How far did Billy Bishop travel from point A to B to A again on his historic raid?

It's fact boy back for more details. I want to know Bishops course on his historic raid in cambrai. I know his plane had 2 hours worth of fuel. Maybe as little as an hour and 3 quarters. Now at 97 miles per hour that would put his range at 97 miles (an hour their and an hour back) with no time to dilly dally over his target. And he passed over another airfield too. Putting a 97 mile sphere around his point of origin will tell us which airfields he was able to attack. And we'll rule out all of the airfields west of nomans land although it may be possible that he attacked allied airfields since he ultimately didn't know where he was (just kidding al, hehe). I'm just trying to get technical here.

The biggest problem with the Bishop raid is that no one knows the identity of Point B.

Bravo Mark! and seeing that there is no record whatsoever or any corresponding German casualties
of the mass destruction done on this raid, we'll never know! Read the Markham article in the Spring issue of Over the Front and decide for yourself!

"Mass destruction"? One man fell on the ground and several rushed to pick him up. He may or may not have been shot. One single-seater he opened fire on just as it cleared the ground: it side-slipped and crashed. He did not indicate how seriously it was damaged. Another single-seater hit trees at the end of the aerodrome. A third fell about a hundred yards from the aerodrome from a height of about a thousand feet "where it lay in a field." The fourth fled the scene.

[Billy_Bishop]

Here is the best guestimate, based on Bishop's known course, cruising speed and description of surrounding terrain.

Estourmel, the long thought place of his attack is 38-39 miles from Filescamp aerodrome where 60 Squadron was based. Estourmel is now thought by many to be the vacant aerodrome that he went to first.

Esnes is 4 miles SSW of Estourmel and is presumed to be the place of Bishop's famous (not INfamous) raid of June 2, 1917. This in turn is 38 miles from Filescamp.

Basically, we're looking at a covered distance of 81 miles. This gives him plenty of leftover for time to attack the aerodrome, shoot down 3 fighters, and scare off a 4th one.

PROBLEMS WITH THE NACHRICHTENBLATT REPORT

The report in question is for the German 4th Army area of operations. The problem is, Jasta 20 was not yet attached to the 4th Army, they were in the process of moving from Guis, in the Somme region to a place called Middleburg in Flanders.

As such, they were in transit.

What is known about Jasta 20 is this, the last group of machines, six Albatross fighters, and one LVG 2-seater, left on June 1 and flew as far North as Esnes for refuelling and landed to spend the night there.

In Bishop's combat report, he talks of attacking seven machines at the aerodrome he attacked, 6 fighters and one 2-seater.

This information comes from what has survived of Jasta 20 records.

Also, it's not MY information, this comes by way of Stewart K. Taylor, Official Historian for WWI fliers in Canada.

VBR

Al Lowe
4-bit amateur aviation historian and/or enthusiast

[Billy_Bishop]

I presume that with my previous post here, that more or less answered everyone's question?

Oh, According to Bishop's report, he assumed he had traveled about 30 miles. All things considered, I'd say an error of 8 miles is understandable. At least in my humble opinion.

VBR,

Al Lowe