I see your bloody Baron and raise with Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader
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Did you know?..........
Douglas Bader crashed his plane at Woodley aerodrome the home of the Miles aircraft corporation, about 1 mile from where I live.
The aerodrome has long gone, in its place is a small aviation museum (which is very interesting) but through the middle of the old site is a bypass called "Bader Way" in honour of the man himself.
Many years ago, I was called to a crash in Bader Way, and who was involved, non other than Douglas Bader himself. He had crashed his Jag. As I got out of the car he said something along the lines of "Bloody typical, every time I come to Woodley I end up having a crash!" He literally crashed his car not 50 yards from where he crashed his plane and made history.
I got to know the man a little bit over the following weeks. His first wife (Thelma) had passed away and he re-married, and his 2nd wife refused to have anything from his war years in the house.
Even now every time I drive down that road the irony still strikes me of 2 crashes something like 50 years apart in the same spot.
www.usni.org
