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Who Downed Douglas Bader?
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I thought that was a good programme last night. It questioned Bader's claim that he was downed in a collision with a German plane. The programme suggested that the most likliest cause of Bader's downing was friendly fire.
Various Spitfire crash locations had been excavated but in the end it was careful analysis of the combat records that revealed the most convincing explanation - ie he had been accidentally shot down by one of his own side.
I think it interesting how long the real history of war can take to come out. Given the legendary status in which Bader was held if one had have suggested such a story in say the first thirty years following WWII it would have been quickly suppressed.
Various Spitfire crash locations had been excavated but in the end it was careful analysis of the combat records that revealed the most convincing explanation - ie he had been accidentally shot down by one of his own side.
I think it interesting how long the real history of war can take to come out. Given the legendary status in which Bader was held if one had have suggested such a story in say the first thirty years following WWII it would have been quickly suppressed.
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I don't think that it would have affected Bader's legendary status even if the 'true' story behind his shooting down had been made public.
I do think it would have had a devastating effect on the poor chap who supposedly did the deed! He would have been hounded from the country.
As Bader presumably covered this up for the benefit of his colleague as well is it moral to uncover this kind of thing and broadcast it all over tv? TV, and other media, today sometimes places more import on the truth than the people involved and what the truth might do.
As far as I am aware Buck died in the mid 90s, his wife is still alive, they have no children. If anyone knows that to be incorrect then feel free to let us know.
From my limited meetings with him Buck was a lovely gentleman and his wife a charming sweet lady. If she is still alive then I imagine she could be devastated by this but I don't think the programme heavily criticised him, it would just have been "one of those things"
I would rather hear the truth from the outset.
By finding out the real truth only after sixty years it does make one wonder how much else was distorted with the aim of making "us" look good whilst the "enemy" always looks bad.
I would have thought Bader's collision claim was a way of adding yet another kill to his spectacular tally rather than exhonerating his colleage Buck Casson. He obviously did not know it was Buck at the time but he could just as easily have blamed structural failure or even enemy fire - but no! he had to choose the more dramatic collision theory.
Indeed as the saying goes; The first casualty of war is the Truth.
As it happens "the truth" and let's be honest it is still only supposition could *not* have come out until after the end of the war and German airforce records could be used to cross reference to the British ones.
Or Bader may have had the intelligence to think that if the 109's were ahead of him and he had his tail shot off it could only be by someone who was behind him and therefore had to be one of his own squadron. So he lied to cover up for the sake of the team rather than for vainglorious reasons.
Or we could just agree with you that he was a lying cheat!
I know where my money would be going.
Bader did not join the group of 109's. He came up from behind them and realised what they were and turned away.
He may have misidentified them at first but realised soon enough what they were. As the commentary said the Spitfire and the 109f's had almost identical silhouettes and it would be easy to mistake them.
Easy enough for the other pilot (Casson), to see Bader's plane turning away from the formation, misidentify it as a 109 and shoot the tail off it. He even watched it go down until the pilot ejected without apparently identifying it as a Spitfire.
Kind of my point. It does still matter to his family members alive now if it's all dragged up so would it have been better just to let it lie?
Is the family of the fella who downed Bader better off now for knowing this?
I should think surviving friends and relatives of Buck Casson could be upset but does anyone think any the less of any of the pilots involved? I don't think so. If anything more aspertions were cast over Bader's character than Casson's.
But equally at that critical time would the Germans have been happy to let Bader relay his version of events back to England?
( especially when they knew none of their planes had collided with him )
I thought Bader's "collision" story only came out at the end of the war though possibly some of his escapee mates from Colditz brought the story home sooner.