""Marked for Death".. a review... " Topic

"A log time ago (in a galaxy far away… errr.. no wrong post ) Steve the Wargamer was sat in his bedroom having finished reading Don Featherstone's "Air Wargames" for perhaps the fifth time, and wondering how he could save up enough pocket money for the bamboo's and dowels required to play the WWI rules described in the book… setting that issue aside, like all good wargamers he spent what little he had on a Revell Fokker DVII kit, and an Airfix Sopwith Camel, and then proceeded to commit…"

Full review here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Hmm. Billy Bishop on the cover. Interesting, and maybe unfortunate choice.

I've just read Fredrick Libby's autobiographical history of his WW1 aviation experiences, "Horses Don't Fly". He briefly treats a communique that issued throughout the squadrons, clearly the basis for Bishop's Victoria Cross one-man dawn raid. Only Libby says it never happened, and was frankly outraged at the claims. He never mentions Bishop by name. But it could be no one else, judging by the details in the communique.

I'd much rather read original stuff than seminal overviews like this one. But thanks for the information all the same…………

GWA:

What never happened? The communique or Bishop's dawn raid?
Not clear what Libby was outraged about.

Aside from all this, a great book, good read.

John

Libby was outraged at the claims in the official RFC communique. He knew the details of the asserted airfield to be false. So he was expressing outrage at the falsity of the claims of the pilot. The pilot had to be Bishop. There are no other raids like his dawn raid. And his raid was news that was issued to the other squadrons. No doubt to boost morale soon after the event. But Libby was among the number who said "humbug!" Why he didn't just out with it and say Billy Bishop was a liar, I don't know. His autobiography mentioned Bishop earlier without prejudice.