Bader loses wings

Press, 8 September 1980, Page 4

Bader loses wings

By.

KEN COATES

in. Lon-

• don Britain’s most famous pilot, the legless Battle, of Britain wartime flying ace, Sir Douglas Bader, has been grounded. After more than 50 years in the air, he lost his flying licence after his annual medical check-up. He was not too worried. “When you’re 70,” he said, “they are always a bit watchful during the medical, and this ■ time they think I may have some-

thing wrong with m y heart.”

Sir Douglas, who joined the R.A.F. in 1928 and became a group captain, said that he was having treatment and hoped he would soon get his licence back. “It’s just one of those things,” he said. “They are quite strict about it, and quite rightly so.” After losing both legs in a flying accident', he was invalided .out of the R.A.F. well before World War 11. He rejoined the' R.A.F.

when war broke out, and saw his first action over Dunkirk.

Knighted four years ago, Sir Douglas was portrayed by Kenneth More in the film, “Reach for the Sky,” which told of his capture in August, 1941, after shooting down 22 enemy planes, and incarceration in Colditz until 1945. Now retired from Shell after heading the company’s aircraft division, he lives with his second wife, Joan; in Berkshire.