ON THE TRAIL OF AN RAF LEGEND
MY STOMACH is churning and my heart thumping as I reflect on one of Second World War pilot Douglas Bader’s darkest days.
The spirit of my late father is with me as I strap myself into the back of a tiny four-seater Robin aircraft on the very runway that to release one of his launched the Royal Air Force 100 artificial legs from the years ago on the outskirts of cockpit
Saint-Omer in northern France. and had to leave it
We used to share many an in situ before the aircraft plunged to enjoyable evening watching reruns the ground. of Reach For The Sky, the 1956 black Bader was able to release his and white biopic of Bader’s battle to parachute just in time, but the recover from having both legs impact when his remaining amputated when an acrobatic air prosthetic leg hit the ground caused stunt went tragically wrong, and his such damage that he was knocked journey to become a crack Spitfire unconscious and very nearly died. fighter pilot. His story of recovery in a
A short burst of speed and we Luftwaffe hospital, escape using tied rumble along the pock-marked bed sheets from the top floor of the Tarmac, past an imposing aircraft hospital to a Saint-Omer safe house, hangar built by the Germans after rearrest and eventual incarceration British crews had been forced to at the notorious Colditz Castle in give up the site. Then we are up, Germany, is scarcely believable. soaring into cloudless skies on a It prompted the good folk of crisp autumn evening, the sun Saint-Omer to launch The Douglas disappearing over the distant white Bader Trail, a fascinating two-hour cliffs of Dover. trip down memory lane, laced with
Headphones muffle the noisy anecdotes and visits to the most sound of the single propeller, and significant venues featured in his our French pilot Francois Mobaillylife. offers reassuring words over the My prized possession as a boy was intercom to replace the pounding an autograph book featuring from my heart. Douglas Bader’s signature, which
“It is a beautiful night, oui?” he my father helped secure as a press says, tilting the aircraft to the left so photographer in the Sixties, so the we can take in the beauty of the chance to tag along on the tour was Audomarois marshes, the spider’s too good to miss. web of wetlands that were sculpted It also afforded me an opportunity by monks in the seventh century. to see some of the jaw-dropping
Then we cross over pretty remnants of the Second World War Saint-Omer, the red tiles of the that lie on the outskirts of the town, ancient houses glowing in the and to visit some of the immaculate fading light that surround its Gothic war cemeteries in honour of my late Notre-Dame Cathedral. great uncle Wesley, who is buried
Moments later, Francois breaks nearby after falling in the Great War into excited chatter. “There it is,” he at the age of 19. says, nodding ahead and tipping the Saint-Omer is easily reached in a nose of the aircraft down.
“That’s where Bader came down. See, down in those fields.”
My fellow passengers strain for a view of the patchwork of green fields and golden trees below.
The calmness of the moment gives little hint of the sheer terror Wing Commander Bader must have been feeling that bleak August day back in 1941.
Already handicapped by the loss of both legs, Bader was forced to bail out of his stricken Spitfire after being caught in crossfire during a fierce dogfight with German Messerschmitt Bf 109s. He struggled little over an hour-and-a-half from London by train and car via the Eurostar.
First stop is the aerodrome at Longuenesse on the outskirts of the town, which gave birth to the RAF when the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service merged on April 1, 1918, making it the oldest independent air force in the world.
There was much pomp and ceremony to mark the 100th anniversar y earlier this year, acknowledging the role the airfield played in hosting more than 50 RAF squadrons over the years.
It also provided a base for the Luftwaffe to launch attacks on London during the Battle of Britain