THE SAGA OF THE LEG
Wireless notification of Bader’s capture and request for spare artificial leg.
The document reproduced above is the original telegram from North Foreland radio to HQ Fighter Command. The translation of the document is as follows:
Wing Commander Douglas Bader taken prisoner on 9 August 1941 lost his right leg while baling out. Bader requests that a new leg be sent. German permission granted to drop it by parachute. Communicate day and time of delivery by radio. Delivering aircraft will be granted safe conduct.
On 19 August 1941 the spare leg was duly delivered during the course of Circus 81, the operational order for which is set out below:
18 August 1941
OPERATION “LEG” (CIRCUS EIGHTY-ONE)
To take place a.m. Tuesday 19th August 1941
1. TARGET: For 6 Blenheims
Power Station at Gosnay – 3½ miles SW of Béthune
Bombing Height 10,000ft
2. RENDEZVOUS: At 10,000ft over Manston at 08.30hrs
3. ESCORT WING: Tangmere: At 11,000, 12,000 and 14,000ft 41, 610, 616
4. ESCORT COVER WING: Kenley: At 15,000, 17,000 and 20,000ft 452, 485, 602 (Gain height N of Thames)
5. BOMBER ROUTES AND TIMINGS:
Manston |
08.30 |
W of Gravelines |
08.42 |
W of St Omer |
08.47 |
Gosnay (Target) |
08.53 |
Mardyck |
09.06 |
Manston |
09.21 |
6. TARGET SUPPORT WINGS:
Northolt: At 22,000, 24,000 and 28,000ft
303, 308, 315 (To gain height N of Thames)
To rendezvous with bombers and accompany them to St Omer, then draw ahead to target if not engaged. Then to attain air superiority and follow bombers out.
Hornchurch: At 28,000 to 32,000ft E of Dunkirk to Béthune. To arrive over Béthune 08.50hrs. Follow bombers out.
7. REAR SUPPORT WING:
Biggin Hill
72, 92, 609: 10 miles SE of Dunkirk at 28,000 to 32,000 ft, to be in position at 08.56hrs; to watch out especially for enemy aircraft coming from direction of Ostend. Follow main formation back at discretion of wing leader.
8. INFORMATION:
The leg is to be dropped by a Blenheim when west of St Omer. The wing leader of the Tangmere Escort Wing is to report by R/T when the parachute has opened “LEG GONE”. Tangmere controller is to report to group controller immediately he receives this message.
(Sgd.) S F Vincent, Group Captain, Biggin Hill.
As the parachute billowed open above the leg box, the “LEG GONE” message was sent, resulting shortly afterwards in the following signal:
To: No. 2 Group and all stations
From: Headquarters No 11 Group
19/8/41
Circus 81
During this operation the leg for Wing Commander Bader became airborne at 10.51hrs and was last seen floating down gracefully SW of St Omer.
At 11.00hrs a message was broadcast to the enemy informing him that the leg had just been dropped by parachute. The message was acknowledged.
Preliminary reports indicate seven Me 109s destroyed
Three Me 109s probably destroyed
Five Me 109s damaged
For the loss of two of our pilots.
No bombs were dropped during this operation. All bombers returned safely*
The delivering aircraft was a Blenheim of 18 Squadron, R3843, WV-F, crewed by Sergeant J M Nickleson (RCAF), Sergeant W Meadows and Sergeant J Pearson. (These three crew members were lost and killed in the same aircraft, R3843, on 20 September 1941 when they flew into the bomb bursts of another aircraft attacking shipping off Zandvoort. Nickleson was never found and has no known grave. Meadows and Pearson were both buried in the Netherlands.)
The box with Bader’s spare leg also included a letter as follows:
To: Commandant Luftwaffe, St Omer (Longuenesse) Aerodrome
WING COMMANDER DOUGLAS BADER DSO DFC
Royal Air Force (prisoner of war).
1) The general broadcast message transmitted by you on 500 Kcs by Station Ushant at 11.35hrs (GMT) on August 13th 1941 in respect of Wing Commander Bader was received by me.
2) This box contains an artificial leg to replace the right leg this officer lost during his descent by parachute over France on the 9th August 1941.
3) Please accept my thanks, both for your broadcast message and anything you can do to ensure that this new leg is delivered to Wing Commander Bader as soon as possible.
August 1941. Air Vice-Marshal, Royal Air Force.**
Another letter, this time from Sergeant Jack Pearson of 18 Squadron to his mother, tells of his part in the delivery of the leg. It is reproduced here:
Writing home to his mother and brothers, “Jack” Pearson told of his epic special delivery of the famous wing commander’s spare leg. He refers to the incorrect reportage in the Daily Express of 20 August in which it was inferred that Bader’s leg had been delivered by fighter pilots of the Tangmere Wing.
With Bader at large in St Omer town on 19 August 1941 he actually heard and witnessed from the ground the proceedings of Circus 81 above him, unaware that the delivery of his spare leg was taking place!
Several post-war references to this drop have been made in a variety of different publications stating that this delivery comprised a spare set of both artificial legs. In fact, only one (the right leg) was delivered. Further, there is no evidence either that the box contained toilet requisites and tobacco along with a personal letter for Bader as has frequently been stated. The delivery, apparently at least, adhered wholly to the specifics of the German request, i.e. a spare right leg.
* In fact, intense flak was encountered and all six of the Blenheims committed to the operation were damaged, with one observer, Sergeant Lee, being seriously wounded in the thigh. More than two RAF fighter pilots were lost, with at least five Spitfires lost or damaged, and two pilots killed, one PoW, one wounded and one safe. The prisoner of war was Pilot Officer Anthony of 403 Squadron who had flown on Circus 68 and claimed one Me 109 as probably destroyed during that operation.
** This is Air Vice-Marshal Leigh-Mallory, although he is not named in person in the actual letter.