'Billy Bishop' Books

[Milhot]

I 'm looking for my great uncle fying record or photo, Is name was J.A.A Milot he was a major with the 60th squadron of the RFC. He was shoot down by Sebastian festner during the " Bloody april" on the 8th of april 1917. He was flying a Nieuport 17 serial number A6764. If you have something for me that will be great.

[Ross_Moorhouse]

Originally Posted by Milhot

I 'm looking for my great uncle fying record or photo, Is name was J.A.A Milot he was a major with the 60th squadron of the RFC. He was shoot down by Sebastian festner during the " Bloody april" on the 8th of april 1917. He was flying a Nieuport 17 serial number A6764. If you have something for me that will be great.

Hi Milhot. Can I suggest that you post this into the "People" forum here. It will get a better answer.

[Dave_Kent]

Hello:

THE MAKING OF BILLY BISHOP is an eloquent and fairly convincing statement of the case against Bishop. Greenhous does acknowledge Bishop’s basic courage, and does give him some credit. For the most part, however, I find that where doubt or lack of evidence exists, Greenhous consistently sides against Bishop, except in two instances where Greenhous must accept Bishop’s word as truth to prove his own case.

The book is an excellent read and Greenhous is an historian of some note. This is his second writing on Bishop, the first being, THE SAD CASE OF BILLY BISHOP VC, which appeared in an historical journal. He also published BILLY BISHOP: BRAVE FLYER, BOLD LIAR, in the CANADIAN MILITARY JOURNAL V 3 # 3. This issue also carried an article by David Bashow, (author of KNIGHTS OF THE AIR), entitled THE INCOMPARABLE BILLY BISHOP, which presents an opposing view of Bishop.


On a side note, Greenhous also has a book not related to Bishop called A RATTLE OF PEBBLES, which I highly recommend.

BILLY BISHOP: CANADIAN HERO is one of three books that appeared in response to Paul Cowen’s THE KID WHO COULDN’T MISS. It was, I believe, McCaffery’s first aviation book, possibly book of any kind, and suffers a bit as a result. It does, however, have some good point and useful information, though care must be taken by the reader.

The other two books are, HANGING A LEGEND, Chadderton and BILLY BISHOP V.C. by Mathieson. The Chadderton book is targeted directly at Cowen, his work and the National Film Board, while the Mathieson work is more of a ‘young persons’ biography, well illustrated but brief.

Phillip Markham is in print, THE EARLY MORNING HOURS OF 2 JUNE 1917, in OVER THE FRONT v 10 # 3. I do not have and have not read this, but feel safe in recommending it. I think OTF carried another Bishop related article a few years ago. Sorry, no other info on this.

Hugh Halliday has a section on Bishop in his new book VALOUR RECONSIDERED. Again I neither have nor have read, but feel safe recommending it.

If Bishop is of interest to you, you might also want to look over WINGED WARFARE & WINGED PEACE both attributed to Bishop, THE COURAGE OF THE EARLY MORNING, by Arthur Bishop, BILLY BISHOP by David Baker and CANADA’S FIGHTING AIRMEN by George Drew.

Dave

[Ira_Silverman]

Mike W, et al -

I, too, had a discussion on the subject of Billy Bishop with Phil Markham (at one of the Over the Front seminars), at which time he was intent on substantiating Bishop's record.

Some time after that, in Volume 10, Issue 3 of Over the Front, he published, THE EARLY MORNING HOURS OF 2 JUNE 1917. AN UNSUCCESSFUL RESEARCH PROJECT.

He felt Bishop was a charlatan, and found no joy in expressing that opinion.

VBR,

Ira Silverman

[Jos]

Hello all,

Philip Markham's conclusion in the article Ira mentioned:

"My attempt to confirm Bishop's claim to have attacked an enemy arerodrome and to have destroyed three enemy aircraft on 2 June 1917 has been altogether unsuccesful. I have been unable to discover any supporting evidence; in fact it has been quite the reverse.
The point has come when the facts must be faced, when the opinion of his comrades and comtemporaries that Bishop was a fake and when the comment in the Nachrichtenblatt der Luftstreitkräfte, which describes the aerodrome attack as fictitious, must be taken seriously, and weighed against the character of the man.
I have spent a number of years in a thorough investigation of this award and I believe that I have covered all available aspects. The evidence, from both British and German sources, shows that there were no aircraft losses in the Jastas of 2 or 6. armee on 2 June 1917 and indicates very clearly that the aerodrome attack never took place. There is not a shred of evidence to support Bishop's claims."

By the way in the same Volume of OTF there is another article by Philp Markham titled: Other early morning Aerorome attacks.


In Cross and Cockade Vol. 32 No. 1 2001 there's an article titled "The Bishop Affair". A previously unpublished document by Wing Commander William Mays Fry, MC. entrusted for publication to Alex Revell.

Jos

[crankcase]

good heavens, no need to apologize in advance...
your comment seems to have got lost?
crankcase

[crankcase]

sorry, i was replying to milhot's first msg, but lost track of the thread...
i will follow milhot's question in the "people" thread, as Ross M suggested.
crankcase