On this day 2 June - Billy Bishop and the German Aerodrome
William Avery "Billy" Bishop
The 2nd of June 1917 is a date known to anyone familiar with William Avery "Billy" Bishop. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in attacking a German-held aerodrome, shooting down three planes.
The following excerpt of that event is from http://www.constable.ca/caah/bbishop.htm
Early in the morning of June 2, 1917 Bishop was up and ready to raid the Germans. He tried to get Willy Fry to come with him, but Fry had a serious hangover from the night's party and refused to get out of bed. So Bish went alone. He flew over the lines and headed for Cambrai towards the aerodrome he had chosen for his attack. He arrived just as the sun came up and found no activity and no planes at all. The place was deserted. He circled around for a bit thinking and waiting to see if anyone would show up. No one did. He left angry, flying at random trying to find something to shoot up. He was about to head for home when he saw the buildings of another aerodrome to one side. He banked sharply and headed for them. It was Estourmel, the home of Jadgstaffel 5 headed by Staffel Fuhrer Lt. Werner Voss. Seven aircraft, a two-seat Rumpler recon. plane and six Albatros scout aircraft (reported by Bishop to be DIIs, although Voss's Staffel no longer used the type), were lined up, motors running waiting for the pilots and observer.
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 one mechanic. Then he pulled off doing a series of slow-speed turns waiting for an Albatros to come up to challenge him. The ground troops got several machine guns into action and nearly hit Bishop. A rookie pilot warming his engine accepted the challenge and 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 dropping the aircraft onto the field. Another Albatros took off and Bishop circled around to his 6 o'clock and fired but missed the pilot. The German swerved and hit a tree, mangling the wings and dropping the aircraft. Neither pilot was injured.
Now his real troubles began. Two Albatroses took off together. Going for the nearest plane he began a circling contest for a firing position. With two opponents this is usually suicide, however, one German pilot stayed out of the action, presumably he thought to give his compatriot the honour of downing the arrogant Brit. The Nieuport was a tighter turner than the DIII and Bishop finally got in a clear shot, dropping the DIII 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 seems to have unnerved the German pilot, he swung away and landed.
Bishop pulled away from Estourmel with a jammed gun, afraid the Germans on the ground would have telephoned nearby Jastas for help. Near the front lines he spotted a flight of DIIIs and stayed immediately beneath them until he could make a run for the front lines. The Germans rarely chased an Allied pilot across the lines. He made his way back to his base. Unharmed and jubilant. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for this audacious action. But he earned the distrust of some of his comrades, they believed he had become too ambitious and may have made up the attack.
However, others have called Bishop’s claims into question. According to Brereton Greenhous:
… the entirely fictitious dawn raid on a German airfield that brought him his Victoria Cross. Most German air records were destroyed in Second World War bombing, but some survived and, unfortunately for Bishop, among them was the Weekly Activity Report of the Second Army air commander, Kommandeur der Flieger, Armee 2, for the week in question. KoFl.2 being the man over whose sector of the Western Front Bishop claimed to have flown that day, 2 June 1917, while admitting he was unable to identify the field he said he had attacked.
KoFl.2’s report for the week ending 6 June goes into considerable detail about “enemy [i.e., British] air activity.” At night, “a new tactic noted was the firing of a few rounds of small-calibre ammunition into the illuminated area; this practice was noted on 4 June .... The airfield of Jagdstaffel Boelcke was bombed during the night of 3/4 and 5/6 June; no damage was inflicted.” But not a word does it have to say about a daylight attack on any of his airfields. Yet it would have been very important that all his subordinates and fellow army air commanders be made aware of such a raid, had it occurred. After all, it might be their turn next, and damage could be minimized if they were forewarned of this new tactic.
His report also lists, by name and unit, all German air battle casualties in the 2 Armee zone, day-by-day. On 2 June, Bishop claimed to have shot down one machine “just above the ground” that crashed on the airfield, another one “just off the ground” that crashed into a tree from a low height, and a third that fell a thousand feet before “crashing to the ground where it lay in a field, a few hundred yards from the aerodrome.” It is surely inconceivable that none of the three pilots was even injured, but KoFl.2 does not list any casualty on that day. Nor is it possible to argue that there was some delay in reporting losses, for on 3 June the only casualty was an observer of Flieger Abteilung (Artillerie) 269, “killed in aerial combat.” And whatever Bishop zealots may claim, German record keeping was meticulous.
Finally, we might note that when the RAF Museum in England put out a first-day cover with a stamp celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the alleged raid, three of his four surviving comrades from those halcyon days declined to sign it. Being gentlemen of the old school (unlike your humble author), they also declined to give their reasons, but the reader is at liberty to guess what they may have been.
Greenhous’ article can be found here: http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/vo3/.../61-64-eng.pdf
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This is one of my own "Hobby Horses" & I have put in a lot of research on this supposed attack.
Originally Posted by gully_raker
There is certainly a question mark over this exploit. There is certainly the smell of the fishmonger's slab about it.
Here is an article by Bereton Greenhous from a Historical Magazine you might find interesting!
I have just finished Rickenbacker' Fighting the Flying Circus, one of the Time Life Wings of War series, and was looking at the Bishop book, Winged Warfare, from the same series. Even a rank novice like me can see problems with Rickenbacker' book. Darn near every plane he saw was a "Fokker", seems he flew against every Fokker ever made! But I still found the book a fun read. So I'll probably get the Time Life Bishop book and read it understanding that some of the info could be suspect. Like Rickenbacker stated in his book, it was often very hard to get verification of a kill, and as he further wrote, a lot of kills went unverified. With that in mind I can see how a pilot may want to fudge the facts now and then. Then again, how badly does one desire to be known as a man with unquestioned integrity. Easy question, very hard to answer. Plus, I understand we're not allowed to have those type of discussions here, thank God(oooops) 
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