@martindice5424
Whilst I would never question Bader’s courage, I would point to his back stabbing and political manoeuvring and arrogance. His attitude towards those of lesser rank was awful and whilst incarcerated in Cokditz he required a fellow inmate to carry him up and down the stairs every day and never thanked him once. A complete hero as a pilot and a total bell end of a man.
@mwmentor
I remember seeing a picture of Douglas Bader on the wall of the primary school that I attended when I was a child - he visited it somewhere in the 1960's. There is also a book written about him called Reach For The Sky as well as a movie of the same name.
@simonhughes-king
I met him once at a RIAT when I was a nipper. My Father was in marketing for Nationwide Building Society and they did the big corporate schmooze thing at the air shows. I think I was about 10 or 11. Bader was at the Nationwide marquee being looked after by my Mum. He liked her because she didn't like all the corporate bs and didn't care who he was, but she knew what he liked to drink and always kept his glass full. They got on well. He was famously grumpy, the legs were constantly aching. He looked down at me with a glass of bubbly in his hand and said "and what do you want to be when you grow up?" I said "Fighter Pilot". "Good lad good lad" he roared back and laughed. Those were the days. Met the King of Jordan too, who was big into aviation.
@saxon6
Bader was insufferable to his "batman" whose duties included carrying him up and down stairs as a POW in Colditz castle everyday. When the batman was proposed for release from captivity Bader forbade it. After the war he phoned the servant to inquire about his second set of legs. When the servant replied they had been left behind during a prisoner move. Bader cursed him and hung up. Prisoners of the Castle , Ben McIntyre
@Jon.Cullen
He was not flying alone when he was shot down, he was part of a multi-squadron sweep at the time. Some research has suggested that he was shot down by Buck Casson, a Canadian pilot of 616 Squadron in a case of mistaken identity for an Me 109. Adolf Galland himself researched this to find out who of his Luftwaffe pilots had shot him down, but could find no evidence that any had. Bader's popularity was certainly not universal, and even Johnnie Johnstone, who flew with him as a junior pilot, did not agree with all of his eccentricities. Some of the ground crew did not like him at all. One of life's strange coincidences, three of the top RAF pilots went to the same school, St Edwards. Douglas Bader, Guy Gibson and Adrian Warburton, although at different times.
@brianartillery
I saw him in 1980, at the RAF Museum at Biggin Hill. He was striding very purposefully, leaving a couple of staff members in his wake. Something I'll never forget.
@bobleenko512
The stories of these air monsters who saved the world are almost unbelievable. Who would have thought that no legs afforded him a g suit of sorts. Great stuff honoring an absolute monster!
@elfontanero1484
Bader was an odd mixture of genuine hero and absolute bastard. He had a vile temper, used the filthiest possible language even in front of women, and unlike most flyers was beastly to his ground crew, who rejoiced when he was finally shot down. His name was pronounced Baah-der, not Bay-der. He did NOT like to hear it pronounced wrong.
@dutchman7216
This was a wonderful documentary, thank you.
@arthurjennings5202
I remember reading about him in my school library in the 1950s. Very inspiring book. He really did give the Germans fits while a POW. They smuggled contraband in his legs to the other prisoners, some times his legs so heavy with loot, he could hardly walk.
@never2late_mtb349
The 'Big Wing' was only used in combat a few times as it was too big. It took to long to form up and was unwieldy and difficult to control. Whereas a German bomber raid might have been attacked 2 or 3 times on it's way to the target by single squadrons of 12 fighters (occasionally up to 3 squadrons), and again on the way out. Because those squadrons could be scrambled, be set to intercept and then disengage. land, re-arm, re-fuel and be ready to go again. These tactics had a higher kill rate than the Big Wings. The Big Wing could not form up in time to intercept a raid. In fact Park wrote a letter after the war explaining that when he asked Leigh-Mallory for support several of his airfields were bombed "whilst 12 Group wing was being dispatched, assembled and climbed in mass formation to the rear of my area." Bader, Leigh-Mallory and Sholto Douglas were busy in a pissing contest against Dowding for personal political reasons, whilst Dowding and Park were actually defending Britain. Park didn't have the same problem with getting support from 10 group. The Battle of Britain was won in part because Trafford Leigh-Mallory was not in command of 11 Group. Ergo Bader's Big Wing was not the tactic used as the primary defence.
