Customer Reviews

Reach for the sky: The story of Douglas Bader, legless ace of the Battle of Britain

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I sent my dogeared copy of Reach for the Sky to a legless hero who spoke a few years back at convocation here at Plymouth State College. He said he'd heard of Douglas Bader, but hadn't read the book.

Brickhill's masterpiece tells a tale of heroism without stooping to hero worship. It also tells Bader's side of the "big wing" tactical controversy during the Battle of Britain (Len Deighton's book "Fighter", tells Air Chief Marshall Dowding's side).

We need Reach for the Sky to teach new generations what it taught us, the War Babies, about the courage and values of our fathers. I'd buy it for my four sons and two daughters, all now facing life as young adults.

Douglas Bader was in the peacetime RAF but lost both legs in a crash. After a miserable few years on civvie street, the war came along and he volunteered. Not only was he accepted, with two prosthetic legs and several years older than most of "the Few", but the RAF returned him to fighter-plane duty. He became a leading ace until he was shot down, and then he became such a pain to the Germans that they had to take his legs away from him to stop him from escaping.

You may remember Brickhill as the author of The Great Escape. This is another spellbinding yarn. Note however that it is more of an inspirational story than a serious biography. In the days when youngsters were more literate than they are today, it would have been called a "boy's book."

My son-in-law (who is English) gave an earlier version of this book to me for a Christmas present. He had to search all the used-book websites to find it. I'm delighted (and so is he) that it's available again. Bluejacket Books are distributed in the U.S. by Naval Institute Press, so I'm sure that this is an excellent production and not a cheap reprint.

Give it to the "boy" on your list, whether he's eight or eighty.

A must read book for any young person with a love for adventure. Doug Bader's story is one of the most inspirational and unusual of WWII. I read it first over 32 years ago and still remember details to this day. I need a copy to have forever.

People would wonder as why, me, as a girl of 15 would be reading a book about War. I love reading the war stories, and watching the war films as much as i love reading and watching horse things. Although I have a planned career in the Olympics with my horse, i've thought in the past few years, that if i weren't intersted in horses, i would go into the Air Force. My brother is obsessed with World War II, and I must admit it grew on me! Douglas Bader is an amazing man, with great courage and determination. Paul Brickhill wrote Reach for the Sky really well. Some of my favourite parts are (from the 1954 book)

"242 Squadron were changing their aeroplanes, becoming the second squadron to get Hurricane Mark II's, which were faster, had more power, and the new and better VHF raido. Now in the routine of unexiting readiness, Bader sometimes swashbuckled about, jabbing his thumb nosalgically on an imaginary gun button, with an accompanying 'rasberry' to signify the rattling guns" I just found that hilarious.

Another of my favourites is:
"Once in mid- Channel on the way out a new boy in 145 called: 'Hallo, Red Leader. Yellow Two calling. I can't turn my oxygen on.' A brooding silence followed, The voice plaintivley again: 'Hallo, Red Leader. Can you hear me? I can't turn on my oxygen."
Then Turner's Canadian voice, ferociously sarcastic: "What the hell d'you want me to do? Get out and turn it on for you? Go home!' No one made that mistake again."
You have to feel sorry for the boy, but Turner was funny!

Douglas Bader was someone who will never give up. He'll just keep on trying, and trying, and trying, until he gets it. He's a man of great wisdom, and should be greatly remembered through out history.

When I was very young and just able to read well, my favorite book was The Velveteen Rabbit. As I grew older, my favorite book was Reach For The Sky. Both books are about reaching for a seemingly impossible dream and making it happen. Douglas Bader was possibly World War II's greatest hero, and his story certainly deserves to remain in print so that he can be a hero of today as well, inspiring everyone to reach farther than they think they can. This book is one I would want if stranded on a deserted island, IF it were still in print. Are you out there, publishers ?

Like most others reviewing this book here, I read it as a child (10 years old I believe). The library teacher thought I was a real bookworm, not knowing I was voraciously reading the book five times over in a row. The book inspired a life-long fascination with aviation and set a personal mark for determination and courage. Only in my adult years did I learn that two of my English uncles had met the man - one as a fellow Shell employee in South America, the other as a fellow prisoner of war in the same Stalag. Neither were much impressed with his brash bravado. This of course only fueled my fascination with the man. I as well wish this book were still in print - I haven't seen it since those early days and would dearly love yet another re-read!

Real heroes are never concerned with being heroic, just with getting on with things. Douglas Bader personifies determination, courage and everything else about true, real heroism. He never made excuses for himself, even as a P.O.W., and spent a lot of time quietly inspiring others who had suffered to do the best they could; and he did it one-on-one, not as a public display. When he died, Australian TV devoted 2 hours to his life in a special program the next day, something they had never done for any other British WWII veteran (he had no major links to Australia). Like other reviewers, I read the book as a child, and Bader's life has inspired me ever since. I would love to give copies of the book to friends, if only I could get some!

It's been 17 years since I first read this book and, just as I'm on the verge of a family myself, it's damned good to see it reprinted. There's nothing about this book I wouldn't recommend. Without glorifying war itself, the true story of this WWII ace truly captures the will and tenacity of men whose nations are in conflict.

The stirring story of the war hero, Douglas Bader, who lost both legs in a plane crash before the war but came back to become one of the great flying aces of the Battle of Britain. This respectful biography does not disguise the fact that Mr Bader must have been a forceful, difficult personality to deal with. The Germans who imprisoned him after he was shot down certainly found him hard to cope with. After numerous escape attempts they resorted to taking away his artificial legs, and eventually sent him to the POW camp for perennial bad boys, Colditz. After the war Bader went on to a successful career with a petroleum company and continued to fly his own plane all over the world. This is not a dirt-digging, exposé biography such as is fashionable in these days of media overload, but it is a bare-bones, well written story of a remarkable man's remarkable life.

I read this book when I was 9 yrs. old and now that I read it again I think that this is one of those books that I will keep and read over and over.
This is a riveting story that makes you feel like you are there experiencing the events yourself.