Air Marshal William Avery Bishop was the foremost Canadian flying ace of World War I. He was credited with 72 victories and awarded the Victoria Cross in the course of his brief operational career.

‘Billy’ Bishop was born in Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada on February 8, 1894. At age 15 he made an ‘aircraft’ out of cardboard, wooden strips and string and flew off the top of his threestory house. Thankfully, he emerged unscathed from the wreckage. During World War I, he was sent to France with a Canadian mounted infantry unit. But the trenches, the mud and the lack of action frustrated him. One day he saw an aircraft gracefully alight on a nearby field before taking off again. He later wrote, “How long I stood there gazing into the distance I do not know, but when I turned to slog my way back through the mud, my mind was made up. I knew there was only one place to be on such a day – up above the clouds and in the summer sunshine. I was going into the battle that way. I was going to meet the enemy in the air.”

In 1915 Bishop was accepted by the Royal Flying Corps, but only as an observer. In the course of a wartime mission over France he experienced engine failure after take-off, which left him with a badly wounded knee. However, the injury may have saved his life because, while he was recuperating, his squadron was almost completely annihilated in the Battle of the Somme of September 1916. He pulled strings to overcome major medical objections and was soon accepted for pilot training at the Central Flying School. Six months later, on March 17, 1917, he arrived at 60 Squadron near Arras, to fly the Nieuport 17 fighter. The German Air Force, with the famous Baron Manfred von Richthofen in the lead, was in the process of massacring the Allied fighters. Five British aircraft were being shot down for the loss of just one German plane, while a raw British pilot could hope to survive just 11 days on an average. Bishop was given a few simple orientation flights but no operational training of any kind before he was launched into war. A week later, he was ordered to return to flight school because he crash-landed his plane during a practice flight. However, the squadron commander persuaded the authorities to let him stay until his replacement arrived. The very next day, March 25, 1917, Bishop claimed his first kill – an Albatros DIII Scout. He never looked back.

Any pilot who wished to venture out on ‘lone-wolf’ missions was promptly permitted. So Bishop flew the standard patrols with his squadron and on his free days, flew alone deep into enemy territory in search of prey. By April 8, he recorded his fifth victory and became a fighter ace. The history of 60 Squadron calls April 1917 ‘Bloody April’ because in that month they lost 13 of their 18 original pilots plus seven replacements. Bishop however, seemed to have a charmed life and claimed 12 kills in the month. He was soon promoted to Captain and revelled in leading less experienced pilots into battle. Since his combat training had been rudimentary, he learned on the job. His aim was to get behind and above the enemy, achieve surprise, swoop down from the direction of the sun if possible and shoot him down sometimes even before being detected. He did not hesitate to disengage when the element of surprise was lost. He was reputed to be naturally blessed with superb eyesight and an excellent sense of situational awareness, both of which are vital for fighter pilots. The Germans soon learned to dread the sight of his bluenosed Nieuport 17, calling him ‘Hell’s Handmaiden’.

May 1917 was a relatively quiet month; but on June 2, Billy Bishop took off just before 4 a.m. on a solo sortie to attack a German aerodrome. He claimed to have shot down three aircraft in the process of taking off to attack him and destroyed several more on the ground. This spectacular feat earned him the Victoria Cross. He was granted leave for some months, before he returned to the front. However, since the Canadian Government was worried that such an inspirational figure might be lost, he was ordered to return to England for a less dangerous assignment. On June 19, 1918, the day he was to leave France, he added another five aircraft, to make a total of 72 kills during the War.

Billy Bishop died on September 11, 1956. Long after his death, allegations began to surface that his combat claims had been exaggerated and that he did not deserve the Victoria Cross. Given the fog of war, conflicting claims, the destruction of some war records and the uncertain authenticity of others, there is no way to conclusively confirm or deny these allegations. His Victoria Cross is perhaps the only one on record that was awarded entirely on the central personality’s evidence, without corroboration. Maybe the Allies, having suffered great reverses, were in desperate need of instant heroes and Bishop fitted the bill. It is also well known that fighter pilots have a reputation second only to fishermen in recounting their exploits. After all, in the heat of battle, when events happen in quick time in three dimensions and death may be an instant away, it is almost impossible for anyone to keep an accurate picture of events. What the pilot reports is often what the brain wishes to remember rather than what really happened. Even the biggest sceptics do not dispute either Billy Bishop’s bravery or his combat ability and concede that he downed over 20 German aircraft. And that’s no mean achievement.