The Battle Of Britain | Spitfire Ace Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader | Heroes Of WWII
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- Опубликовано: 10 июн 2023
- Captain Sir Douglas Bader, a successful fighter pilot with the Royal Air Force in the Second World War.
He is upheld as an inspirational leader and hero not least because he fought despite having lost both legs in a pre-war flying accident. His brutally forthright, dogmatic and often highly opinionated views (especially against authority) coupled with his boundless energy and enthusiasm inspired adoration and frustration in equal measures with both his subordinates and peers.
Bader joined the RAF as a Cranwel cadet in 1928. He was an above-average pilot and an outstanding sportsman, coming close to national team selection in rugby. Commissioned as a pilot officer in 1930.
As the Battle of Britain progressed, Bader often found himself at the head of a composite wing of fighters consisting of up to five squadrons. Achievements of the Big Wing were hard to quantify, as the large formations often over claimed aircraft shot down.
In 1941 Bader was promoted to Wing Commander and become one of the first ‘Wing Leaders'. Stationed at Tangmere, Bader led his wing of Spitfires on sweeps and "circus' operations over northwestern Europe throughout the summer campaign. These were missions combining bombers and fighters designed to lure out and tie down German Luftwaffe fighter units that might otherwise serve on the Russian front.
One of the Wing Leader's ‘perks' was permission to have their initials marked on their aircraft as personal identification, thus ‘ D-B ‘ was painted on the side of Bader's Spitfire. These letters gave rise to his radio call sign "Dogsbody."
By August 1941, Bader had claimed 22 German planes shot down, the fifth highest total in the RAF. On 19 August, 1941 Bader was shot down and taken prisoner. As he tried to bail out, one of his prosthetic legs became trapped in the aircraft, and he only escaped when the leg's retaining straps broke.
Bader was captured by German forces, who treated him with great respect. General Adolf Galland, a German flying ace, notified the British of his damaged leg and offered them safe passage to drop off a replacement. The British responded on 19 August, 1941 with the ‘Leg Operation'- an RAF bomber was allowed to drop a new prosthetic leg by parachute. The Germans were less impressed when, task done, the bombers proceeded onto their bombing mission to Gosnay power station near Bethune, although bad weather prevented the target being attacked.
Bader tried to escape from the hospital where he was recovering, and over the next few years proved as big a thorn in the side of the Germans as he had been to the RAF establishment.
He made so many attempts at escape that the Germans threatened to take away his legs. Initially held at, his ‘goon-baiting' of the camp guards reached such heights that he was finally dispatched to the "escape-proof" Colditz Castle, where he remained until the spring of 1945 when it was relieved by the 1st US Army. When Bader subsequently arrived in Paris, true to form, he requested a Spitfire so that he could rejoin the fighting before the war was over, only to be refused.
After returning to England, Bader stayed in the Air Force until February 1946. In June 1945, he was given the honour of leading a victory fly-past of 300 aircraft over London. He left to take a job at Royal Dutch/Shell resumed playing golf, an enthusiasm developed after his amputation, achieving a handicap in the low single figures.
In 1976 Bader was knighted for his services to amputees and his public work for the disabled. His workload was exhausting for a legless man with a worsening heart condition, and Bader died of a heart attack on 5 September 1982 at the age of 72, after a London Guildhall dinner honouring the 90th birthday of the Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris.
Bader's artificial legs are on display at the RAF Museum at Stafford, although this is not a museum that is open to the public.
#spitfire #battleofbritain #airplane 
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Did you know that Douglas Bader's daughter had an Art Store featuring WW2 paintings, in Old Town Alexandria, VA? I met Douglas there once, during an autographing session, and what a marvelous man he was indeed. 👍👍 10⭐ Countless🏆
The sound of that Merlin engine never fails to give me goose bumps. There is nothing else like it in the world
I went to an air show at RAF Duxford in the early 1990's and had the privelage to see a Supermarine Spitfire fly - the sound of that Merlin engine is unforgettable!
