THE FIRST BIOGRAPHY TO TRULY SEPARATE FACT FROM MYTH AND LEGEND. The
story of Douglas Bader, the RAF fighter pilot who shot down twenty enemy
fighters during the Second World War despite having lost both his legs,
defies fiction. A fighter ace and highly decorated war hero, he became a
household name in the 1950s thanks to the bestselling book and
blockbuster film Reach for the Sky which charted his wartime exploits.
Indeed, his name remains the one the general public associate most with
the Battle of Britain. That he overcame his disability and flew into
battle - leading squadrons of Spitfires and Hurricanes in the epic air
battle of summer 1940 - is truly remarkable. Bader's first aerial
victory - a Messerschmitt 109 - was recorded over Dunkirk on 1 June
1940. During the subsequent Battle of Britain this remarkable airman
claimed the destruction of seven more enemy aircraft: Me 110s, Do 17s,
Ju 88s and another Me 109 falling to his guns. The legless airman was,
of course, rich material for the propagandists, who lost no time in
manipulating his exploits to increase Britain's morale. Newspaper
reports and radio broadcasts of his aerial victories abounded. Dilip
Sarkar has spent over twenty years researching the life and times of
Douglas Bader. The result is this book, written in close co-operation
with his fellow wartime pilots, which deconstructs the popular myth
cemented by wartime propaganda and the 1950s book and film Reach for the
Sky.
