An article appeared in our local newspaper this morning under the above-mentionned headline.
QUOTING:
"First World War flying ace
Billy Bishop was a "fraud" and a "mythomaniac" says a retired National Defence historian in a book to be released June 1. Bishop, who died in 1956, shot down no more than 27 planes - about a third of the 72 he claimed to have knocked out of the sky, says Brereton Greenhous in "The Making of Billy Bishop". Only 4 victories were witnessed by others.
Bishop was a man of mediocre attainments driven to seek fame, said Mr. Greenhous. At Royal Military College, Bishopn was caught cheating on his first-year examination and sent back to repeat the year.
But even more of a motivator, he was engaged to Margaret Burden, the granddaughter of department store magnate Timothy EEaton. The small town boy from Owen Sound had to prove he deserved her.
And, at the time, the British military needed a war hero to rival Germany's "Red Baron",
Manfred von Richthofen.
Mr. Greenhou believes the entire story of an attack on a German airfield, in which Bishop claimed to have destroyed 3 planes and been hit in the process, was concocted. Instead, he says, Bishop landed somewhere behind French lines, detached his Lewis gun from its mounting and fired a short burst into the tail of hos own Nieuport 17.
.......he was brave, good looking, and charming - he was a Victoria Cross. People assumed that he must be an honest man." END OF QUOTE
Even though Mr. Greenhous's book has not yet been released, it has already stirred up a simmering controversy.
It appears that there will now be another dogfight!