World War Two flying ace Sir Douglas Bader could have been shot down by his own side, a historian has suggested.
The RAF Wing Commander had been brought down and taken prisoner in France on August 9, 1941, as fighter squadrons escorted bomber on raiding runs into the continent.
Sir Douglas, a double amputee, lost both his legs in a pre-war flying stunt, but went on to win fame in the Battle of Britain, earning a Distinguished Service Order and Distinguished Flying Cross.
While the 1856 film Reach For The Sky, based on Paul Brickhill's best-selling 1954 account of Sir Douglas' exploits, depicts the pilot clashing with a German fighter over France, questions have been raised over whether this was really what happened.
Military historian Andy Saunders, editor of German military history magazine Iron Cross, wrote in the Express: 'With no legs to propel himself, one of his prosthetic limbs became trapped. Only when its straps broke did Bader fall
'And the only Messerschmitt downed that day? Its deeply buried wreck was discovered quite recently. Its tail was still intact. In the heat of battle, incidents of ''friendly fire'' were frequent, with pilots under extreme stress.
Sir Douglas Bader with a remote controlled spitfire in 1982: A hero to most of his men, Bader flew with 222 Squadron ahead of the Dunkirk evacuation
Sir Douglas Bader with his wife at the theatre in London in 1969 - he campaigned for the disabled and in the Queen's Birthday Honours 1976 was appointed a Knight Bachelor for services to disabled people
Group captain Douglas Bader looks at a painting of Reginald Mitchell - designer of the Spitfire - in 1957
'They had nanoseconds to decide: kill, or be killed. And against bright skies, the rear view of a Messerschmitt 109 is very similar to a Spitfire.'
Mr Saunders wrote that no pilot could be 'identified as victor' in shooting down Sir Douglas, despite 'fastidious combat reports'.
And the lone Messerschmitt that was lost is attributed to another of Bader's pilots, with the circumstances and location perfectly aligning with that pilot's report of events.
Sir Douglas Bader at Biggin Hill Airshow in 1966
'But, if Bader didn't collide with a Messerschmitt, and if the Germans didn't shoot him down, then what?' writes Mr Saunders.
The quick hit that took his Spitfire out of action was catastrophic, and if the tail and rear fuselage had been hit by cannon shells then it could well seem to any pilot to have been a collision.
The German fighter ace Adolf Galland wrote his version of events in the 1953 account, The First And The Last. He said that Sir Douglas had been shot down in a dogfight over Pas de Calais, but it was 'never confirmed who shot him down'.
He adds that after he was captured Sir Douglas 'particularly wanted to know' who had taken him down, and it was an 'intolerable idea' that he could have been bested by a
