124 AWARDED FOR VALOUR
Insall managed to force down one airplane and in turn get shot down
himself, but he did so with good form.
These two aerial citations illustrate one of the intrinsic problems of
heroism in the air. The aviators of the First World War operated beyond the
scope of the traditional command structure and the mechanism for recom-
mendation. In many cases, particularly with the more flamboyant fliers,
they flew alone and their exploits lacked any corroboration:
On 2 June 1917 near Cambrai, France, Captain [William] Bishop,
patrolling independently, flew to an enemy aerodrome where several
machines were standing with their engines running. One of the machines
took off, but Captain Bishop fired at very close range and it crashed. He
fired at and missed the second, but his fire made the pilot swerve and
hit a tree. Two more aircraft then took off – he emptied his Lewis gun
into the forward fuselage of the first and it crashed. He then emptied a
full drum into the fourth machine which had come up behind him and
it dived away. Captain Bishop then flew back to his station.^61
This VC was given on the strength of his squadron commander’s recom-
mendation; there were no witnesses to the act. At the time there were
rumors that Bishop, a Canadian, had inflated his claims of victory, if
not manufactured it from the whole cloth. It has been alleged that the
Royal Flying Corps was well aware of the rumors of Bishop’s fabrications,
but turned a blind eye in the interests of maintaining an amicable rela-
tionship with the Canadian military establishment.^62 This problem with
respect to aerial acts of heroism came under sharp scrutiny at the end of
the war.
At the same time that flamboyant fliers like Bishop were rising to do single
combat in their airborne steeds, the RFC was in the process of becoming
the Royal Air Force and developing a rudimentary tactical doctrine.^63 The
later Crosses reflect this shift, as they reward more than a single victory and
the actions performed have some concrete military merit:
During the period 8 August to 8 October 1918 over France, Captain
[Andrew Frederick Wheatherby Beauchamp-] Proctor was victorious in
26 air combats, but from his first victory in November 1917 in all he
destroyed 22 enemy aircraft, 16 kite balloons and drove down a further
16 enemy machines completely out of control. In addition, his work in
attacking enemy troops on the ground and in reconnaissance during the
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