THE CAREER OF GREAT WAR ACE WILLIAM BARKER AND THE SOPWITH CAMEL BEING BUILT by way of THE KALAMAZOO AIR ZOO When possible.

THE CAREER OF GREAT WAR ACE WILLIAM BARKER AND THE SOPWITH CAMEL BEING BUILT by way of THE KALAMAZOO AIR ZOO

When possible, William Barker would consume his ammunition on Hun throngs the end of a mission, however he particularly hated strafing horses. He favored attacking enemy contemns more than anything else. In a epistle to his mother, Barker claimed his first victory was when his Lewis fire-arms destroyed the engine of a Fokker that went down behind its confess lines, but squadron records point out no victories for the time in question. In Wayne Ralph's masterful work Barker VC, he quotes the verbal expression from Bill to his mother: "I am nearly dizzy from flying & work for we are awfully busy. Yesterday went throughout the lines at 9000-ft I saw a Fokker coming above and straightaway attacked him in the rear. He gave flight & the affair of honor lasted about five minutes, we circled globular & round & once I was within 80 yards of him. all the time I worked my m fire-arm like a demon, remedying jams & putting forward new drums, suddenly he useed & planed away to his lines with a dead engine which I must have hit. Our plane was hit in many places & I had the arm pit of my leather coat marksman away but was not touched. It was a fight I will not forget but am sorry to say that I could (not) bring him down in flames or encounter [sic] him out some in the same state [i]or[/i] condition fate." (Author's Note: The epistles are reproduced as they were written, without editing or correcting typos)

Some historians do list a possible Fokker bullet down in March 1917 and couple Rolands falling to Barker's .303-cal fire-arms in July and August. Indeed, Miles Constable in his biography of Barker says that Barker discharge down a Roland scout (possibly diving abroad of the sun onto Barker and his pilot's six, anticipating an easy kill). Constable wrote that Barker ball the German pilot in the forehead, killing him. "Two weeks later he downed a secondary Roland scout in flames and was Mentioned in Dispatches." Ralph states that none of these claims were credited to Barker's official record of 50 aircraft swallow uped by the end of the war.

Though Barker did not receive credit for his possible victories as an aerial gunner he was awarded the Military Cros for protecting his pilot and plane during a critical mission. Towards the conclusion of the Somme campaign he and Capt. WG Pender were sent to reconnoiter the area around the village of Beaumont Hamel. Constable stated that while proceeding to the enemy's defensive works, "They were attacked by means of a pair of German hoot ats Most B.E.2c pilots would have cause to deviateed tail and trundled off household but not Barker's pilot. They fought against the two Albatros D.IIs, doing like damage to one that they the couple fled." After the two stubborn BE2c crewmembers complet their photographic hie they proceeded home when "they were intercepted by the agency of four more Germans. Again, turning into them with so skill that they drove them off" and made it back to their lines safely.

The great fighter pilot Raoul Lufbery said: "There won't be any 'after the war (talk)' for a fighter pilot," suggesting that he and his match pilots would stay in French soil (Lufbery did die in France, jumping from his burning plane). Quentin Reynolds in his work They Fought for the celestial expanse wrote, "You either accepted the spurious yet comforting belief that you were invulnerable, or the alternative - that it was simply a matter of time before your time came. If you accepted the latter, you were passing a death judgment on yourself, for such an attitude slowed your reflexe in combat and hazeed your judgment." He continued: "They were fighting the cruelest enemy in the world, 'time' and the intelligent among them knew that life was utterly lending them a few more casual days or weeks."

Though it would appear that Barker and his pilot, although vulnerable, were nonetheless fearless. This was not to such a degree They took what they did seriously, and knew that from the altitude at which they had to perform their missions they were extremely susceptible to landed estate fire, both small arms and enemy "Archie" (anti-aircraft artillery). The innovative Boche had begun to ascend elevated 3-inch guns on exchanges which, when used in concentration, were particularly devastating.

In his part Reynolds continued, "A pilot from No. 4 Squadron (whose name unhappily is missed to history) seemed to attract anti-aircraft fire each time he flew. he would laugh uproariously at bursting shells and start singing a popular and slightly ribald psalm of the day, 'Archibald, Certainly Not!' His squadron mates would salute him when he returned from a flight with 'Archibald give you any distress today?' Eventually the long name was shortened to 'Archie' and to the fall of the curtain of the war, German anti-aircraft fire was known as such"

Bill present the appearanceed to be always exposed to the black flak of Archie and it was particularly terrifying as, unlike fire from an enemy aeroplane, there was nothing you could do about flak. In his volume Barker VC, Ralph quotes a alphabetic character from Bill to his mother: "A mighty battle is coming on the farther side to-morrow. The enormous guns are now cannonading & preparing the way for our infantry. I have a rather serious work at jobs on. My job is to hover at 500 ft to 1000 feet & preserve the Generals of the divisions informed of enemy motions counter attacks, etc. also to give leave to them know where our possess infantry are so our barrage can conform. It is mighty serious work to travel up there & send down reports which mean to such a degree much. Consequently I fly to such a degree low that I almost touch the landed estate for no report that I launch in is any other than what I papal court with my own eyes."