that my grandad used to play rugby with and be friends with Douglas Bader. Pretty cool. I inherited a silver rugby club tray that was my christening gift, and it has a list of the rugby players on it, including my grandad and Douglas Bader.

Brilliant

Cheese

That is so cool!!!

WAUW!

BTW, UI guess it was before Baders accident.... Otherwise he would be even more impressive than I ever thought... "No legs? - HAH, I can beat them!"

Yeah, think it was. Back when they were either in public school or boarding school together. My dad told me that Bader escaped a German POW camp...without legs(!)

I saw a photo of him playing golf post war - looked like he'd just hit a nice drive off the tee - so I wouldn't be surprised if it was later than that.

You wouldn't expect someone like him to let anything beat him.

I always remember Bader on Parkinson's chat show back in the 70's. Absolutely hilarious, he was a very good guest and came across as a top guy.
Apparently the Germans used to take his legs away of a night to stop him escaping. There is a photo I saw somewhere of Bader sitting in a 109 with loads of German pilots crowded around. Amazingly one of them has a pistol drawn just incase he tried to escape, I guess they had great respect for him as well.

Cool story pepper.


Wheels

Pretty cool bit of history Pepper.Bader excelled at Rugby and boxing , he to captained the team and was up for national selection as well i think.Then there was golf which he was better than average at as well.He just did not let anything beat him.

Grandad in this pic Pepper?



F/C. M.W.S.Robinson
F/C. J.O.W.Oliver
F/C. T.N.Coslett
F/C. W.Sawyer
F/C. F.C.Daubey
F/C. W.H.Hodgkinson
F/C. E.A.E.De Pencier
F/C. N.E.Morrison
F/C.Cpl. C.E.J.Baines
F/C.Sgt. W.N.McKechnie
F/C. U/O. S.R.A.Elsmie
F/C.Cpl. P.B.Coote
F/C.Cpl. D.R.S.Bader
F/C.Sgt. R.L.Wallace
F/C.N.C.Walker

So much so they authorised the RAF to fly over the Channel and drop replacement prosthetics for the ones Bader lost when he bailed out over France. The Germans really treated Bader like an honour guest, sadly for them he apparently couldn't care less for their hospitality

Peppergomez, that is too cool. In the past few months I myself briefly met one young miss Freiherr Von Richtofen and an older miss Marin La Meslée, respectively great-(great ?)grand niece and niece of famous WWI and WWII aces, but your story beats mine.

Cheers

Nico

Wow , Pepper, really makes it all very real, doesn't it. Gives you that connection with it all, that takes it from the t.v. documentary and puts it into your hand, like touching history.
Bader was such a larger than life character. A bit mad, really! When the RAF let him back in to start flying, he did his first solo in a Tudor trainer. He actually dived down towards the ground, and slow rolled the airplane only 600 feet off the ground... the same manuever that almost killed him! Brave or nuts, I don't know.
He was such a pain in the ass after he was captured, even without legs, that he wound up in Colditz Castle. Even there he tried to escape.
I only recently found out something interesting, also. Don't know if it's old news. But it seems that the story that Bader went down after the '109 behind him collided with him, may be wrong. He may have been shot down by a Spitfire.
No German pilots reported a collision. However, one Spit pilot wrote in his report that he had blown the tail off of a Messerscmidt. He said that he noticed the German pilot having a hard time getting out of his plane.
No German plane had it's tail blown off during the engagement. And Bader struggled to get out of the stricken Spitfire for almost too long. The ground was coming up, and only by finally letting go of his artificail leg, did he finally manage to get out.
Looks like he had been the victim of freindly fire.

It is pretty much confirmed now that Bader was brought down by another spit. It's been painstakingly researched.

I can claim to be knocked down by Bader!
According to my father, when I was about 3, he had to take me to Roehampton limb centre to have an adjustment to his prosthetic leg as my mother was in hospital. (1953)
As he recalled, I was stood by the door to the waiting room when DB came crashing in followed by his retinue, sending me flying, he thundered on with a 'sorry old boy' without stopping, demanding immediate attention at the desk.
My Dad thought he was an arrogant arse; sorry.

From what I recall from the book I believe it was Adolf Galland who had the pistol.

He was undoubtedly a man of great fortitude and courage. But unfortunately he was not a very nice peson at all.

There is a photo I saw somewhere of Bader sitting in a 109 with loads of German pilots crowded around. Amazingly one of them has a pistol drawn just incase he tried to escape, I guess they had great respect for him as well.

This is not a pistol, this is gloves It was said by Adolf Galland and demonstrated by a bigger photo in french edtion of "Les Premiers et les derniers" in 1988 or 1989. Bader wasn't threatened.

I looked at my book and saw publication in 1985 !!! The man holding the gloves is Colonel Huth who lost a leg in 14-18.
Adof galland was asked about that pistol and answered that it was stupidities or exactly "malevolent foolishnesses" and recalled that it was impossible to take off with a Bf 109 without a man acting a starter outside the plane...Something that actually we all know... A second photo has a close-up that saw Bader smiling and not at all threatened by ...the gloves of Colonel Huth still in his left hand.

So did a lot of people apparently. I've heard stories about the way he treated junior officer 'helpers' in the POW camps. Having said that, I don't suppose you survive what he did and go on to forge the life and career he had without being an arrogant arse. The drive and the ego are all going to be part of the package.

Peppergomez, it's a cool story. Sounds like a very nice thing to inherit.