A True Hero
Douglas Bader was a pilot during the Battle of Britain Of all the Battle of Britain pilots, the name that is still the most famous is Sir Douglas Bader. He destroyed 22 enemy aircraft and was a larger than life character - which alone made him a well-known name. But that he overcame losing his legs in a flying accident in 1931 to achieve all that he did has made him a flying legend. His accident happened at Woodley aerodrome - you may well have driven past the spot just off Bader Way. But his Berkshire connections go deeper than that. After the war he settled at a farm house in West Berkshire with his now widow, Joan, and step-daughter Wendy. Lady Bader told BBC Berkshire how one evening she found herself hosting the German pilot Adolf Galland, who was responsible for destroying more than 100 Allied planes. "They were sitting opposite me at the dinner and they were rattling away and I started to laugh and said; "Look at you, you've spent that last five yea