The Book

I can remember this day as if it were yesterday..I was fifteen at the time, and my love for books had started to show. And one of those days I was scouring my father’s library, where you could find a diversity of things between business and mechanics, electrical stuff as well as car related book. But two books in precise caught my attention they seemed quite old their covers were solid colors, one was blue and the other was off-white, so I took a closer look , of course the blue got my attention more and I decided to take a look inside. I ran through the pages and I found photos of world war two planes and of course since at the time I found myself attracted to these type of things, I went straight away to ask my father what’s that book? And he told me this is the life story of a British pilot and so is the other book. So he told me I can borrow the book on one condition to keep it in good condition since its 1951 published version. Just opening the book and checking the old printing and the feeling of the paper just takes you in a mystical adventure…

Later on as I grew up, this book has become an important piece in my life and my personality as it affected me in various different ways. I’ve read it over three times and I still do read it till this very day. Many of those who know me really well would have heard me talk about him a lot..

This is his story..

Born on February 21st 1910, Douglas Robert Steuart Bader came to life, kicking and yelling all he wants at St John’s Woods hospital,London. the second son of Major Frederick Roberts Bader of the Royal Engineers and his wife Jessie. His first two years were spent with relatives in the Isle of Man as his father, accompanied by Bader's mother and older brother Frederick (Derick), returned to his posting in India after the birth of his son. At the age of two, Douglas joined his parents in India for a year before the family moved back to London. His father, Frederick Bader, saw action in the First World War as a Sapper in the Royal Engineers, was wounded in action in 1917, and died in 1922 of complications from those wounds in a hospital in Saint-Omer.

Bader was shaping up to be quite a unique character very hard-headed and stubborn yet never turns down a challenge which would lead to his always getting into trouble. At one time he was playing with his brother Derick with a ball when the ball fell over the fence of neighbors and the fence was spike fence. Derick dared Douglas to get the ball and Douglas took the challenge ending up being impaled by his bottom on the spike. The nanny came over took him, and walked him home, during which Douglas never let out a sound and would only squeeze the hand of his nanny out of pain.

Douglas’s stubbornness never stopped at that. At the age of ten Douglas got into a fight with a fifteen year old child where he knocked him cold. Douglas stood his ground and as the teenager charged him Bader dodged his fist and put both his fists in the chin of the other boy knocking him out cold. For few moments Douglas was terrified thinking he might have killed the fellow, but he started to blink shortly after and everything was ok.

Douglas was a natural athlete he excelled in all types of sports from soccer to cricket. He won several cups for his schools Temple Grove & St. Edwards. Douglas was too fond with sports he barely did any effort in his studies and this was not due to the fact that he was not as smart in studying but he was too lazy to study.
Douglas was liked by many of his school mates to the extent that at one time when he dropped sick with scarlet fever. And his mother was asked to join him since they don’t think he will make it. The entire school went down to the chapel and prayed for him. Douglas pulled through after no one had believed that he had any hope.
One time after a summer holiday, where Douglas had spent time with some relatives, and he saw a plane for the first time. Douglas became fond of flying and had his mind on joining the RAF. But to do so he needed to study hard. Having no father and his mother’s income was not going to cover the costs of the RAF; Douglas received help from Reverend Henry E. Kendall. Who told him if he studies hard enough he would pay for his tuition fees.

Douglas studied hard and even attended special classes to make up for his lack of love of mathematics. But nevertheless he never missed a game or a match. And he even made the Times magazine headlines a few times.

Douglas made it and joined the RAF..

In 1928, Bader joined the RAF as an officer cadet at the Royal Air Force College
Cranwell in rural Lincolnshire. On 13 September 1928 Bader took his first flight with his instructor Flying Officer W. J. "Pissy" Pearson, in an Avro 504. And, after just 11 hours and 15 minutes of flight time, flew his first solo, on 19 February 1929, watched by his flight commander Flight Lieutenant (Later Air Marshal Sir) Douglas MacFayden.
As Bader later recalled, Pearson and the RAF were strict about the terms used by pilots, allowing the words "aircraft", or "aeroplane", but never allowed American terms such as "ship" or "kite".
As Bader reached the end of his two year course, he found himself in a two horse race for the Sword of Honour with Patric Coote but lost. He was commissioned into No. 23 Squadron RAF on 26 July 1930.

Bader was an above-average pilot and an outstanding sportsman; he played rugby union for Harlequin F.C. coming close to national team selection. He played one first-class cricket match playing for the RAF cricket team against the Army cricket team at The Oval in July 1931; his batting scores were 65 and 1.
Commissioned as a pilot officer in 1930, Bader was posted to Kenley, Surrey, flying Gloster Gamecocks and soon after, Bristol Bulldogs.

On 14 December 1931, while visiting Reading Aero Club, he attempted some low-flying aerobatics at Woodley airfield in a Bulldog Mk. IIA, K1676, of 23 Squadron,
Apparently on a dare, where he attempting a victory loop near ground level, the plane stalled and the tip of the left wing touched the ground and the plane crashed.

