Product Description

In 1931, at the age of 21, Douglas Bader was the golden boy of the RAF. Excelling in everything he did he represented the Royal Air Force in aerobatics displays, played rugby for Harlequins, and was tipped to be the next England fly half. But one afternoon in December all his ambitions came to an abrupt end when he crashed his plane doing a particularly difficult and illegal aerobatic trick. His injuries were so bad that surgeons were forced to amputate both his legs to save his life. Douglas Bader did not fly again until the outbreak of the Second World War, when his undoubted skill in the air was enough to convince a desperate air force to give him his own squadron. The rest of his story is the stuff of legend. Flying Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain he led his squadron to kill after kill, keeping them all going with his unstoppable banter. Shot down in occupied France, his German captors had to confiscate his tin legs in order to stop him trying to escape. Bader faced it all, disability, leadership and capture, with the same charm, charisma and determination that was an inspiration to all around him.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38169 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

About the Author
During the war Paul Brickhill was shot down over German territory and sent to a prisoner of war camp. After the war he wrote about the numerous escape attempts in which he was involved in THE GREAT ESCAPE.

Customer Reviews

Per Ardua Ad Astra (Through Adversity to the Stars)
If one man truly embodied the motto of the Royal Air Force, it was Douglas Bader. The basic outlines of his story are known: pilot loses legs, goes on to become an ace in the Second World War, only to be shot down and spend the rest of the war in captivity. But what is not so well-known is Bader's struggle from his pre-war flying accident in which he lost his legs to "reach for the sky" once more. Brickhill strikes just the right balance in describing Bader's life--each part is detailed but not too much that the reader gets bogged down. Bader's rehabilitation is truly inspirational. Bader lived in a time when modern prosthetics were in their infancy. People then had a hard enough time just learning to live with them and do every day tasks--Bader was determined to drive and fly again. And he did. It is some mark of the man that when Bader was freed by Allied forces, his first request to the RAF was to find a flying squadron and get back to the war before it ended. Brickhill's account on suffers from two minor points. First, it was written in the 1950s. Bader died in 1982. This edition sorely needed a forward or epilogue written by an intimate or a historian which highlighted the man's life afterwards. The second point is that Brickhill's account is slightly dated in tone. For instance, in his relating of Bader's courtship of his future wife, whom he met while she was a waitress, Brickhill felt compelled to explain to the reader that his wife was only working as a waitress to get over a lost pet! (Working as a waitress apparently was not something a "respectable" woman would do!)

An inspirational man
The true story of a remarkable man who epitomises the grit and sheer bloody minded determination of the Brits during the Battle of Britain and there after. An amazing story of a man who on the verge of being picked to play Rugby for England has a 'dink' with his aeroplane and looses both his legs and hence his RAF flying career. Refusing to give up and with an annoying degree of persistence he manages to bounce back to get his wings at the start of the war and goes on to become a legendary fighter pilot with 22 'kills' to his credit before being shot down and captured. He casues havoc trying to escape and eventually ends up in Colditz for the remainder of the war. All who know the story of Bader realise he had something special, something within him inspired everyone he met. His story has been an inspirational legacy for years and will be for many more. A great fighter ace and an even greater inspirational character ....simply a legend!

will we ever see his like again?
Follow Douglas Bader from the trauma of his near-fatal flying accident to the skies of southern England and the hilarious escape of this legless man from POW custody.I met Douglas Bader in the 70's and can understand why he was an inspiration to RAF pilots and disabled people everywhere.