Wayne Ralph:
There may be no records of the precise motive for promoting Bishop out of his command in 1918, but my recollection of the surviving commentary from the pilots of 85 Squadron was that there were 'personality conflicts'. I would be interested to see references to any specific comments along this line, since I do not recall any authors/page numbers at this time.
The first thing I ever noticed about Bishop's record that gave me pause was the great preponderance of victories over single seaters. I don't have the list here in front of me as I write, but I recall especially being impressed that he could go out on lone wolf patrols in 1918 and tangle with single seaters almost exclusively, without being promptly shot dead by the packs of Germans who at that stage of the war rarely flew around in pairs or trios. If he was in fact regularly shooting down German fighter airplanes, without assistance from any wingman and without substantial damage to his own airplane, then he is far and away both the luckiest and the most skilled pilot of the war. No other pilot of any nationality was able to put together that combination of factors. Luke survived a very short time even with his excellent wingman, and
Albert Ball did not live long once he began to encounter groups of German fighters flying together. Luke also started his career with some credibility issues, which may have been a major motive for his preference for attacks on highly visible targets.
Perhaps it is this combination of factors that led other pilots to question the reliability of some of his claims? Bishop was, by his own description, a true Superman compared to every other pilot on either side of the lines, according to his 1918 record - both invulnerable and undefeatable, it would appear. Too bad these feats were to a great extent also invisible to others.