Major Barker's famous Flight

[PFFF]

In regard to Major Barker's reported shooting down 4 EA 27 Oct 1918.
Is it possible that:
1) He did shoot down an obsveration plane and 1 EA.
2) That the reported 40 (60?) EA he encountered was actually much smaller and
that the higher number was because of overcounting of EA-I remember reading an OTF article which reported on the First Fokker Triplane in one battle there was reported a dozen of Fokker Triplane when in actual fact there was just one-
it was the pilot flying the plane up and down around and around that was the
source of the report of a dozen when there was jsut one.
3) According to one account Barker was wounded in both arms and legs yet
managed to fly up and down and engaged EA at least twice-given the serious nature of such wounds-how could he continue flying ?(A trama expert can best answear this)
4) Whence came ID that EA was JG III? What does Sqadron reports say of
shootdowns(planes down but pilots not injured) that day?
Any commets?

Hi PFFF,

There was some talk about the identity of Barker's opponents a while back:

Barker's Snipe VC combat

At this time we can only speculate about which unit(s) he encountered that day.

regards,

Darren

[TomVrille]

As I recall, this engagement took place in full view of British front line ground forces, leaving it likely that a good many EA were involved, from at least 3 Jastas. The most plusible theory seems to be that the EA were flying in a stacked formation, and that Barker fell, rather than flew, through sucessive levels during several episodes of lost consciousness.

In the midst of a melee of this sort, the possibility that friendly fire may have contributed to the loss of one or two EA cannot be ruled out, but it seems clear that Barker got at least two victories without any such assistance.

[Barrett]

There was certainly no 60-plane "circus" airborne anywhere at any time, especially that late in the war. Germany was critically short of fuel and everything else, and even if that many e/a could have been launched at once, to what purpose? If there were "only" 40 planes in the gaggle, that figure represented a huge investment of increasingly rare assets.

Methinks the PR shop got hold of that story and ran with it.