Early in the morning of June 2, 1917 Bishop was
up and ready to raid the Germans. He tried to get Willy Fry to
come with him, but Fry had a serious hangover from the night's
party and refused to get out of bed. So Bish went alone. He flew
over the lines and headed for Cambrai towards the aerodrome he
had chosen for his attack. He arrived just as the sun came up
and found no activity and no planes at all. The place was
deserted. He circled around for a bit thinking and waiting to
see if anyone would show up. No one did. He left angry, flying
at random trying to find something to shoot up. He was about to
head for home when he saw the buildings of another aerodrome to
one side. He banked sharply and headed for them. It was
Estourmel, the home of Jadgstaffel 5 headed by Staffel Fuhrer
Lt. Werner Voss. Seven aircraft, a two-seat Rumpler recon. plane
and six Albatros scout aircraft (reported by Bishop to be DIIs,
although Voss's Staffel no longer used the type), were lined up,
motors running waiting for the pilots and observer.
Bishop banked and dived, coming in perpendicular to the
flight line and fired a 97-round drum of 0.303 bullets into the
aircraft, killing one mechanic. Then he pulled off doing a
series of slow-speed turns waiting for an Albatros to come up to
challenge him. The ground troops got several machine guns into
action and nearly hit Bishop. A rookie pilot warming his engine
accepted the challenge and took off. But his engine wasn't fully
warmed up and he couldn't get enough power to take off easily.
Bishop swooped around onto his tail and fired dropping the
aircraft onto the field. Another Albatros took off and Bishop
circled around to his 6 o'clock and fired but missed the pilot.
The German swerved and hit a tree, mangling
the wings and dropping the aircraft. Neither pilot was injured.
Now his real troubles began. Two Albatroses took off
together. Going for the nearest plane he began a circling
contest for a firing position. With two opponents this is
usually suicide, however, one German pilot stayed out of the
action, presumably he thought to give his compatriot the honour
of downing the arrogant Brit. The Nieuport was a tighter turner
than the DIII and Bishop finally got in a clear shot, dropping
the DIII onto the field. He swung head on towards the fourth
German and fired the entire drum of 0.303 ammunition at him.
missing completely. But this seems to have unnerved the German
pilot, he swung away and landed.
Bishop pulled away from Estourmel with a jammed gun, afraid
the Germans on the ground would have telephoned nearby Jastas
for help. Near the front lines he spotted a flight of DIIIs and
stayed immediately beneath them until he could make a run for
the front lines. The Germans rarely chased an Allied pilot
across the lines. He made his way back to his base. Unharmed and
jubilant. He was awarded the Victoria
Cross for this audacious action. But he earned the distrust
of some of his comrades, they believed he had become too
ambitious and may have made up the attack. |
