[Barrett]

* *Next to WKTRB, the BB VC probably is the most-cussed and discussed topic on this forum. *I gotta admit that Bish's claim for the airdrome raid is extremely scanty (he couldn't even ID the place the next day) and that, combined with apparent absence of witnesses and his inflated victory score, tends to make him look like the biggest liar since Wyatt Earp. *But we need to remember that lack of German AND British documents continues to cloud final judgement. *It's a frigging OUTRAGE that the Brits junked so many of the VC documents during WW II (evidently in response to a paper shortage). *Any verifying evidence to his VC mission that did exist was irretrievably lost--a crime against history IMO.
* * Having said that, I heartily concur that possession of a medal is no proof that anything did occur. *Read Crook's excellent "Evolution of the VC' (if you can find a copy) and you'll see that the system was far from perfect. *Alan Jerrard's gong alone is ample proof of the fallibility of the process.
* *BTW: being objective, the Medal of Honor has been administered far less evenly than the VC. *(Shameless Hype Alert) *My upcoming book on aviation MoHs deals with at least 3 such events that simply never happened.