Comments by "Ray Purchase" (@raypurchase801) on "Battle of Britain Big Wing | Was the Big Wing a bad idea?" video.

I was in the ATC (air cadets) in the seventies. Two of our lads were planespotting at a local airport. A light aircraft went the wrong way down a taxi way and bloody nearly ran into the two lads. Ten minutes later, the pilot walked to them and sincerely apologised. He admitted he'd f*cked it up, and said how stupid he'd been. The pilot was Douglas Bader. This demonstrates Bader himself could make silly errors, but he was never harder on other people than he was on himself. If he made an error, he had the guts and masculinity to apologise and admit his own stupidity. One of the two ATC lads later became an RAF Tornado pilot.
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@brettpalfrey4665 Lots of sensible, reasoned views here. I regard Dowding and Park as heroic commanders, but even Park made errors. Park became an ace on Bristol Fighters during the Great War. The Boulton & Paul Defiant was the modern equivalent of the Brisfit. The Defiant was misused in 11 Group, where it was shot to pieces. The Defiant would have been better used in the north, where it could have taken on bombers without interference from 109s. It's f*ckin' easy to be wise after the event.
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Videos like this always attract us serious well-read nerds who know the subject inside-out. Plus D*ckheads who know nothing.
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@thosdot6497 Agreed 100%.
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@michaeltimson4048 Douglas Bader was a force to be reckoned with. A lesser man would have perished.
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