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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 16, 2018 23:15:03 GMT 12
I'd not heard of this chap till now, I just came across him on Papers Past, originally in the Waikato Independent newspaper on the 31st of October 1941:
ONE-LEGGED PILOT
AUSTRALIA HAS ONE TOO
CAUGHT IN AIR-SCREW
Now that the legless R.A.F. pilot, Squadron Leader Bader, is a prisoner in Germany, the R.A.A.F. is likely to become notable for its one-legged pilot, Flight. Lieutenant B. F. Rose, who has just been passed for flying duties barely six months after a leg amputation.
Flight Lieutenant Rose, 23, is a Melbourne Grammar School boy, who baled out at 2000 feet on an operational flight overseas and had a leg caught in the airscrew. He was fitted with an artificial limb like Bader and marked for ground duties, but R.A.A.F. headquarters heard he had been posted to a fighter squadron.
His determination to get back into the air did not surprise friends in Australia. Three unsuccessful applications for an Air Force cadetship did not deter him and he set about correcting defective muscle balance for his eyes by optical exercises. The fourth application was successful.
Flight Lieutenant Rose captained Melbourne Grammar School football 18 in 1937, rowed in the eight for three years, won the State cadet dinghy sailing championship several times and was a good boxer.
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