Bader's Big Wing Controversy

A portrait of the famed World War II RAF pilot who devised a controversial air strategy against the Nazis during the Battle of Britain.

Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader remains one of the most famous RAF fighter pilots to date, perhaps even the most famous of all. A graduate of the RAF College Cranwell and a professional, career officer, Bader was a gifted sportsman and aerobatic pilot—but headstrong. After a crash that led to the amputation of both of his legs, the Second World War was this man of action's salvation. Passing a flying test, he returned to the RAF, first piloting Spitfires, then rising through the ranks to see action over Dunkirk and lead a squadron throughout the Battle of Britain. But it would be Bader's strategic proposal to engage the enemy German Luftwaffe with three, then five, air squadrons—a controversial formation that came to be known as the "Duxford Wing" or "Big Wing" —that would earn him an unexpected and unwanted notoriety with the RAF.

In Bader's Big Wing Controversy, biographer Dilip Sarkar not only explores the full story of the people and events that led to the creation of the "Big Wing" at Duxford, he also fully investigates the part that its men and machines played in the Battle of Britain story. In Bader's burning desire to propel 242 Squadron and himself, its leader, into the forefront of the action, the newsworthy acting squadron leader found himself used by darker forces, men with axes to grind and personal ambitions to further.