(LONG-READ COMPOSITION)

THE order to ‘Scramble’ had finally come and the ever-eager Squadron Leader Douglas Bader led his team of Spitfires and Hurricanes in a fast ascent into the sky over southern England.

It was September 1940, the height of the Battle of Britain. In the distance, a cluster of black dots scattered across the sky.

Over the radio came the cry: ‘Bandits, 10 o’clock!’ There were 70 of them, Dornier bombers and their fighter plane escorts. Bader closed fast, ignoring the streams of tracer streaking at him from their rear gunners.

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A Messerschmitt floated into his sights. He gave a quick burst of fire and felt a moment of triumph and relief as he saw it fall, smoke pouring from its tail.

Relief turned to fear as there then followed a horrible, jarring shock as German cannon shells slammed into his own plane. Instinctively, he banked hard left as his cockpit filled with smoke. He was going down in flames.

Gripped by the inevitable, he pulled back the hood to bale out – until the slipstream cleared the smoke and he realised the fire had miraculously gone out. He was all right after all.

Using all his strength and skill, he eased the Hurricane out of its screaming dive and gave chase to another Messerschmitt, firing three sharp bursts.

It veered groundward and seconds later exploded. But Bader was in real trouble now too, his aircraft crabbing awkwardly, left wing dropping, holes in the cockpit and the side of the airframe.

His flying-suit was gashed across the right hip. Somehow, he nursed the Hurricane back to base, landed, taxied to the maintenance hangar and climbed out, barking: ‘I want this aircraft ready again in half an hour!’

Here was the raw, do-or-die courage, the refusal to be beaten, that came to typify Britain’s Royal Air Force. The service is now set to celebrate 100 years since it was founded on April 1, 1918.

The formation of the RAF had a difficult birth. Conceived in panic against the wishes of the other armed forces, the RAF was sniped at from all sides and only just managed to survive as an independent organisation. It was a good job it did.

It nurtured the likes of the indomitable Bader (who’d lost both his legs in a pre-war crash when showing off his aerobatic skills), without whom the Battle of Britain, its finest hour, would not have been won. It has proved its worth ever since.

Oil Painting: ‘Spitfires’

IN a new book by historian Richard Overy, it comes as a surprise to learn that getting the RAF off the ground took herculean effort – and very nearly didn’t happen.

Britain had war planes in service ever since the start of World War I, with their importance in battle growing even though flying then was still rudimentary and dangerous.

Flimsy planes made of wood and fabric and held together with wire were liable to break up or crash.

Pilots took to the air in combat after just a dozen hours training, wrapped up in layers of clothing and multiple balaclavas to keep out the cold in the open cockpits. There were no parachutes.

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