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Bishop was then granted a three-week leave to England. As he strode down the gangplank at Folkestone on 2 May 1916, he stumbled and fell onto his sore knee. Three other soldiers behind him toppled over him to compound his injury. Resolved not to miss his holiday, Bishop limped through his leave. Just before he returned to France, he turned himself in to have his knee treated at the hospital at Bryanston Square. Once hospitalized, he was informed that he would face a medical board on 26 May to determine his further fitness for service. As Bishop awakened from a nap, he found a well-dressed elderly woman at his bedside. Lady St. Helier insisted she knew his father from a reception in Canada, and thus was a family friend. Lady St. Helier was widely known for both her wide circle of influential friends, and for her charitable tendencies. The latter attribute had brought her to the hospital. Now she used her influence to remove Bishop from hospital and install him as one of her guests in her four-story mansion where he mingled with, and charmed, her social circle..[1]

After Bishop faced a medical board, he was sent back to Canada to recuperate on home leave.[2] In four months of aerial combat, he had not fired his machine gun at the enemy.[3] However, he received local acclaim in Owen Sound for his service. Then too, the Burdens overcame their objections to Bishop's suit, and agreed to their daughter's official engagement. She was presented with an actual engagement ring.[4]

Aerial combat

[edit]

Bishop returned to England in early September 1916. He faced a medical board, which rejected him for pilot training. To complicate matters, his service records had gone missing. No matter. Lady St. Helier just happened to be friends with Lord Hugh Cecil. On 1 October 1916, Bishop began a month's ground school at Brasenose College. His experience as an observer made the course easy. He began training as a pilot at the Central Flying School at Upavon on Salisbury Plain on 1 November. His first solo flight was in a Maurice Farman "Shorthorn".[5]

After receiving his wings on 8 December 1916,[6] Bishop was assigned to highly hazardous night missions defending the Home Establishment against Zeppelins; he served in No. 11 Squadron RFC and No. 37 Squadron RFC. Bishop soon requested a transfer to France.[7]

Bishop and a Nieuport 17 fighter in Filescamp, 1917.

On 17 March 1917, Bishop arrived at 60 Squadron at Filescamp Farm near Arras, where he flew the Nieuport 17 fighter.[8] At that time, the average life expectancy of a new pilot in that sector was 11 days, and German aces were shooting down British aircraft 5 to 1.[9] Bishop's first patrol on 22 March was less than successful. He had trouble controlling his run-down aircraft, was nearly shot down by anti-aircraft fire, and became separated from his group.[10] On 24 March, after crash-landing his aircraft during a practice flight in front of General John Higgins, Bishop was ordered to return to flight school at Upavon. Major Alan Scott, the new commander of 60 Squadron, convinced Higgins to let him stay until a replacement arrived.[11]

The next day, Bishop claimed his first victory when his was one of four Nieuports that engaged three Albatros D.III Scouts near St Leger.[12] Bishop shot down and mortally wounded a Lieutenant Theiller, but his engine failed in the process.[note 1] Bishop landed in no man's land, 300 yards (270 m) from the German front line. After running to the Allied trenches, Bishop spent the night on the ground in a rainstorm.[13] There Bishop wrote a letter home, starting, "I am writing this from a dugout 300 yards from our front line, after the most exciting adventure of my life."[13] General Higgins personally congratulated Bishop and rescinded his order to return to flight school.[14]

On 30 March 1917, Bishop was named a flight commander[15] with a temporary promotion to captain a few days later.[16] On 31 March, he scored his second victory.[17] Bishop, in addition to the usual patrols with his squadron comrades, soon flew many unofficial "lone-wolf" missions deep into enemy territory, with the blessing of Major Scott. As a result, his total of enemy aircraft shot down increased rapidly. On 8 April, he scored his fifth victory and became an ace.[18] To celebrate, Bishop's mechanic painted the aircraft's nose blue, the mark of an ace. Former 60 Squadron member Captain Albert Ball, at that time the Empire's highest scoring ace, had had a red spinner fitted.[19]

Bishop's no-holds-barred style of flying always had him "at the front of the pack," leading his pilots into battle over hostile territory. Bishop soon realized that this could eventually see him shot down; after one patrol, a mechanic counted 210 bullet holes in his aircraft.[20] His new method of using the surprise attack proved successful; he claimed 12 aircraft in April alone, winning the Military Cross for his participation in the Battle of Vimy Ridge.[21] The successes of Bishop and his blue-nosed aircraft were noticed by the Germans, and they began referring to him as "Hell's Handmaiden". Ernst Udet called him "the greatest English scouting ace" and one Jasta had a bounty on his head.[22]

