So this pilot leaves one of his false legs when bailing out
Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2024 11:00 am
Saw this on facebook and wondered if it shouldn't have been in Ripley. Seems like the Germans took a shine to the legless Ace and worked out letting his British buddies drop him a spare leg, by German arranged consent, on the way to bombing the crap out of some part of German territory. However it apparently was all true.
WikipediaBader had lost a prosthetic leg when escaping his disabled aircraft. When he had baled out, Bader's right prosthetic leg became trapped in the aircraft, and he escaped only when the leg's retaining straps snapped after he pulled the ripcord on his parachute.[128] General Adolf Galland notified the British of his damaged leg and offered them safe passage to drop off a replacement. Hermann Göring himself gave the green light for the operation. The British responded on 19 August 1941 with the "Leg Operation"—an RAF bomber was allowed to drop a new prosthetic leg by parachute to St Omer, a Luftwaffe base in occupied France, as part of Circus 81 involving six Bristol Blenheims and a sizeable fighter escort including 452 Squadron.
The Germans were less impressed when, task done, the bombers proceeded on to their bombing mission to Gosnay Power Station near Bethune, although bad weather prevented the target being attacked. Galland stated in an interview that the aircraft dropped the leg after bombing Galland's airfield.[129] Galland did not meet Bader again until mid-1945, when he, Günther Rall and Hans-Ulrich Rudel arrived at RAF Tangmere as prisoners of war. Bader, according to Rall, personally arranged for Rudel, a fellow amputee, to be fitted with an artificial leg.[130]