoy patrols and going after
occasional high-flying Dornier bombers. Bader shot down one
of these on July 11 during a rainstorm that prevented him
from getting a section of fighters off the ground. Bader
took off alone in a Hurricane, found the Dornier despite the
bad weather, and attacked it. He killed its tail gunner and
saw it disappear into a cloud. Certain it had gotten away,
Bader returned to base. Five minutes after he landed, Bader
was informed that a ground observer had seen the Dornier
crash into the sea. On August 30, 242 Squadron intercepted a
group of 30 German bombers and fighters attacking North
Weald airfield. Bader shot down an Me-110, and the rest of
his squadron claimed 11 kills. It was a respectable total,
but Bader believed that if they had had three or more
squadrons attacking the huge German formation, all of the
attacking planes would have been shot down. Thus, the "Big
Wing" concept was born. Supported by Leigh Mallory, Bader
was convinced that launching a large number of fighter
squadrons against the Luftwaffe armadas was essential for
the RAF's success in the battle. Leigh Mallory decided to
try Bader's wing in action. He grouped 242 with two other
fighter squadrons - 19 Squadron and the Czech 310 Squadron -
at Duxford.
Bader led the wing into
action for the first time on September 7, 1940, against a
large German formation heading for London. "We had been
greatly looking forward to our first formation of 36
fighters going into action together," Bader wrote years
later, "but we were unlucky." Having been scrambled late,
the wing was underneath the bombers and their fighter
escorts when they intercepted them north of the Thames. All
242 and 310 could do was attack as best they could while 19
Squadron's Spitfires tried to hold off the attacking
Me-109s. The wing managed to destroy 11 aircraft, with only
two Hurricanes shot down. Bader himself got a cockpit full
of bullets and the right aileron shot off his Hurricane.
After several sorties with three squadrons, two more - the
Polish 302 Hurricane Squadron and Auxiliary 601 Spitfire
Squadron - were added to the so-called Duxford Wing, giving
it five squadrons and 60 fighters. "We thus had three
Hurricane Squadrons which flew together at the lower level
(20,000 feet if we were called in time) with the Spitfires
protecting us 5,000 feet higher," Bader said. "It worked
like a charm once or twice, and the arrival of this large
formation in support of hard-pressed 11 Group squadrons was
highly satisfactory." The tactic really paid off on
September 15, 1940, when Bader's Duxford Wing helped 11
Group to break up a massed Luftwaffe attack on London.
When the Battle of Britain
ended, Bader was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC)
and Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for gallantry and
leadership of the highest order and became commander of the
Duxford Wing, which was later credited with destroying 152
German aircraft with the loss of 30 pilots. The Big Wing's
effectiveness became controversial - but not Douglas Bader's
leadership of it. In March 1941, Bader, now a wing
commander, left 242 Squadron and took over the "Tangmere
Wing." Consisting of three Spitfire Squadrons - 145, 610 and
616 - plus a Beaufighter squadron, the wing began a series
of air attacks against targets in northern France and the
Low Countries. While commanding the wing, Bader introduced
the so-called "finger four" formation, where the two pairs
of fighters flew beside each other, scrapping forever the
unwieldy three-aircraft section. Based on the Luftwaffe's
Schwarm formation, the finger four later became standard
throughout both the British and American air forces. Bader
really came into his own commanding the Tangmere Wing.
His
teamwork with Wing Commander A.G. Woodhall, the ground
controller during the wing's raids, was exceptional.
Receiving the broad picture from the ground controller,
Bader handled his three squadrons with remarkable dexterity,
seemingly able to foresee the critical points in an upcoming
engagement. He was able to keep track of events around him
to a remarkable degree. "Dogsbody" (the call sign for
Bader's wing) became an unwelcome and frequent visitor to
the other side of the English Channel. Often, coming back
across the Channel after a mission, Bader would flip back
the canopy of his Spitfire, unclip his oxygen mask and,
while holding the stick between his good knee and his tin
knee, light up his pipe. Pilots flying alongside Spitfire DB
would sheer off, half in jest and half in earnest, in case
Bader's plane blew up. For his brilliant and inspiring
leadership of the Tangmere Wing - which he christened "The
Bee Line Bus Service. The prompt and regular service. Return
tickets only" - Bader was awarded a bar to his DSO.
Bader seemed invincible -
but he was not. While leading his wing over France on August
9, 1941, he suffered a mid-air collision with a
Messerschmitt Me-109 and captured by the Germans. He would
spend most of the war in captivity, including time at the
castle-prison Colditz for his escape attempts. Finally, in
the spring of 1945, the American First Army took Colditz,
liberating its prisoners, including Bader. Once released, he
rushed to Paris demanding a Spitfire for one last fling
before the war ended. Permission was refused; Bader's
personal tally would stand at 22.5 German aircraft
destroyed. Bader returned to England and took command of the
Fighter Leader School at Tangmere, where he was promoted to
group captain. Later that year he commanded the Essex sector
of 11th Group at North Weald, and on September 15, he
personally led the victory flypast of 300 RAF planes over
London. The RAF offered him the rank and seniority he would
have enjoyed if he had not been shot down, but Bader felt
the peacetime air force would be anticlimactic after his
wartime experiences. Shell Oil Company offered him a job in
its aviation department, with his own airplane. Bader
thought about it for four months, then resigned from the
Royal Air Force for the last time.
After leaving the RAF in
late February 1946, Bader flew all over the world, often
with Thelma, touring Europe, Africa and America. He spent
many hours visiting veterans hospitals. In 1976 Bader was
knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his services to amputees,
"so many of whom he had helped and inspired by his example
and character." After Thelma's death, he married Joan
Murray, who shared his interest in public work for the
disabled. His workload would have been exhausting for
anyone, let alone a legless man with a worsening heart
condition, but iron willpower drove him on until August
1982, when he suffered a mild heart attack after a golf
tournament in Ayrshire.
Three weeks later, on
September 5, 1982, after serving as guest speaker at a
London Guildhall dinner honouring the 90th birthday of the
Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris,
Douglas Bader died of a heart attack. He was 72 years old.
"He became a legend at first in the personification of RAF
heroism during the Second World War," the London Times
obituary said.
Bader's Hurricane Mk I
from Canadian 242 Sq, LE-D V7467, during September
1940. Please note Leaders insignia on board, under cockpit
and personal emblem: 'kicked off Hitler'.