The case for Barker

[Barrett]

Hannes, please excuse my interruption of your query to Dan-San, but I gotta interject while I'm still on-line.
Ref. medal citations (not repeat not specific to this case) I'm researching a book on the aviation Medal of Honor recipients (roughly 92 in-flight citations plus POWs, etc) and have found that there's huge latitude for error. Two events just plain did not happen. Period. (Like Lyndon Johnson's bogus Silver Star). Others were unwitnessed and cannot be proven or disproven. Others (especially fighter combat) were waaaay wide of the mark owing to honest error and the perceived need to rush the medals through. Fact is, most MOHs have been awarded for doing a good or great job rather than an objective standard of "above & beyond." In the latter category I nominate Lt. David Kingsley who gave away his parachute to a B-17 gunner whose pack was ripped by flak. Now THAT is above & beyond, more in keeping with Jimmy Doolittle's criteria. (General Jimmy had to be ordered to accept his MOH from FDR)
The whole process is highly political, maybe even moreso today when Silver/Bronze Stars and other gongs are awarded for "combat support" of Bosnian ops when the recipients were in Nebraska at the time. (I am NOT making this up.)
Long story short: be skeptical of citations. Be very-very skeptical. The room for exaggeration and error is immense.

[Ron_F]

Hannes,
what is written in Barker VC is exactly as DSA wrote. the 'combat' report on pages 165-166 read basically the same. the VC cites driven down, while the report states 'both enemy aircraft spinning down'.

why he wasnt awarded OOC (since i think for along time DD was not used anymore?), i dunno.

fwiw,
Ron

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Hannes;
It is my assessment of the action of "he attacked two indecisively and the two spun down." That is what was defined then as an OOC, my commentary, they were not acknwledged by officialdom, He received credit only for the 4 flamers. It was a truly amazing action displaying courage and tenacity to the nth degree.
Blue skies,
Dan-San Abbott

[Wayne Ralph]

Dear Stephen and Barrett,

The letter published in BARKER VC is a transcription of an original contained on microfilm in the National Archives of Canada Personnel Records Centre, ie, Barker's Canadian Forces military files.

Johnston states that Barker told him that there were fifteen Huns below him after he shot down the two-seater.

The numbers cited in the combat report and VC citation may have been calculated using eye witnesses, but the identity of those witnesses are not recorded in any documents that I have been able to find.

Barrett's observations re-Medal of Honor citations can certainly be reinforced by similar difficulties with Victoria Cross citations. The best example of what Barrett notes on the VC side is the citation for Alan Jerrard, 66 Sqn, Italy, March 1918. It does not accord with what actually happened and Jerrard played no part in the content of the citation.

A recent biography of Medal of Honor recipient Gregory Boyington (Bruce Gamble's Black Sheep One) shines a lot of light on the issue of victory scores, medals, and citations, albeit WWII, not WWI.

The awarding of gallantry medals is very much a political process and it is naive to think it is or indeed could be otherwise.

Wayne Ralph, author, BARKER VC

[Craig]

>>It was a truly amazing action displaying
courage and tenacity to the nth degree.<<

True this, but it must be allowed that he was also very, very lucky. In his own words, at least two of the Fokkers simply appeared before him. And the fact that he was hit three times and his plane many more, and he wasn't torched, is amazing in itself.

Craig it is my opinion that had Barker been on the france front he would be the highest scoring ace in WWI.

In Italy it was often tough to FIND opponents as Barker would routinely egg them on so to speak dropping signs and notes for them to fight him. To score 46 victories is a major FEAT in Italy. Perhaps the quality was not of say JG1, but i'd say the austrians were at least as good as regular france jastas. Though maybe not as many "Aces" though Barker took at least 1 A-H aces out of the picture. Their skill really doesn't matter when comparing, the man never lost a Wingman and excepting the epic last fight never lost a fight.

Gimme a break, please tell me you are not calling it mostly LUCK...yes a bit of luck of course to simply SURVIVE it, but to get 4 flammers in a row is NOT luck.

Settle down, now - is the word "mostly" in there anywhere? Did I even attempt to quantify anything at all?

You boys and your heroes! Do you seriously think that luck had nothing to do with it? If so, you are in a distinct minority. Check out the Opinion Poll a while back about 'attributes that made an ace'. Or quotes from pilots themselves. They all knew that luck was a huge factor. Does this not aply to Barker as well?

[rammjaeger]

Dan-San, I have no reason to question Barkers abchievements - very different to some other famous aces.

One thing makes we wonder. One report says thousands of soldiers on the ground saw the combat. Immelmanns last fight was also observed by many, many soldiers on the ground. That resulted in (at least) three reports of such ground observers in the German news papers.

I would expect a similar reaction in the press of the Empire for Barker. At least the local papers should have reported about the fight, if so many whitnesses were available as claimed. Did somebody check the papers of his home territory for this time?

[I am not claiming that papers are (more) reliable sources but overcross comparisons are often very interesting.]