Bader was rushed to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, where, in the hands of the prominent surgeon Leonard Joyce, both his legs were amputated—one above and one below the knee. Bader made the following laconic entry in his logbook after the crash: “Crashed slow-rolling near ground. Bad show”
At these times stumps were made of plaster and tin metal and straps to be tied around the thighs to give more movement and they had no articulations, the mechanism was about throwing the leg forward and controlling its landing in the correct position.

At first when Bader became conscience about what happened he sunk into a depression but realizing this is how he would be for the rest of his life he decided that the legs will not stop him.

Douglas was given two artificial legs to try on and was told that he would have to walk with a stick. And Douglas refused. The doctor astonished and surprised he told Douglas that he would need them and Douglas’s reply was “I am never going to walk with a stick!” and he never did. In fact Douglas got a modified car, played golf starting with 9 holes ending with 18 and danced!

Still Douglas wanted to fly! And the RAF had no regulation for men with no legs at the time so they told him that he can be offered a desk job even though he took the flying test and succeeded but the medical check had no similar case and had to dismiss him. And Douglas refused. Douglas left the RAF and attempted to get a normal job and before that time he had shortly met and fell in love with his wife to be Thelma Edwards. Douglas & Thelma got married on October 5th 1933.

When the war broke out in 1939, Bader tried again to Join the RAF, and met an old colleague who wrote a recommendation for Douglas and as Douglas did his medical check he handed over the recommendation to the doctor which said lead to the meaning of “If this man is fit and has no other deficiencies other than his legs , let him pass”

Douglas passed Medical and again took another flying test and passed despite reluctance on the part of the establishment to allow him to apply for an A.1.B. – Full flying category status, his persistent efforts paid off. And he regained a medical categorization for operational flying at the end of November 1939 and was posted to the Central Flying School, Upavon, for a refresher course on modern types of aircraft. Starting with the Avro Tutor, Bader progressed through the Fairey Battle and Miles Master (the last training stage before experiencing Spitfires and Hurricanes).

In February 1940, Bader was posted to No. 19 Squadron based at RAF Duxford, near Cambridge, where, at 29, he was considerably older than his fellow pilots. Squadron Leader Geoffrey Stephenson, a close friend from his Cranwell days, was the Commanding Officer, and it was here that he got his first glimpse of a Spitfire. It was thought that Bader's success as a fighter pilot was partly due to having no legs; pilots pulling high "G" in combat turns often "blacked out" as the flow of blood from the brain drained to other parts of the body - usually the legs. As Bader had no legs he could remain conscious that much longer and thus had an advantage over more able-bodied opponents.

Later on Douglas left 19 Squadron to become a Flight Commander with No. 222 Squadron, also based at Duxford, commanded by another old friend of his, Squadron Leader Tubby Mermagen. And it was during this phase of Bader's flying career that he had his first taste of combat. While patrolling the coast near Dunkirk in his Spitfire at around 30,000 ft, he came across a Bf 109 in front of him, flying in the same direction and at approximately the same speed. Bader believed that the German must have been a novice, taking no evasive action even though it took more than one burst of gunfire to shoot him down.[28] His second encounter was with a Dornier Do 17 a day or two later, in which he narrowly avoided a collision while silencing the aircraft's rear gunner during a high-speed pass.

After flying operations over Dunkirk, he was posted to command No. 242 squadron as Squadron Leader at the end of June 1940; a Hurricane unit based at Coltishall where Douglas was to lead a Canadian Squadron which just came back from Dunkirk battered and with low morale. At first they thought the RAF was making a mockery of them. Assigning them a Squadron leader with no legs. But Douglas proved them wrong, one his first meeting with them he took his gear and did a low flying show in front of them which proved to them that he was no less of pilot than any of them and Douglas managed to capture their admiration and respect with his strong personality.
Douglas insisted his crew would look smart he had them all go to his tailor and had them get suits on his own expense. Not just that but Douglas declared his squadron un-operational when he realized that they had no spare-parts or kits for their planes and went through the normal channels and was told he would have to wait for three months which rendered Douglas furious and after which Douglas created a fuss in the air-ministry and the air minister himself called him and solved the matter and told him that creating such fusses isn’t the right way to do things.


Douglas’s pilots always praised him; to the extent even some of them wrote on their planes slogans such “Bader’s Bus still running!” Douglas was given several nicknames such as “Tin legged Bader”.

On 11 July 1940 Douglas scored his first kill with his new squadron. The weather was bad, the cloud base was down to just 600 feet while drizzle and mist covered most of the sky, a call came in for the squadron to go up and investigate the matter and Douglas refused and took it on his own responsibility that he would not let any of his pilots go up in this weather and he went up on his own. Forward visibility was down to just 2,000 yards. Bader was alone on patrol, and soon directed toward an enemy aircraft flying north, up the Norfolk coast. Spotting the aircraft at 600 yards through the mist Bader recognized it as a Dornier Do 17. He gave chase and fired two three second "bursts" of fire into the bomber before it vanished into cloud. The Dornier was later confirmed by a coastal observer, it had crashed into the sea off Cromer. On 21 August a similar engagement took place. This time the Dornier went into the sea off Great Yarmouth and the Royal Observer Corps confirmed the kill again. There were no survivors.

