“I fired on 7 machines on the aerodrome... One of them took off and I fired 15 rounds
at him from close range 60 ft. up and he crashed. A second one taking off, I opened fire and
fired 30 rounds at 150 yards... he crashed into a tree. Two more were then taking off
together. I climbed and engaged one, finishing my drum, and he crashed 300 yards from the
aerodrome. I changed drums and climbed. A fourth came after me and I fired one whole
drum into him.” Combat report, William Bishop, Royal Flying Corps.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War Bio Special of “Who did what In World War 1?"
Today: Canada’s Greatest Flying Ace, Billy Bishop.
William Avery Bishop was born February 8, 1894 to William and Margaret Bishop of Owen
Sound, Ontario. His father was the country registrar. Young Billy excelled in sports,
and was the class clown, but did poorly academically. In 1911, at age 17, his parents sent him to
the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. He failed his first year, and after making
it up did well his second year. In his third year, he was caught cheating on his final;
he had turned in his crib notes with his paper. A final decision on his expulsion was delayed
until the end of summer, but this being the summer of 1914, the war intervened.
Bishop was quickly commissioned into a cavalry detachment, but he contracted pneumonia and was
hospitalized when his unit left for Europe. He was then assigned to the 14th Battalion, Canadian
Mounted Rifles. Just before he headed to war he proposed to Margaret Burden, and she accepted.
His unit was sent to the Kentish coast, and the rain, mud, and endless horse manure- he
was in the cavalry- made life miserable, and Bishop wanted to fly, eventually fixing a
transfer to the Royal Flying Corps, but as an observer.
The first aircraft Billy Bishop flew in was the Farman Series 11 "Shorthorn", described
by Bill like this: "I don't think she made more than fifty miles per hour; and as for
climbing, she struggled and shook and gasped like a freight train going up a mountain side.
But it was thrilling enough for me in those days."
The squadron soon received its first "modern" aircraft, the R.E.7- Reconnaissance Experimental.
Loaded with the pilot, an observer, a machine gun, and a camera it could barely maintain
70 mph as a top speed, and could reach an altitude of only 5,000 feet after 30 minutes
of flying, and it was a sitting duck for the Fokker EIII monoplanes with their forward
firing, synchronized machine gun. In fact, the fear of the enemy was so great that sorties
would often have 12 airplanes to escort one Recon plane. Bishop served four months as
a front line observer.
The spring of 1916 was rough for Bishop, to say the least. He was in a truck accident,
knocked unconscious for two days while working on his plane, had an infected tooth, and then
suffered a knee injury. He also was found to have a heart murmur, but by November he
was in pilot training on Salisbury Plain, flying a “Shorthorn”.
Flight instruction consisted of getting into a Shorthorn with dual controls and copying
what the pilot did. The machine was too noisy for communication. The instructors were either
recuperating from front-line action or were new to flying themselves, so they had no real
idea of how to fly an aircraft in anything other than under ordinary conditions, and
did not teach aerial combat maneuvers.
After completing his training, Bishop was posted to Home Defense and flew night patrols
across southern England looking for zeppelin raids. In two months Bishop did not see a single one.
In Feb. 1917, he was posted to Arras, where across the trenches was the famed "Flying
Circus" of Baron Manfred von Richthofen – the Red Baron. The Canadian rookie would face
the best fliers in Germany; the deadliest aces in the world. The average lifespan for
rookie pilots was 11 days.
Billy Bishop’s first dogfight came on March 25, 1917. He was flying "Tail End Charley"-
the last aircraft of a flight of four, and the most dangerous position, which is perhaps
another reason for the short life span of a rookie. Three Albatros D.IIIs dove in on
them, one chasing the Squadron Commander. Bishops followed it and raked its fuselage
and it dove to earth. Near the ground the German pilot pulled out of his faked death
dive only to find Bishop still on his tail. Bishop fired from point blank range and the
Albatross thundered into the ground. His first fight, his first kill.
He soon adopted tactics similar to English ace Albert Ball; gain the upper hand through
surprise and altitude, fight with the sun to your back, and don't give the “Hun”
an even chance. Billy Bishop also had what every ace has, an excellent sense of situational
awareness: knowing where you are in relation to the enemy, the ground, and your allies
in three dimensions.
He won the Military Cross on April 7, 1917. He had pursued an observation balloon to the
ground and set it on fire. An Albatross tried to interfere and he shot it down too. Balloons
were tough targets, being well defended by anti-aircraft guns, machine guns, and fighters.
The next day, Bishop single-handedly attacked a flight of six Albatrosses, shooting down
three, and by the time April was over- 5 weeks after he had arrived at the front- Bishop
had defeated 17 aircraft and was the Squadron's leading Ace. Only the Red Baron bettered his
score, downing 21 British aircraft that month. This was "Bloody April", and Bishop’s squadron
had a loss rate of 105% for the month. Thirteen of the original 18 pilots were shot down,
along with 7 of their replacements.
On June 2, 1917, Bishop flew his most famous mission; the raid on Estourmel Aerodrome.
Bishop flew the raid alone. When he reached the aerodrome seven aircraft were lined up,
motors running, awaiting pilots and observers. Bishop banked and dived, coming in perpendicular
to the flight line and fired a 97-round drum of 0.303 bullets into the aircraft, killing
a mechanic. A pilot took off, but his engine wasn't fully warmed up and he couldn't get
enough power to take off easily. Bishop swooped around onto his tail and fired, sending him
down. Another took off and Bishop circled around to 6 o'clock and fired but missed.
The German swerved, hit a tree, and crashed. Neither enemy pilot was injured.
Now Bishop’s real troubles began. Two Albatrosses took off together.
Bishop eventually got in a clear shot, dropping one onto the field. He swung head on towards
the fourth German and fired the entire drum of 0.303 ammunition at him, missing completely,
but this unnerved the German pilot who swung away and landed.
Bishop made his way back to base unharmed. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his
actions, but he earned the distrust of some of his comrades, who believed he had become
too ambitious and may even have made up the attack.
The closest Bishop came to death was on one routine patrol, flying close to the ground
when he was hit in the fuel tank by German ground fire. With his plane on fire, he just
made it into Allied territory when he crashed into a tree and became stuck as his plane
caught fire. A brief storm put out the fire before he was injured.
By June 1918, Bishop had shot down 70 planes, one of them the great German ace Paul Billik,
with 31 victories of his own, but the Canadian government was worried that their great national
hero would die in action, and ordered Bishop home. His last day on the front was one of
his greatest, shooting down three planes and causing two more to crash into each other.
Following the war, his life became directionless. He traveled and gave lectures and started
an airline with another Canadian Ace, Billy Barker, but it failed. Eventually he became
Sales Director at Frontenac Oil. He did well in the oil business. During World War Two,
he was recruiting Marshal, and used his fame to draw recruits into the air force, sold
war bonds, and did inspection tours.
Following the war he went into semi-retirement and he and Margaret had a very active social
life in Montreal. Billy Bishop died quietly in his sleep in 1956 while wintering in Florida.
Billy Bishop survived the Bloody April on the Western Front. That alone is a testament
to his skills. Because flying on the other side was no other than Manfred von Richthofen
aka the Red Baron. If you’d like to learn more about another great flying ace, click
here for our bio of him. Don’t forget to subscribe; see you next time.