Battle of Britain
There's always the point that Douglas Bader was ---- rather than hero; I used to work with a chap who was groundcrew at Tangmere ( shown in the film B of B quite correctly as the place getting bombed to bits, then the squadrons moving to the 'flying school' - Westhampnet, now known as Goodwood - my grandfather was a ground to air gunner there, but the only thing he got in his sights was crumpet !
Anyway I was told that on the day of Bader's fail to return, a party was held ! There was no doubting his fighting tenacity, just he wasn't so good as a human being.
It has recently been 'proved' - as much as anything can be - by Luftwaffe records & other sources that he was shot down, not collided with as he later insisted.
In 1994 I was engineer/deckhand ( long story ) on a 128' barge in Burgundy. One week I was doing an overhaul, so able to invite my then wife down.
We noticed a chap on his own in the restaurant, from a small British boat.
On asking him to join us, it turned out he'd been a Spitfire pilot, shot down quite early in the Battle of Britain.
He'd been a POW in the same initial camp as Bader, and mentioned " Oh yes, we all had a good word for Bader, but I can't repeat it in front of your wife ! "
Last edited by Double Zero; 10th Sep 2008 at 11:30.