Love it when this happens... Going through another stack of 📚 to place on the store shelves and having a peek inside this one 'Fight for the Sky' by Douglas Baker, I see an autograph of the man himself on the inside pages. Whose Douglas Bader? Take one stubborn, fiesty character and mix in a bucketed of courage and fight... Then you may have a little idea of the man. A quick biopic... -Think double amputee in a plane crash while performing aerobatics. -Think about his fight to be a pilot in the RAF at the outbreak of War. -Think RAF Air Ace of Battle of Britain with 22 confirmed kills. -Think shotdown over France allegedly by a confused spitfire pilot in a mistaken identity. -Think undiscovered spitfire to this day, which would a fantastic treasure hunt in solving the mystery. -Think of the feeling of going down in burning spitfire with prosthetic legs jammed in the cockpit. Only escaping when you open the parachute releasing the body. -Think demanding captive including new prosthetic legs been allowed to be sent from Britain, which was greenlighted by Goering himself. -Think absolute nuisance for his German hosts including the old tied sheets out the window escape method. -Think so much of a nuisance with multiple escape attempts that he is sent to Colditz Castle. A kind of Alcatraz for POW during the war where he remained until liberated by US troops in 1945. -Think befriended by Iconic Luftwaffe Air Ace, Adolf Galland, who invited Bader to talk to a group by Luftwaffe veterans after the war. Bader, on walking into the room sarconically stated "My God, I had no idea we left so many of you bastards alive" -Think a man renown for his profanity and very conservative viewpoints, especially controversially around immigration, Rhodesia, Death Penalty and use of nuclear weapons. -Think a staunch fighter for the rights of people with disabilities. That gives you an idea of the man who Douglas Bader was reportedly like. A man who always reached for the sky and what makes this book a little treasure available now @tally.ho.chap #douglasbader #raf #reachforthesky #airace #wwii #battleofbritain #peoplewithdisabilities #courage #tallyhochap (at Tally Ho Chap) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwnOrJelC4k/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1uievte03amc2
