- Page 6
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JULY 8, 1954.
F
TALE OF
STARTING TODAY... AN ENTHRALLING TALE
A DARE
A CRASH .
And the Bader story began
TN reticent official terms the report of the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell on Flight Cadet Douglas Bader summexi him up neatly: "Plucky, capable, headstrong."
His flying rating was "above average," which is RAF understatement for a natural pilot (the only higher rating is "exceptional," which is such a rarity as to be almost a myth),
Then the postings: "P70 Bader, D.R.S., to 23 Squadron, Kenley."
He rode his motorcycle to London and traded it in for his first car, a second-hand Austin Soven that looked liked a lacquered biscuit bux on pram wheels. In this, on an August morning in 1930. he drove to Kenley, brim- ming with content,
flrw
No. 23 Squadron Gloster Gamecock fighters. Top speed Was 156 mzh, but the stumpy fuselage made her the HIONI ngale little aeroplane in the RAF.
For the past two years two of 23 Squadron'a Gamesarios tel been pleked to do the combined. ai tik pageant, acrobatics Buder decided he wanted to be one of thone twer pibus next
time.
REACH FOR THE SKY
+
By PAUL BRICKHILL
run-
Later that mondh Day Armed that he ware to be his number twee art tenta.
The Tunc said that 175,000 were inskie Hendon Aerodrome the day of the display and that "hundreds of thousands of others enwded hillside and felds outside.**
Life was idyllic, with ymg. In bright sunshine they NEW games and fellowship, batteaed what The Tunes declared was by the tangible
'the event of the day" a Day prestige and
Bird Boder in the Gameveks comfort of EL permanent even-
"provided mission troni Cranwell. of all he liked acrobatics Gamecock.
the
joke about being "windy." He mede und like a dare.
Richardson took off first, and then 蟲 tight-lipped, angry Bader, As Phillips left the Kround Bader Was banking steeply, turning back, and slant- ing down for a low run across the field. A knot of young men watched from the clubhouse.
Just above the grass, rocking a little in the thermals, the Bulldog, engine bellowing, swept across the boundary fence, rush- ing at a spot beside the club- house. The rose lifted a frac- tion and she began rolling to the right.
Thaw up
He had the stick well over.... n little top rudder to hold the stick forward to keep it up and as she rolled upside down throttle back to keep the
He felt her start
engine alive. ing to drop.
The propelier and cowling exploded into the ground. The engine ford cul but, pinned by his straps, Boder did not feel anything ...
with curiosity that his legs were At least in peculiar positions. his right leg was. He could not see the left leg and forgot about it (I had buckled under the collapsed went so that he sitting on it).
Was
His right foot was tucked over right-hand corner the clean white overalls knees and Larry at the
Sulek hard over
www; the wings were vertical, glinting in in the far, the sun, and she was dropping and fast. Grimly he was reeting her wore
a series of rugger tests against England, rul ho was training harder than ever before. He wanted his "rap" so much he wouldn't even admit he had a round and shu was rolling at staming with blood that was of it fast when the left wing-lip chance for it.
hit the grass and jerked the nose down.
pumping in slow little squirts and spreading in filmy waves. On Saturdays he played for the Harlequins, knowing! thhitl
There was his knee through the international selectors were As propeller and cowling ex- the blood, and something sticking watching, and was dismayed to ploded into the ground Bie
through it. Looked a bit like feel that he was over-trained engine tore out, bouncing in
aloud
He and not playing well.
of flying diri and the
the rudder bar. Very odd. Bulldog seemed to crumple and regarded it in an abstracted way, The other pilots kept reassur-
a langis very and for a while I made no 1- ing him, telling him" be
Would Cartwheel to
fast. Pinned
his by
strops, pact
ugly thought the selectors named the Com- bmed Services team to play the only match against the Spring- boks.
an
Moni stacie ever seen in exhibition be out of his misery is on as Bader did not feel anything but crystallised: "Damn! I won't be
in the dying
12
thrilling
ten núna Full of cleanest trick flying, synchronised to a fraction of a second."
That same August he arrived al Kenley he was peited for the R.A.F. cricket te
In
When erickot was finalu, the Harlequins, famous amateur rugger club, asked hân to play atrina game. A few weeks Laybe they wis picked for the RAF XV, and again as a fly- half he was in both senses bead and shoulders above the ruck.
By his
21st birthday U)
Women sighed
PILOT
OFFICER
heard only a terrible noise.
able to play rugger on
All the airfield was suddenly day." sull, except for the Berce boll
Satur-
Although Bader's condition
of November the of dust round the awkward heap seemed hopeless, Leonard Joyce,
At the end Combined Services Icam Wan named, and there it was "Fly half: D.R.S. Bader."
