Airlife's Classics S.
4 total works
Douglas Bader remains a legendary figure, and the best known of all the Battle of Britain aces. Having lost both his legs in a pre-war flying accident, Bader overcame this disability to become not just a superb fighter pilot but a tough and charismatic leader. At a critical time in the War, Bader persuaded his superiors that fighters were best employed in Big Wings and was given the chance to lead five squadrons. This he did with conspicuous success until shot down over France and captured. In addition to describing the dramatic aerial actions of the pilots involved, this book examines the tactics and strategy of the Big Wing principle drawing on the views and opinions of some of the greatest pilots of the Second World War including Johnnie Johnson, Laddie Lucas, Hugh Dundas, Alan Deere and Sholto Douglas.
In the pre-dawn darkness of 6 June 1944, the greatest armada the world has ever seen began to disembark an Allied invasion force on the beaches of France's Normandy peninsula. "Invasion '44" tells the story of that assault from the day over four years earlier, and only a few short weeks after the British disaster at Dunkirk, when a few individuals in the High Command began to turn their thoughts to the possibilities of an eventual return to the mainland, and the story continues up to the time when the Allied beach-head was firmly established on French soil. As the battle progresses, the reader is allowed to view each successive wave as it lands, follow the developing battle line inland, and keep an eye on the vital battles also developing on and beneath the seas off the Normandy peninsula and in the skies above it.
Based on taped conversations between the author and Douglas Bader, this biography of the legendary World War II fighter pilot covers his childhood, his career at Cranwell, and the accident in which he lost his legs, following which he was invalided out of the RAF, and later recalled. The remarkable phase of the war years is dealt with in detail - the return to flying, the Battle of Britain, the 100-or-so offensive fighter patrols, his collision in the air, and his years as a POW. The book then traces Bader's transition from war to peace, his growing fame, and his work for the disabled. John Frayn Turner collaborated with Bader on "Fight For the Sky", and is also the author of "The Bader Wing" and "The Bader Tapes".