Whoever is doing the stills for your shorts is doing a beautiful job. The imagery is crisp and the coloration is really good. It would be cool if you can provide a link to copies the hi-res versions. Definitely keepers.
Thank you. They are not perfect, and they are done with little knowledge of colorization. As requested/suggested by a user, here are higher resolution version: twitter.com/Atellani/status/1668046627506880517?s=20 and twitter.com/Atellani/status/1668046737116635136?s=20
@@Dronescapes
It is amazing how colorized b&w photos can bring history to life. Thanks!!!
@@tombeers3489 You are welcome!
8:15 what happened to the speech? It was mostly blank.
Les ailes de la liberté dans un ciel de gloire
I dont get it. There was nothing about Douglas Bader in this video
Mk 1X Spit beautiful airplane
You picture shows Bader sitting on a Hurricane he didn’t fly Spitfires until after the Battle of Britain
Bader was CO of 242 Squadron , which flew Hurricanes during the Battle Of Britain.
He flew Spitfires before the Battle of Britain, Hurricanes during, then Spitfires after.
He was Flt Ldr with 222 Sqn flying Spitfires including Dunkirk. IIRC he also flew a Spit to lead his Big Wing when Spitfire Sqns joined them in September 1940. His comment was that they always had to wait for the bloody Hurricanes in the climb.
A mate of mine, one Sunday afternoon at mine watching Reach for the Sky suddenly sat up and shouted "F*ck! That's who he was! What a nasty bastard!"
He was working in a garage near Farnham in Surrey during the petrol crisis in the seventies. There was a huge queue for petrol and they had limits on how many gallons each person could buy.
Suddenly an ancient open top MG drove past the whole queue and my mate went out to tell this guy to foxtrot oscar.
The driver said "Fill it up!" My mate said "Sorry, you'll have to join the back of the queue and if we still have fuel when you get here you can only get 2 gallons."
The driver turned bright red and shouted "Do you know who I am? I'm Douglas Bader and I demand that you fill my car to the brim!"
My mate said "I don't care if you're the Queen of Sheba mate! Either queue or f*ck off!"
He said the guy shouted "Aaargh!" and drove off shouting obcenities!
He had no idea who Douglas Bader was and it had puzzled him for years... until that afternoon in the early eighties in my front room!
We decided that it was probably his bloody mindedness that got him through his accident but that's no excuse.
Oddly I lost both legs to sepsis and living in Kent there's a Spitfire that flies over most days. You can pay (a helluva lot of money) to fly in it as it's a 2 seater.
When I phoned to enquire if, like DB, I could fly in the thing the head pilot called me back and said "Well, you're in good company. I can't see a reason why not."
Haven't done it yet but it's on the cards. I wonder if my G tolerance will be higher seeing as I have no legs for the blood to pool in? It'll be interesting!
Since you're in Kent, do you know if that Spitfire is flying out of Headcorn? They actually have several 2-seaters that use that aerodrome during the summer months.
Interesting parallel indeed regarding the loss of your legs - although given the age of these machines I don't think they generally throw them about enough for G-forces to become an issue. 🙂
Hope you enjoy your flight when you do get to it (but how could anyone not?)
Fuck sake he must've drove around every petrol station in the south of England... unless everybody and his dog who I've heard repeat that urban myth over the last 5 decades supposed knows that same petrol attendant.
Never judge a veteran unless you've walked in his shoes... and NO ONE has walked in Bader's shoes or tin legs.
It was Bader's "bloody mindedness" (determination) that enabled him to return to operational flying, even though had lost both legs in an air crash. Not only return and lead a squadron, but shoot down about 20 German aircraft.!!
No wonder his 'personality' was described as "bloody minded" (remember he had to learn to walk again let alone fly) in order to overcome such a catastrophe.
One cannot switch such things as 'bloody mindedness' (determination) on or off, just because others don't like it. For many it's part of adapting one's life to overcome obstacles.
I know this from personal experience, so I greatly admire(d) the man.