@CaptainQuark9
Ooops! When you mentioned Bader's meeting with Adolf Galland, you called him 'the American'... Douglas Bader was very British, Dear Boy. Also, you keep using an American way of referring to RAF squadron numbers. It's not 'the two forty second squadron', but simply 'two four two squadron', or 'six one seven squadron' (the Dambusters).
@Franky46Boy
My father was an officer in the Dutch Colonial Army (KNIL) and met Douglas Bader when they were both a POW at Colditz (Germany). Bader is shown on the photo taken in Colditz ( 4:41 ).
@TCK71
It's pronounced "Baa-der"
@paulrobinson3649
Could you review the commentary, please? I'm sure that you accidentally made Douglas an American pilot when he was given the chance to inspect a Bf109.
@xfirehurican
My most prized WWII aviation print (framed in UV-protected glass and non-acidic materials) was purchased at RAF Duxford in 1985; Robert Taylor's, "Duel of Eagles", signed by Douglas Bader and Adolph Galland.
@Тонилед
A great man who inspired many, including our Soviet pilots, with his example. So the legendary Maresyev, after losing both legs, after leaving the German-occupied territory in winter, managed to return to the sky inspired by the example of this Englishman.
@markfryer9880
My ex-wife's grandfather flew Mosquitoes in the RAF and according to her grandmother, he couldn't stand Bader. He was a complex character and people either loved him or hated him. I think that some of it had to do with his actions in promoting his Big Wing. The British could be very reserved and to be promoting yourself or being lauded in the media was too much for the reserved types. There is no doubt that he was a man of great determination and he had a fire burning within himself as he was always competing with himself. He was also a product of his generation and his schooling, remember at that time public schoolboy's were being educated to take over running of the British Empire on which "the Sun never set!" He caused the Germans no end of grief because they had to respect his rank of Wing Commander, but they couldn't deal with his British Public School attitudes. On of his activities while a POW was "Goon bating" stirring up the German guards until they drew their pistol in frustration. At that point Bader would turn on the charm and leave the poor German feeling foolish for having overreacted. There were however some Germans that he didn't bait because he respected them. The Camp Commandant of Colditz was one such man that many of the prisoners respected because he was so fair and correct in his behaviour and his administration of the camp. Like I said Bader was a complex and flawed character, but he was one of the men that Britain needed in it's Darkest Hour during WWII. Mark from Melbourne Australia
@jackx4311
Bader may have been "afraid of nothing" - but there are some things a wise man IS afraid of, because they are bloody dangerous. Unfortunately, Bader couldn't tell where bravery ended and pig-headed stupidity began - which was how he came to crash and lose both legs. He was equally pig-headed about his 'Big Wing' ideas, and couldn't get it through his skull that the objective of the Luftwaffe was to put the RAF's forward airfields out of action - as this would give them air superiority over the English Channel (an essential requirement for a seaborne invasion). As Air Marshal Hugh Dowsing pointed out to Bader and Leigh Mallory, what was the point of Bader's Big Wing shooting down lots of German bombers AFTER they had trashed the airfields in Kent and Sussex? If that happened, the RAF would have to move their fighters further north, and the limited range of the Spitfires and Hurricanes would make it impossible for them to provide air cover for RAF bombers to attack a German invasion fleet. Another example of Bader's stupidity is that, according to Paul Brickhill's biography of Bader, the reason he went down over France was because he tried to fly directly between two Me.109s, ripping one wing off his own aircraft in the process. When I was in the RAF, I met people who'd been ground crew for Bader, and they all said the same thing; he was an arrogant, abusive snob, and a complete bastard to anyone he considered to be his social inferior.
@PlayboyHustler