Talk:Douglas Bader
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I added a note of the fact that a pub was named after Douglas Bader in Martlesham Heath, Suffolk. Bluewave 16:24, 16 September 2005 (UTC)
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[edit] Scottish ?
I`ve seen photographs of him in a kilt at several parties, celebrations etc, was he part Scottish ?
Scottish descent - the spelling of his second name gives a clue!
[edit] Shooting Down
Lets end this being shot down stuff. He was rammed, leave it be.
[edit] Bader was shot down
Although Bader always believed he was rammed he was wrong ; the "JG26 war diary" by Don Caldwell (published by Grub Street 1996) specifically links Bader's loss with a claim for Spitfires by Fw Mayer and Oblt Kosse of II/JG26. (see page 163) Evidence points to Mayer as the responsible pilot.
JG26 claimed 14 Spits for the day , of which 11 are accounted for; Fighter Command claimed 18 kills, though only 2 109's were lost- neither -I hasten to add- was by collision with a Spitfire; Bader's or otherwise. Surely the evidence is thus enough to discount a collision? Harryurz 14:02, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Dogsbody
I've amended the article regarding the use of 'D-B' as Bader's personal aircraft registration. During the 1940 Big Wing battles he flew a Hurricane marked with the 'LE' notation applied to 242 squadron; Usually 'LE-D'. The use of personal initials did not come into effect until much later in 1941 Harryurz 14:10, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
True, but also the use of personal initials was also reserved for officers of Wing Commander and above - in 1940 Bader was a Squadron Leader and was not promoted to W/Co until 1941.
[edit] Leg Operation
The first time i heard about this was on a documentry on uk history and i couldnt quite believe it, it always sounds like one of those things that happen in war that no body actually thinks happened. with the germans asking for a replacement leg and then once its delivered proceed to get bombed by the bombers.Corustar 01:41, 24 July 2006 (UTC)the
[edit] Leg Replacement
According to the TV documentary the British were offered the chance to drop Bader a replacement leg off from a plane given a free run, however Churchill turned it down and put the leg on a bomber who was undertaking a bombing raid.
[edit] Splash
"On 9 August 1941 Bader was shot down and taken prisoner". Where? The article gives no more detail than "north-west Europe" in the previous paragraph. Lupine Proletariat 11:40, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Friendly fire
Any stock in the Channel 4 documentary on this evening which suggests he was shot down by friendly fire by the only allied pilot shot down on that day Lionel "Buck" Casson. Only one German was shot down in that raid, and Casson after the war wrote Bader a letter say he shot at a single aircraft going south, when the tail came off, and it too the pilot a while to bail. They found the wreck of the other plane and it didn't have it's tail missing. Khukri (talk . contribs) 19:56, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
I was going to include a reference to the programme (although someone beat me to it!!); an interesting and recommended documentary, although it still doesn't emphatically resolve the circumstances of Bader's shoot-down- I guess we'll never know . Thanks Harryurz 08:53, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Bader shoot-down
Look, I hope I'm not messing with something, because I'm not readily familiar with how Wikipedia works, but there's a major error in this page with regard to this whole theory that Bader was shot down by another British pilot. The error needs to be removed by someone who knows more about manipulating these pages that I do. There is reference to the fact that the Hurricane had a similar silhouette to the Bf109...
"...'Buck' only had a few seconds in which he saw Bader and mistook his Hurricane for a BF-109. These 2 planes, in silhouette, look fairly similar. Ironically, Casson was also shot down and made prisoner that same day...."
The fact that the Hurricane and Messerschmitt has similar profiles is true, and was one of the things British fighter pilots were constantly warned about. But in March of 1941 Bader took command of the Tangmere wing -- WHICH FLEW ONLY SPITFIRES -- and the aircraft he was flying the day he was shot down was a Spitfire, not a Hurricane. He left those behind when he left 242(Canadian) Squadron.
Regardless of how his aircraft was downed--collision, enemy fire or friendly fire--it had nothing to do with the similarity in appearance of a Bf109 and a Hurricane.
Bader wasn't flying a Hurricane but a Spitfire.
[edit] Rugby
Does no one know anything about him being a rugby international - surely that should be in there. Petsco 08:54, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
- Nope he wasn't, he had a good start at Harlequins, was regular first teamer at outside centre, and talk was they thought he would be playing for England in the not too distant future, but how much of this was 'hyped' up by Bader I don't know. Khukri (talk . contribs) 13:52, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Hurricane or spitfire
I thought that Bader was a hurricane pilot and not a spitfire pilot.
Jeff 11:34, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
- He flew both. He started the war on Spitfires and transferred to Hurricanes when he took command of 242 Squadron. He then flew Spitfires again when he was promoted to command the Tangmere wing. Simon9 11:36, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Recent Vandalism
Thanks to everyone that dealt with the recent spate of vandalism on the Douglas Bader page. The author of these attacks seems to have realised that such behaviour is unacceptable and so lets hope there will not be any repetition.
[edit] Unhappy childhood ?
Reading between the lines of the Brickhill book, Bader would appear to have had a pretty miseable early life at times. They left him at home almost as soon as he was born and didn't meet him again till he was 2. He barely knew his father, who was away from home from when Bader was 4 and who came back from the war and took 5 years to die of wounds. At that point, aged 12, he moved to a different part of the country.
His life after the crash and RAF discharge can't have been much fun either; he had a dead end job and lived in a bedsit in St John's Wood which he had to climb stairs to reach.
It wouldn't have been the done thing to complain of such things at the time, or even when Brickhill was writing, but you can sure see where he got his toughness from.
He never had children. Were his crash injuries more extensive than is usually disclosed? Tirailleur 16:42, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Other RAF Amputees
I'm sure there were other amputees in the RAF, Colin Hodgkinson springs to mind, also had both legs amputated due to a flying accident. Am pretty sure that there was at least one other amputee who had lost only one leg flying in the RAF during WW2. A search for Colin Hodgkinson on Wikipedia brings up a musician who is still living. Can anyone else shed some light on this.? Mjroots 13:09, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
James Maclachlan was another fighter ace, who lost an arm flying Hurricanes over Malta in 1941 and came back to fly night Intruder operations with 1 Squadron over France, while Sydney Carlin lost a leg in the trenches WW1, became an ace with 74 Squadron in 1918 and rejoined the RAF as an air gunner on Defiants 1939-40 and as a Wellington air gunner to the famous W/C Percy Pickard. Both were sadly later killed in action. There may be others but these two ( along with Hodgkinson- who wrote a book and became an MP) are the ones who spring to mind. Harryurz 18:21, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
Colin Hodgkinson wrote a fine book called "Best Foot Forward" that would be a sound reference for a page on him. I'm keen to have a go at a page if anyone can give me a few simple hints on how to use this site. For instance, I'd have no idea to start a page on him, when a page with the same name already exists. I'm only just starting to use this place, and haven't registered yet. Steve
[edit] Temple Grove School
When DB was at Temple Grove, it had not yet moved to Crowborough. It was still in Eastbourne in the building which is now home to the Dental Estimates Board. (The location at E'bne is confirmed by Paul Brickhill in 'Reach for the Sky'.Mikeo1938 21:07, 12 August 2007 (UTC))
[edit] Street Names
Would it improve the article to include Google Map citations to each of the road names and pubs?
Signed// PS —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.128.251.163 (talk) 02:00, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
