TALES OF THE BRITISH AIR SERVICE 



By Major William A. Bishop, V. C, D. S. O., M. C. 



Major Bishop, the premier ace of Great Britain's Royal Flying Corps, is the 

 only living person who has won the three distinctions of the Victoria Cross, the 

 Distinguished Service Order {twice bestowed), and the Military Cross. Although 

 only 23 years of age at the present time, he had been a member of the Canadian 

 military establishment for three years prior to the outbreak of the world war, and 

 became an aviator shortly after reaching France zvith the first expeditionary forces 

 from the Dominion. During the past three years he has brought down 4/ Ger- 

 man machines in no air battles. Captain Albert Ball, several of whose exploits 

 Major Bishop describes in the accompanying article, was only 10 years of age 

 when killed, yet he long held the record among British aviators, the official count 

 of machines destroyed by him being 43. At the time of Captain Ball's death Major 

 Bishop had destroyed 15 planes. The latter rapidly took a commanding position 

 in the records and a few months ago surpassed the count of his compatriot who 

 had fallen. Major Bishop now not only outranks in air achievements every other 

 member of the Royal Flying Corps, but has held the record for all the Allied armies 

 since the death of Captain Guynemer, of the French Aviation Service. 



SOME of the exploits of the late Cap- 

 tain Ball, V. C, were most excit- 

 ing. He was especially noted for 

 getting himself into the tightest corners 

 and then, in an instant, turning defeat 

 into victory and coming out of the fight 

 victorious. 



Upon one occasion in the early part of 

 his career as a fighter he had gone some 

 twenty miles across the enemy lines, 

 vainly looking for some one to fight with. 

 Finally he saw two enemy machines fly- 

 ing together. Without hesitation he flew 

 straight at these two and engaged them 

 in a fight which lasted over ten minutes, 

 at the end of which time he found that 

 he had run out of ammunition. The two 

 enemy machines had also had enough of 

 it by now and seized their first opportu- 

 nity to escape, diving down to the ground. 



Ball was much disgusted at this and 

 emptied six rounds from his revolver at 

 the two diving machines. He then seized 

 a piece of paper and a pencil which he 

 had with him and wrote out a challenge 

 for the same two machines to meet him 

 at the same spot the next day. 



At the appointed time Ball turned up 

 on the spot and a few minutes later the 

 same two enemy machines approached 

 him from the east. He flew toward them 



to engage in a fight, but at that moment 

 three more of the enemy came down from 

 the sky and attacked him. It was a care- 

 fully laid trap and he had fallen into it 

 without even suspecting that there was 

 one. 



The three enemy machines that had at- 

 tacked him from behind were of the latest 

 fighting type and were all flown by expert 

 men. 



At every turn Ball, who was under- 

 neath and was thus at a slight disad- 

 vantage, found himself outmaneuvered. 

 Turn and twist as he would, he always 

 found one of the enemy on top of him 

 and another just ready to catch him if he 

 turned the other way. Several times bul- 

 lets passed within inches of him. Finally, 

 deciding to escape, he realized that he 

 must do something extraordinary ; so he 

 dived toward the ground and, picking out 

 a large field, glided into it and landed. 



The three enemy machines at once sus- 

 pected that he had been shot and forced, to 

 land, and they all glided down and landed, 

 either in the same field with him or the 

 adjoining one. Then, jumping out of 

 their machines, they ran over to Captain 

 Ball. However, Ball, who had carefully 

 foreseen exactly what would happen, had 

 kept his engine running slowly while he 

 was on the ground, and the moment he 



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