Later in the month Douglas scored a further two victories over Messerschmitt Bf 110s. On 7 September Douglas claimed two Messerschmitt Bf 109s shot down followed by a Junkers Ju 88 and a Dornier Do 17 on 18 September.

As a friend and supporter of his 12 Group commander Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Douglas joined him as an active exponent of the controversial "Big Wing" theory. Douglas was an outspoken critic of the careful "husbanding" tactics being used by 11 Group commander, and at the time Air Vice-Marshall, Keith Park. Douglas vociferously campaigned for an aggressive policy of assembling large formations of defensive fighters north of London ready to inflict maximum damage on the massed German bomber formations as they flew over southeast England. As the battle progressed, Douglas often found himself at the head of a composite wing of fighters consisting of up to five squadrons. Which proved to be effective since having up to 60 fighters up to a rivaling amount of 120 bombers with fighter escort was different than the usual single squadron handling all 120 bombers and their escort.

1941, Douglas was promoted to Wing Commander and become one of the first "Wing Leaders." Stationed at Tangmere, Douglas led his wing of Spitfires on sweeps and "circus operations" (medium bomber escort) 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 his initials marked on his aircraft as personal identification, thus "D-B" was painted on the side of Douglas's Spitfire. These letters gave rise to his radio call sign "Dogsbody."

During 1941 his wing was re-equipped with Spitfire VBs, which had two Hispano 20mm cannon and four .303 machine guns. However, Douglas flew a Spitfire Va equipped with just eight .303 machine guns, as he insisted that these guns were more effective against fighter opposition.
By August 1941, Douglas had claimed 22 German aircraft shot down, the fifth highest total in the RAF. On 9 August 1941, Douglas was forced to bail out over German occupied France after a mid-air collision, and was taken prisoner.

Douglas was captured by German forces and they 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 to St Omer, a Luftwaffe base in occupied France, as part of Circus 81 involving six Blenheim bombers and a sizeable fighter escort. 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.
General Galland stated in an interview that the aircraft dropped the leg after bombing his (Galland's) airfield.

Douglas 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. In August 1942 Douglas escaped with Johnny Palmer and three others from the camp at Stalag Luft III in Sagan. Unfortunately a Luftwaffe officer of Jagdgeschwader 26 was in the area. Keen to meet the Tangmere wing leader he dropped by to see Douglas. When he knocked on Bader's door there was no answer. Soon the alarm was raised, and a few days later Douglas was recaptured.

At one point chief commandant of the POW camps came to meet Douglas & told him that he is giving them too much trouble to which Douglas
During the search the Germans produced a poster of Douglas and Palmer asking for information. It described Douglas disability, but said "walks well without stick". It was decided to dispatch Douglas to the "escape-proof" Colditz Castle Oflag IV-C by 18 August 1942 nicknamed “The last resort for the naughty boys”. When Douglas was notified he was sitting in the yard with his comrades when the prison commandant addressed him and Douglas didn’t stand up. The commandant furious told Douglas he should stand up and Douglas replied that he doesn’t have to since his rank is higher than the commandant, the German commandant became furious and notified Douglas that he would be moved to Castle Colditz and Douglas said he wouldn’t! At this point the Commandant became furious and left. The prison Chief commandant talked to one of Douglas’s colleagues to convince him that it is a must that he should go!

After a long discussion Douglas agreed and on the day of the transfer, on his way out of his room to get onto the truck. German soldiers were standing in line in front of their commander to which Douglas moved to them and started inspecting them before getting on his truck which set the Germans on fire.

Douglas remained at Colditz until the 15 April 1945 when it fell into the hands of the 1st US Army. When Douglas 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 his return to England, Douglas was given the honour of leading a victory flypast of 300 aircraft over London in June 1945 and was later promoted to Group Captain. He remained in the RAF until February 1946, when he left to take a job at Royal Dutch/Shell.

Following the death of his first wife, Thelma, Douglas married Joan Murray on 3 January 1973. In 1976 Douglas was knighted for his services to amputees and his public work for the disabled. On 4 June 1979 Douglas flew for the last time as a pilot. He had recorded 5,744 hours and 25 minutes flying time. Adolf Galland followed Bader into retirement.

His workload was exhausting for a legless man with a worsening heart condition, and, after a London Guildhall dinner honouring the 90th birthday of the Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris, and Douglas died of a heart attack on 5 September 1982 at the age of 72. Douglas had previously suffered a "minor heart attack" three weeks earlier after a golf tournament in Ayrshire.