Bader’s great escape from the Nazis to be made into a movie
THE story of how Douglas Bader recovered from having both legs amputated to become one of Britain’s greatest fighter aces is remarkable enough.
But now another astonishing but little-known chapter of his war career is to be told in a Hollywood film being dubbed ‘The First Great Escape’.
Bader – who lost his legs in a flying accident in 1931 – was shot down over France in August 1941 and ended up in a German prison camp in Warburg.
It was there that officer, who always made light of his disability and refused to even use a stick, was involved in a mass break-out that pre-dated the break in 1944 immortalised in the film The Great Escape starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough.
Bader’s life story has already been the subject of the successful film Reach for the Sky in 1956 starring Kenneth More.
This latest look at his exploits is based on a book on the Warburg escape by historian Mark Felton called Zero Night.
It was a plot hatched by Scottish lieutenant Jock Hamilton-Baillie, 23, and involved build folding ladders to escape over the wire.
Major Tom Stallard, of the Durham Light Infantry, teamed up with Bader on the planning. The fighter ace went on to describe it as ‘the most brilliant escape conception of this war’.
The ladders were made from wood from a wrecked hut and crafted in the camp’s music room, where the sawing and hammering was drowned out by the sound of instruments. They were disguised as bookshelves.
On the night of the break – August 30, 1942 – the prisoners managed to fuse the camp’s search lights and 41 men carrying four 12ft scaling ladders rushed the fence. One ladder collapsed, so only 28 made it over the wire, of which three made a ‘home run’ back to freedom.
Bader was among those recaptured but was such a nuisance to the Germans that he ended up in the ‘escape-proof’ Colditz Castle and remained in captivity until the end of the war. The rights to Felton’s book have been bought by the makers of 2013’s Saving Mr Banks with Tom Hanks.