Oμ Monday morning 14th Documber, 1031, (w of the
in the middle that looked like crushed brown paper. As the dust began to drift the men by the clubhouse were running.
one of the leading surgeons in England, operated the same day, omputating the right leg above the smashed knee. It was two days before Bader regained con-
was pilots, Phillips and Richardson, Everything was still closeness, and then Joyce took
object for youthful wore her-worstaip
flying over to Woodley Aerodrome, near Reading, to sea dashing airman, Philips's brother, who helped lu brittant ruger run the sero club there. Butler player and ericke tacked on to make a threesome, vitally Jundonne,
In the clubhouse Dome young 4 sinewy,
beautifully tuned the tight blue trousers and the pilots asked Douglas, the Hendon human machine that weighed sort mess jacket with blue silk star, questions about acrobatics, 1st, dlb. stepped, and had the lapels and gilt buttons.
Many and then someone suggested he temperament of a dynamo,
the airfield.
February 1931, his name was fr arch becoming widely identñed with specially at a Service dance in
AFTER the noise
everything was suddenly quiet and still. The
off the left leg six inches below the knee. For days Ender hovered between life and death.
The impact of losing his legs never hit Bader in one moment, cockpit or even mo day or a week. The was tilted. That realisation formed slowly in a Was odd: I leaned doped mind, which was mereltul. him sideways. crashed; but it was only a hazy idea and not very interesting because pain Bader said no, he didn't want was stabbing his back.
1 ebbed, leaving a dope
young women signed over hlin, give a demonstration beat-up of He must have
Then
His present to unself was to
he heard that he was trade in his little Austin biscuit- o the "A List," a roster of box for an MG sports car, which young volleers dise A posting he cherished.
All other
bverseus
t
The Hendon show had been
Slowly
Against the agonising urgency of the pain it was only a detali, and when the pain obbext and. allowed other things to matter his feelings were cushioned by Boating that left him.
in a Gamecock and the Bulldog passive torpor and sitting in the easily and somewhat detached was not quite the same (and strups, hands in his lap, he was in a kanquli unreal present, giner squadrons Sitting
The pavillon at uncomfortably he now had the Bristol Bulldog or Aldershot with the pads Harry Day's "show-off" remark), beyond that, nothing.
remembered placidly aware of the cockpit; unmindful of any future." the Siskin, only 23 Squadron waiting to bat, he mentioned The matter was dropped until
Christmas Day was a blank was left with Gamecocks, and hittie sady to Squadron Leader they were leaving, and a young Gently as the mind came into to him. So were the next two that was partly why they were Brian Baker that it would prob- man suggested it again. Bader focus he was aware that his days. Joyce was still afraid he ehosen ugal to do the cum- ably be his last game in England again said no, and someone knees were buzzing. The eyes would die from either throm- bined scrubsties at Hendon that for a long time.
grinned and made some barbed wondered down and absorbed bosis or sepsis. year.
C Fught Commander, Harry Day, was picked to lead the dean, and all the other pilots started training hard solection,
A nuisance
Jor
Baker commented: "I don' think so. You probably won't, be going till next year.”
Bader wanted to know why and Baker suld he fancied they were going to keep him al Kenley all winter to give him a chance to get his "cap" for England at rugger.
ROSSELLINI'S
At last 23 Squadron was get-TNGRID Bergman, in
STRICT unders ng Bristol Bulldog fighters to ING
<
said they were replace Gamecocks. The Bulldog
She could do 176 m.ph.
not
RO
500
fect,
Bader
made
nuisance
TRIUMPH
From Sydney Smith
ingly empty opera stage, he put on and switched oft ten different and crowded scenes of breathless splendour, each one in less time than President Coty could have taken in turning over a page of his programme.
£1 There is no scenery, yet it is palace just as fast as he could plain sack cloth gown, the most dramatic and colourful have done it on aims. From the though was the last word in fighters. her wrists manacled, stepped scenic spectacle that has come to blackness of the vast and seem-
down from a blazing smoking Paris for years. stake on the Paris Opera
consists of The cast of 300 of him-
Thore were minor drawbacks;
all singers,
yet more self wanting to
the was not as manoeuvrable as stage this week to take ton almost lower, Typically, one of his
from the audi- favoured occupations was to do heavier, which gave her a version of Joan of Arc. To- than from the stage. slow rolls "on the deck" at tendancy to sink faster on her day Paris critics are calling
back in the middle of a slow her "France's own Joan". roll. One tends to lose height in a slow roll and the engine tended
about 50 feet.
a Gamecock, for instance, being curtain calls for her latest singing comes
torium and behind the scenes
Rossellini has taken hold of the pleceu poem of Paul
J
HEROISM
minutes working off the drekip". By the time It had clarified inga so gently that he did feel a thing,
not into,realliy he was already temporarily adjusted to it.
new
It endeared him to the
Another reason was that ho girl from that moment. Dorothy did not-yet-miss his legs. Ho Brace was pelite, with A was comfortably in bed where friendly laugh, and used her hands tenderly.
legs wore only, remote exten- slons, and surrounded by attractive girls who brought him The pain was under control anything he wanted like devoted now, and about this Ume ho and adoring angels. There was remembered talking to his no need to move a finger. mother for the Arst time, though she had been sitting by the bed for days dabbing sweat off the grey faco.
They never mentioned
The past was past, the present
wis good and the future had not yet intruded. Lot it wait. His the nature, nearly always, so pruc-
first.
legs and most of the talk was tical, still had the capacity for
mate dealing with first things " stilled fumbling for subjects.
and shutting out others.
