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For Brown I recommend the book "The Red Barons Last Flight" in which the authors make the point that it was an open secret in the RFC that Brown did not shoot down MvR. Browns answers, whenever questioned, show a tacit understanding that he did not deserve the claim. Furthermore the book shows that there can never be an identification of who the "shooter" was, but that if you have to give out a credit, Sgt. Popkins is the best choice. As far as Barkers VC claim is concerned, I'm not saying it didn"t happen, I'm saying that the occurence was far more prosaic and reasonable than reported. Lets try this on as a theory that fits all the known facts. Barker has climbed up to 20,000 feet. He is suffering a mild form of Anoxia, as were the pilots in the two seater. Barker has not seen the 4 Fokker D-vII escorts that are still climbing to rendevous with two seater because of this and because he is eager to get another kill. It's possible that he did see them but discounted their being close enough to be dangerous (remember Anoxia also causes Euphoria). He gets the two seater but doesn't know that while he traded bullets with that machine the others are now within striking range of his aircraft. One of the German pilots gets a burst into the belly of the Snipe. The bullets hit Barker in the left elbow, left hip and right Femural artery. It's well reported that such wounds are not normally immediately incapacitating. Barkers body does spasm (again medically normal reaction) and Barker loses control of his aircraft. He could have lost conciousness, but not necessarily. His plane goes into either a spin or a falling leaf manuever. The german pilots follow the Snipe down to make sure it is not a "Ruse". Barker regains control of the plane after falling several thousand feet, sees one or more Fokkers and lets off a quick burst in the hope of keeping them away. Due to the stress of recovery he "blanks out and loses control again losing several more thousand feet. He regains control, looks around and sees the Observation Ballon position and no Fokkers. He crash lands at that position. In the meantime the German pilots aware that they have gotten close to the enemy lines (they may have been attracting ground fire) decide to head back to base with the equivalent of a "Driven down" claim. This theory would satisfy all the information available. Barker was the sort of person who enjoyed talking about his victories. All of them except this one; since the victory of the two seater not only ended in a defeat, but that he recieved a VC for that defeat. No wonder he was glum about the subject.
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