Bishop vs The Red Baron

The Red Baron felt himself superior to any opponent he met in the air.

On the afternoon of April 30,1917, the Red Baron met his match. Major Jack Scott, SQN #60 commander, and Capt. Billy Bishop, leader of a flight, sat high over the front lines in their Nieuport Scouts. Their aircraft were slower than the Albatross, and mounted only one machine gun while the Germans fighter had two. Bishop spotted five enemy scouts to the south and turned toward them, seeking his fifteenth victory. Almost immediately he saw four red Albatross to his right - one of which belonged to the infamous Manfred Von Richthofen - the Red Baron!

Bishop described the fight in his book "Winged Warfare" as: "a lightning fight and I have never been in anything just like it."

Bishop later wrote the following for the Dallas, Texas News on March 30, 1919:

The . . . experiences of the morning had put me in good humor for fighting.... I was up in the air again, with my squadron commander, to see if there were any Huns about looking for a bit of trouble.... Presently, to the south of us, we saw five Albatross Scouts. We went after them, but before we had come within firing distance we discovered four red Albatrosses, just to our right. This latter quartet, I believe, was made up of Baron Von Richthofen and three of his best men....

In my turn I opened fire on the Baron, and in another halfminute found myself in the midst of what seemed to be a stampede of bloodthirsty animals.

Everywhere I turned smoking bullets were jumping at me; and although I got in two or three good bursts at the Baron's "red devil," I was rather bewildered for two or three minutes, as I could not see what was happening to the Major, and was not at all certain as to what was going to happen to me.

Around we went in cyclonic circles for several minutes, here a flash of the Hun machines, then a flash of silver as my squadron commander would whizz by. All the time I would be in the same mix-up myself, every now and then finding a red machine in front of me, and letting in a round or two of quick shots. I was glad the Germans were scarlet and we were silver. There was no need to hesitate about firing when the right color flitted bv your nose.

It was a lightning fight, and I have never been in anything just like it. Firing one moment, you would have to concentrate all your mind and muscle on the next in doing a quick turn to avoid a collision....

... I saw up above me four more machines coming down to join in the fight. Being far inside the German lines, I at once decided they were additional Huns, so I "zoomed" up and out of the fight to be free for a moment and have a look around. The moment I did this I saw the approaching machines were triplanes belonging to one of our naval squadrons, and they were coming up for all they were worth to help us against the Albatrosses. The latter, however, had had enough of the fight by now, and at the moment I "zoomed" they dived, and flew away toward the earth.

Excerpt from Billy Bishop, VC by W.D. Mathieson

Bishop VS. The Red Baron ended in a draw!

However another Canadian, Captain Roy Brown, did shoot down the Red Baron almost a year later, on April 21, 1918. Click here to find out more.