Just before Now Year, Joyce took the stitches out.
Suddenly and quite rapidly he began to get better. The face Alled out and got some colour, and the dark rings went from
round the eyes. So did the pain
The first thing was to get well again and that he was obviously achleving.
(wonLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED)
in the left log and they tapered off the morphia. He felt well and alert, yet still unconcerned Brickhill, about the loss of his legs.
There were several reasons for this. Over the days through
And the soothing morphia
the monopolising pain the loss had slowly infiltrated his mind 80 Оп the next
he had digested morning he that conscious of a new nurse gradually, absorbing It Into his by his bed, Sho brought mentality through a cushioned water and spent 20 pressure that did not Jar.
was
hol
"Reach for the Sky," by Paul published by Collins.
(s
✩
Next Wednesday
Bader learns to drive...... and meets a giri
To all who have had
a ‘shoť of penicillin
T
by JOHN DEANE POTTER
AIKE
Fleming's paper. And after
to make pure penicilin.
{
The scenes told the nightmare and mystic story of the great inoments of her life. They rose Husband Roberto Rossellini, Claudel set to music by Arthur before Joan Low nerobatics were strictly
as the flames THE China' Mail today And then Fleming's discovery to cut upside down. The trick banned, though come people producer of this newest version Honeggar and treated it with climbed towards her.
other, was not to fly into the ground, good-humouredly ignored that,
of the Maid of Oricana story, trick lighting effects that switch
looks over the shoulder was taken up by two
Australian research and part of the charm was that
took only one of the calls with the scenes as swiftly as a film.
The
loat is a remarkable
of the man whose methe to try this trick was a court-
scientist Howard Florey, and in November
his wife. But if the applause In fact, Rosseliini has brought climax. a night com-
There is the Bergman, name will always be asso- his colleague Boris Ernst Chain, martial offence,
mandor spotted Pilot Officer from the 2,000 gala audience, led the 9-D Bound and screen Joan in torment at the stake... Bader doing low aerobatics and by France's President Coty, was technique to the stage.
alowly being killed by the smoke clated with one of the great Florey and Chain read There were other activities "beating up" the airfield. Day anything to judgo by, Roberto,
and flames. Suddenly the crowds healing discoveries of the cricket, for instance. Early in had him on the mat and told him from behind tite scenes, had From backstage, like an in Rouen market place watching century.
years of research they managed KEY June, Bader was picked to play
stolen the show from Ingrid orchestra chief, he supervised a her, the stake and the fire are for the Air Force again and soon crisply and at length to watch For this new production, which battery of switchboards that gone. And there alone, like a He is Sir Alexander there was a picture of him in his step and not to show off.
Rossellini hopes to stage next in blacked out 00 actors in a allm white flame la Joan, slowly Fleming, Nobel Prize win- Then came the day of the 50 the papár hitting a six almost Meanwhile the Springboks had London, is judged in Paris as countryside sceno and sub rising to 30 feet above stage out of the ground at the Oval, arrived from South Africa for one of his most brilliant efforts. stituted. 50′ more in a royal level.
ner and one of the greatest mice. They were injected with the gorm which causes wound benefactors of mankind. infection. Half of them, were thon given injections of pent- The story of his discovery is cillin. The others ween not... now. modern history. One This is Florey's " account, of September afternoon in 1828, in that day: "We sat up all night his green-walled room in St Mary's Hospital
2.
MAGICIAN
MANDRAKE THE
YOU HAVE HYPNOTIZED THREE PEOPLE, BEAM. RELEASE
THEM AT ONCE/
DOWN,BEAM.
By Lee Falk and Phil Davis
WAKE UP, CARMA,
MR. BEAM!
YES.
WAKE UP, BOTH OF YOU.
tik-
WHAT
TRIST
SMAN
Libyan EBENSZER
WHAT GOING ON
HERE?
TALK
ABOUT
MAGIC!
Have you seen
Admir
overlooking injecting penicilin every three Praed Street, near Paddington home to be treated group. I Station, the was growl virulent confess it was one of the most exciting moments when I found
At Platinum long being held tr -flame in order to sterilize bɛform.
taking bacterial- onliuren? Barsen burner. Dər-Tai tažne containing bacteria) vomiturom.. Di Culture plates. (Petri anche containing
whlos when placed in Zoonbator, at bacteria). Incubator. E blood bent mictalo tias growth of Microscope, this pridekana
gue Jolly
cover. (behind”“Fieping'a
·G 1- Boliler comisining SAILING (rengusta":"sa" dialing
in' glass-disbee when the morning that mill; the url. 3 Papaaleria:. H_1.Divi
of dust come floating through the window.
treated mice were doadand the treated ones were silve.
Reson.ochacientists are un- settled in one of the date worldly remote creatures labor. „He vexamined lb with
his microscope and identified it they brood with Inhuman, bohe
A mouldi ;.)
apore
Penicillium Notatum. He noted
It stopped bacteria from now
centratite -- over Kphinli In their