Messershmitts

Acting BBC chairman Richard Ryder — winner of the current round of I’m a BBC Executive . . . Get Me Out of Here! — has an unusual claim to fame. He says he was present at a speech by battle of Britain hero Douglas Bader. Ryder was debating with Bader at a posh girls’ school, so he told fellow Tory Alan Clark, when the Spitfire ace began recalling how he was shot down over the Channel. “I had two of the f****** on my tail, ” began Bader, before the headmistress quickly interrupted to tell her girls that a Fokker was a German plane. “That’s right,” said Bader, “but these chaps were flying Messerschmitts.”

Sunday Times 01/02/2004

Last updated: 03 February, 2004 14:13