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Douglas Bader was said to be the most inspirational fighter leader of the War, he was said to be arrogant opinionated and very courageous. In 1931 while performing aerobatics Bader crashed and was very badly injured, he had to have both his legs amputated. Bader by sheer force alone was accepted for flying duties at the outbreak of War. He flew Spitfires with 19 sqn then onto 22 sqn as a flight commander, he scored his first victory a BF109 over Dunkirk. In July 1940 he was given command of 242 sqn a mainly Canadian sqn which had taken a beating in the French campaign. Bader devised the Big Wing to take the fight to the huge German formations. Baders score during the Battle Of Britain was 11. In 1941 he was appointed Wing Leader at Tangmere, but it was as a fighter leader that Bader really stood out. It was said that Bader had an air of indestructibility about him even smoking a pipe in the cockpit of his Spitfire! On the 9th of August 1941 While leading his wing over France he suffered a mid-air collision with a Me-109 and he was captured by the Germans. He would spend most of the war in captivity, including time at the castle-prison Colditz for his escape attempts. Finally, in the spring of 1945, the American First Army took Colditz, liberating its prisoners, including Bader. Once released, he rushed to Paris demanding a Spitfire for one last fling before the war ended!! Permission was refused. He finished the War with 20 victories. Bader left the RAF in 1946, he died of a heart attack in 1982.
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