Bader, Douglas
Publié le 22/02/2012
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Bader, Douglas (1910–1982) British aviator
hero
For Britons, standing alone against Germany during
after the Battle of France and during the
Battle of Britain, Douglas Bader was one of the
great heroic figures of the war and the embodiment
of resistance against all odds. Born in London,
the son of a soldier killed in World War I,
Bader studied at Oxford and at the Royal Air Force
(RAF) College in Cranwell. Commissioned an
officer in the Royal Air Force in 1930, he was
severely injured in a crash in 1931 and lost both
his legs. Discharged from the RAF, he made a
career with the Asiatic Petroleum Company. However,
at the outbreak of World War II, he appealed
for readmission to the RAF and, despite his double
amputation, flew and fought as a pilot in the 222
Squadron, taking part in operations at Dunkirk
and scoring two kills there, shooting down a Messerschmitt
Bf109 and a Heinkel He111. After this
action, Bader was given command of 242 Squadron,
a unit that had just suffered catastrophic 50
percent casualties. In an effort to rebuild morale,
Bader radically reorganized the squadron, thereby
incurring the wrath of higher command. His leadership
was vindicated, however, when, in its first
sortie during the Battle of Britain, on August 30,
1940, the 242 Squadron shot down a dozen German
aircraft over the English Channel in the space
of an hour, Bader personally downing a pair of
Messerschmitt 110s.
Despite the results he achieved, Bader was
repeatedly rebuffed by higher command over tactical
issues, particularly his outspoken belief that
RAF fighters should sortie out to intercept German
planes before they reached Britain. This tactic was
rejected on the grounds that it would take too long
to organize properly. Others pointed out that Bader's
overly aggressive tactics left RAF air bases
exposed and vulnerable to Luftwaffe attack. Eventually,
however, a version of Bader's tactics was
adopted in the so-called Big Wing strategy, whereby
large RAF fighter formations were deployed against
German aircraft over the English Channel and
even over northern Europe. This resulted in many
kills, but did leave some prime homeland targets
vulnerable. Nevertheless, Bader embraced the Big
Wing and, during the summer of 1941, downed 12
German aircraft, for a total of 23—making him the
fifth-highest-ranking ace in the RAF.
Bader's luck ran out on August 9, 1941, when he
collided in midair with another aircraft over Le
Touquet, France. He was able to parachute out of
his plane, but his landing broke both of his prosthetic
legs. Taken to a hospital, he enlisted the aid
of a French nurse to escape but was caught, arrested,
and sent to a prisoner of war camp. After several
additional escape attempts, he was sent to a camp
in Germany itself. There he spent the rest of the
war.
Liberated after the German surrender, Bader
was promoted to group captain but left the RAF in1946 for a career as managing director of Shell Aircraft.
In 1969, he become a member of the Civil
Aviation Authority Board, published a memoir of
the Battle of Britain in 1973, and was knighted in
1976.
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