The Telegraph reports:
A prosthetic leg worn by war hero Douglas Bader is to be sold at auction. It is one of 43 items belonging to the Second World War hero, who continued to fly for the RAF despite losing both his legs in a plane crash.
The auction house expects some $200,000 for that and a bunch of his other war memorabilia. Bader was one of the great heroes of the Second World War, but I didn't recall the story until I read the bit about the British dropping a new leg to him by parachute after he'd been captured by the Germans. If you don't know the story, go read the whole thing (and more from Wikipedia here), but the rough outline is that Bader lost both his legs in 1931 a year after joining the RAF. When the war breaks out, he joins up again and shoots down 22 German aircraft before being shot down and captured. And then he started trying to escape... Does it belong in the Imperial War Museum? You sort of hope there's a limey version of this guy waiting in the wings. HT: Alert 5