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The archives at the Imperial War Museums
(IWM) hold some 192 items relating to the
career of Sir Douglas Bader. These include
art, photographs, private papers and sound
recordings which provide some very useful
material for those researchers who are
interested in his distinguished career with
the Royal Air Force. His service during
the Battle of Britain and the continuing
controversy about the use of the ‘Big Wing’,
a tactic which was fiercely opposed by senior
commanders such as Air Chief Marshal Keith
Park, has been well covered.
Two of the most fascinating items (IWM,
Special Miscellaneous N8 and P8) are the
Central Flying School Report assessing
Bader’s ability as a pilot as ‘exceptional’
despite the loss of both legs and
recommending that he should fly fighters
and the pass issued to Flight Lieutenant Bader
granting him ‘permission to be absent from
Group Captain
Sir Douglas Bader
(A, 1923-1928)
his quarters after duty to 23:59 hours daily
to proceed to Red Lion, Whittlesford’, while
he was stationed with No 19 Squadron RAF
at RAF Duxford in Cambridgeshire, which is
now part of the IWM.
Owing to limited space, I am going to
focus on perhaps less well-known events
after Bader was shot down over France while
flying his Spitfire on 9th August 1941 and
taken prisoner by the Germans. Refusing to
be repatriated on medical grounds, Bader
was restored to full mobility when the RAF
dropped a spare tin leg during a bombing
raid to replace the right leg which had been
damaged when he bailed out of his Spitfire.
Bader was soon trying to escape and, when
he couldn’t, waging his own private war with
the Germans, indulging his penchant
for being difficult about anything and
everything if it annoyed and
aggravated his captors.
Eventually, in October 1941, Bader ended
up at Oflag VIB, a camp for captured British
officers. In early May 1942, most of the RAF
prisoners of war at Oflag VIB were suddenly
moved to a new camp at Sagan, Stalag Luft
III, run by the Luftwaffe. For a brief time,
Bader was held in the same compound as the
NCOs. As Sergeant Leslie Frith later wrote in
his unpublished memoirs,
What a Way to Win
a War
(IWM, Private Papers of L Frith, 91/6/1)
‘apparently he had been virtually thrown
out of his last camp as being too much of
a disruptive influence and frog-marched to
Stalag Luft 3 to start all over again.’ Very soon
Bader began to urge the sergeants to take a
more bold and rebellious attitude towards
their guards. Sergeant William Stevens
(IWM, W Stevens, Sound Archive
15608) recalled that he was ‘very
bumptious, of course, throwing
his weight about, “we must
do this, we must do the
other”.’ Leslie Frith,
although an admirer,
admitted that ‘we
were pleased to get
rid of him’ when
Bader joined
his fellow
officers.
By
Simon Innes-Robbins
(C, 1972-1977),
Senior Archivist, Imperial War Museum