On 30 April, Bishop survived an encounter with Jasta 11 and Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron.[23] In May, Bishop received the Distinguished Service Order for shooting down two aircraft while being attacked by four others.[24]

On 2 June 1917, Bishop flew a solo mission behind enemy lines to attack a German-held aerodrome, where he claimed that he shot down three aircraft that were taking off to attack him and destroyed several more on the ground. For this feat, he was awarded the Victoria Cross (VC), although it has been suggested that he may have embellished his success. His VC (awarded 30 August 1917[25]) was one of two awarded in violation of the warrant requiring witnesses (the other being the Unknown Soldier),[26] and since the German records have been lost and the archived papers relating to the VC were lost as well, there is no way of confirming whether there were any witnesses. It seems to have been common practice at this time to allow Bishop to claim victories without requiring confirmation or verification from other witnesses.[27]

Bishop in the cockpit of his Nieuport 17, c. August 1917. During this period, Bishop became the highest scoring flying ace in the Royal Flying Corp.

In July, 60 Squadron received new Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5s, a faster and more powerful aircraft with better pilot visibility. In August 1917, Bishop passed the late Albert Ball in victories to become (temporarily) the highest scoring ace in the RFC and the third top ace of the war, behind only the Red Baron and René Fonck.[28]

At the end of August 1917, Bishop was appointed as the Chief Instructor at the School of Aerial Gunnery and given the temporary rank of major.[29]

Victoria Cross

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The citation for his VC, published in The London Gazette on 11 August 1917, read:

For most conspicuous bravery, determination, and skill. Captain Bishop, who had been sent out to work independently, flew first of all to an enemy aerodrome; finding no machines about, he flew on to another aerodrome about three miles southeast, which was at least 12 miles the other side of the line. Seven machines, some with their engines running, were on the ground. He attacked these from about fifty feet, and a mechanic, who was starting one of the engines, was seen to fall. One of the machines got off the ground, but at a height of 60 feet, Captain Bishop fired 15 rounds into it at very close range, and it crashed to the ground. A second machine got off the ground, into which he fired 30 rounds at 150 yards range, and it fell into a tree. Two more machines then rose from the aerodrome. One of these he engaged at a height of 1,000 feet, emptying the rest of his drum of ammunition. This machine crashed 300 yards from the aerodrome, after which Captain Bishop emptied a whole drum into the fourth hostile machine, and then flew back to his station. Four hostile scouts were about 1,250 feet above him for about a mile of his return journey, but they would not attack. His machine was very badly shot about by machine gun fire from the ground.[30][31]

  1. ^ Kilduff 2014, pp. 43-46
  2. ^ Kilduff 2014, p. 46
  3. ^ W. Bishop, 1967, p. 31
  4. ^ Kilduff 2014, p. 47
  5. ^ Kilduff 2014, pp. 47–50.
  6. ^ "No. 29887". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 1916. p. 58.
  7. ^ Kilduff 2014, pp. 53-54.
  8. ^ McCaffery 1988, pp. 47, 51.
  9. ^ McCaffery 1988, p. 49.
  10. ^ McCaffery 1988, pp. 57–58.
  11. ^ McCaffery 1988, pp. 60–61.
  12. ^ McCaffery 1988, p. 64.
  13. ^ a b McCaffery 1988, p. 65.
  14. ^ McCaffery 1988, p. 66.
  15. ^ McCaffery 1988, p. 67.
  16. ^ "No. 30035". The London Gazette (Supplement). 24 April 1917. p. 3916.
  17. ^ McCaffery 1988, p. 68.
  18. ^ McCaffery 1988, p. 79.
  19. ^ McCaffery 1988, p. 81.
  20. ^ McCaffery 1988, pp. 95–96.
  21. ^ McCaffery 1988, p. 96.
  22. ^ McCaffery 1988, p. 102.
  23. ^ McCaffery 1988, pp. 104–106.
  24. ^ "Page 5980 | Supplement 30135, 15 June 1917 | London Gazette | the Gazette".
  25. ^ Dieter 2017
  26. ^ Greenhous 2002, p. 13.
  27. ^ Shores et al. 1991, p. 76.
  28. ^ McCaffery 1960, p. 143.
  29. ^ "No. 30279". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 September 1917. p. 9415.
  30. ^ McCaffery 1960, pp. 153–154.
  31. ^ "No. 30228". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 August 1917. pp. 8211–8212.


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