@@electricmanist well said. Bader was also charismatic enough to remotivate 242 Sqn whose pilots were in complete withdrawl after their previous inept leadership. And he did so with them flying the outdated Hurricanes.
My father was a veteran of the RAF during and after the war, serving 22 years from 1943 to 1965, and always said that Douglas Bader was extremely unpopular in the service due to his nasty minded character.
242 Sqn certainly appreciated his leadership. He saved most of their lives and trained them well compared to their previous pitiful leadership.
By the end of 1940 Bader's squadron had shot down 67 enemy aircraft, for the loss of only five pilots killed in action.
The Spit can still beat China's J20 😅
Be the best with 34% Super-Marine Spitfires and 67% Hawker Hurricanes.
Very intelligent Jewish people, Americans & Brits and be the very best.
"Americans"? You mean all NINE of them?
Battle of Britain effectiveness of the Spitfire was far more than achievements of the Hurricane.
Spitfires shot down e/a at a rate of 61 per sqn, Hurricanes only achieved 46 per sqn.
Furthermore, those Spitfire kills comprised 58% of LW fighters (109s), whereas Hurricane kills over 109s was 36% of their victories (makes sense as they were typically after bombers).
Not sure where you get your squadron shoot down rates from but the postwar British Air Ministry analysis of claims during the battle of Britain credited the HIGHEST scoring squadron (that is Polish 303 Sqd flying HURRICANES) with 57.5 CONFIRMED kills.
@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 more recent analyses compare claims against LW records. Hurricanes were less effective overall. Yes, Poles had some good pilots, but they didn't really arrive on scene until LW ordered their fighters to stay with bombers, giving the old Hurricanes a better chance to mix it up especially when Me110s abandoned their role as hunters... yet the 110 still had the best kill ratio of the battle.
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In a few days…
Apparently he wasn't a nice chap and his Big Wing idea was a disaster
War like people are quite often "not nice". Its what comes of being driven, competitive & ruthless, with no time to be wasted on idle talk and superfluous pleasantries. What you won't know is that postwar Douglas Bader like many other injured ex-service personnel did unstinting work for disabled charities.
@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 oh I agree but he caused havoc during the BoB and in Colditz. After watching & reading Reach For The Sky, I thought he was a true British hero. Then as I studied the BoB more and learned a little bit more about him I thought hmmm. Then doing a bit more reading I thought I'm glad I never had to work/live with him.
@@Ettrick8 Ettrick, I also read "Reach for thw Sky" as a child in the 1950's, and in hindsight, I have never read a book so orchestrated to exploit the mood of post war Britain at that time, and it read, like a ready made film script, which eventually, it did!
He did outstanding work for the disabled post war. His influence during the BOB was a negative one- the Big Wing was not effective- if his tactical ideas had been adopted England would have lost the battle .
@@jerrypinner1671 I read how on a occasion when leading the Big Wing, that he flew off one way and the wing went another. The wings were too large to be effectively controlled and took too long to form up.
11 Group were also displeased with 12 Group because they should have been protecting their airfield.
I have heard stories, on the other side of the coin, about Sir Douglas
Like all prominent people, there is always stories. Many say that Chuck Yeager was a terrible person, but the same was said about Steve Jobs, Enzo Ferrari, and countless others.
@@Dronescapes Of course, they were, "Men of the moment"
@@Dronescapes the moreci find out about Douglas Bader the less I like him. Disobeying orders resulted in him crashing his plane and losing his legs and the Wayne treated hid batman at Colditz was horrifying
@@Ettrick8 Maybe if you were aware of his unstinting work for disabled charities post WW2 you would soften your preconception.
@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 Well, I've heard during his escape in France, and pushed an elderly French couple into hiding him from the nazis, and when he was subsequently caught,the couple were arrested and sent to a concentration camp , where they perished--he never said a word in their defence
why do americans pronounce it Aydolph the name is Ahdolph\'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
For the same reason why most of the planet, after centuries, still cannot pronounce Michelangelo properly, of Ferrari, or Peugeot (the list goes on, and on) 🙂