Parallel to all this
was the increase in the military might of Germany and as international tensions
mounted, Douglas began to badger just about everyone he knew who could have the
slightest influence in getting him reinstated in the RAF and back to flying
again.
A great ally was his
old friend Geoffrey Stephenson, who by now was a staff officer at Adastral
House, home of the Air Ministry in London's Kingsway. Stephenson beavered away
for Douglas behind the scenes and was a great help.
Thelma was dead against
all this. She was horrified at the possibility of Douglas being shot down and
trapped in a crashing aircraft because of his legs. Thelma's mother agreed with
her. To her, what her dogmatic and aggressive son-in-law was proposing to do
was both unnecessary and unreasonable. All that it was doing was causing Thelma
endless turmoil and distress.
Douglas was resolute.
He had always believed that if you wanted something badly enough, the way to
get it was to go right to the top so he wrote to the Air Member for Personnel,
Air Marshal Charles Portal.
On 31st August, days
before the outbreak of war, Portal wrote a personal reply to Douglas. Although
he told Douglas he was too busy to see him and that he was not able to employ
him at the present time, in the event of war a new situation would arise and
Douglas would almost certainly be used in a flying capacity, provided the
doctors agreed.
Although positive, in a
guarded sort of way, this was still not enough for Douglas. What he was looking
for was immediate acceptance and his next target was Air Vice-Marshall Fredrick
Halahan, his old commandant from Cranwell. Halahan obviously remembered Douglas
and wrote to the head of the medical board at the Air Ministry saying that in
his opinion Bader was the sort of officer the service needed and if found fit,
apart from his legs, he should immediately be sent to the Central Flying School
and given a chance to prove himself.
from "Douglas Bader" by Michael Evans
Get your copy HERE
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Douglas-Bader-Heroes-Michael-Evans/dp/1909698121/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417771944&sr=1-1&keywords=bretwalda+bader
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