Douglas Bader was a 21 year old pilot officer in the Royal Air Force in 1931. On a dare he tried a low roll in a Bristol Bulldog fighter, and aircraft he was unfamiliar with and caught a wing. He lost both legs in the crash, one below the knee and one above. He was fitted with two tin legs, retired from the RAF and went to work for Shell Oil Co. Bader returned to the RAF at the beginning of World War II and became one of Britain’s most famous fighter pilots. In the Battle of Britain, he led his squadron of Hurricanes and then Spitfires to kill after kill. On a sweep over France he collided with an ME109, which sheared off the fuselage of his Spitfire from the cockpit back. He struggled to escape the cockpit, as his leg was trapped, and was only able to bail out because the leather strap broke on his pinned tin leg. Bader landed in occupied France where he was captured by the Germans. They recovered his missing tin leg, repaired it and returned it to him. They later gave the British permission to overfly Germany with the specific purpose to dropping Bader another leg. The British declined the offer, instead dropping a leg on the return from a bombing raid. Bader then tied bed sheets together and slipped out a window of the hospital where he was being held. He was later recaptured and held in the mountain-top fortress known as the Eagles Lair, where his tin legs were taken away to keep him from escaping again. After the war, he returned to England and went back to work for …
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Alle Bilder ©, AP, dpa, Reuters, Grigorian/Polaris/laifCharlie, Riedl/AP, Alle Rechte © Studio — Produktion P. Lüpges United Blue Digital Studio London – Musik — Arrangement – Aufnahme & Mix – P.Lüpges Quelle Bildzeitung: Erneute Schock-Nachricht vom Golf vom Mexiko! Der entscheidende Test für die neue Auffang-Glocke wurde abgebrochen, berichtete der US-Sender CNN. Ist damit alles aus? Alle Hoffnungen im Kampf gegen die schlimmste Öl-Katastrophe aller Zeiten beruhten auf dem gigantischen Stahl-Koloss. Er sollte eigentlich das Leck komplett abdichten. Zahlen des Grauens: 464 Meeresschildkröten sind bereits ums Leben gekommen, ebenso 60 Delfine. Bislang sollen seit dem Untergang der „Deepwater Horizon” am 22. April zwischen 348 Millionen und 690 Millionen Liter Öl ins Meer geströmt sein. Hoffentlich wird dem bald ein Ende gesetzt!