Sopwith Ace

Air Classics, Mar 2004 by Pahl, Gerard

Perhaps the worst form of terror developed by humankind is all-out war, but even this type of conflict even has its rules - some of them actually signed to in conventions, others made by gentlemen's agreement. It had always been the case that the days around Christmas were considered days of truce. Indeed, in 1914, German and British soldiers sang Christmas carols to each other from the trenches and exchanged real Christmas presents of the uncxplosive kind - mementoes that they gave to each other in No-Man's-Land. The commanders on both sides were furious and strictly prohibited anything like it happening again - if you humanize the enemy, you are less likely to kill him.

British commanders had banned unauthorized flights on Christmas Day 1917, hut that did not stop Barker and Hudson from delivering their own presents from the sky. The two pilots dropped a "Christmas Card" on either San Felice or Motta Aerodromes (Barker never recorded the target in his log hook). The card greeted the Austrians: "To the Austrian Flying Corps from the English RFC, wishing yuu a Merry X-Mass." They then proceeded to attack the enemy's hangars setting them afire. They strafed the trenches, killing twelve and wounding many others. This enflamed the Austrian pilots who on Boxing Day made an ineffective and drunken counterattack doing little damage and in turn having twelve of their own craft shot down.

An account of the occurrence was written by Ernest Hemingway in his short story The Snows of Kilimanjaro in which the blood-thirsty heavy (Barker), "had flown across the lines to bomb the Austrian officers' leave train, machine-gunning them as they scattered and ran." The documentary The Hero's Hero reports that the duo strafed a troop train (not necessarily an officers' train) and that they also attacked a truck convoy. Hemingway portrayed Barker afterwards as coming into the mess and starting to tell about it "and how quiet it got and then somebody saying 'You bloody murderous bastard.'" Though it has been questioned if the train strafing ever occurred, Barker was out for blood. Not so much for the sake of killing, but that Germans and their allies were his enemy and the enemy of his country. It was not something to he enjoyed, just something that needed to he done as he felt that his "purpose in life (was) to serve (his) country," according to The Hero's Hero.

Bill did not shirk from killing as he had been an excellent hunter from childhood and so he continued on his search-and-destroy missions, pouncing on anything the enemy flew from two-seat Aviatiks to giant Gotha bombers. He was one of the first fighter pilots to mark kills on his aeroplane, using white marks, then notches on the Camel's outboard port strut. In addition to hunting missions, Barker flew on bombing missions and escorted recce ships for which the French decorated him with the Croix de Guerre.

Bill broke-in new pilots and trained them well. They had a better chance of survival under his tutelage than any other instructor - but he did not suffer inept or cowardly pilots. Ralph's book quotes a letter Bill wrote to his brother: "I have a great machine in my flight. About the best in the squadron. Two officers came near being Court-marshaled [sic] the other day for not following me. They won't get another chance." Bill had little value in men who would shoot off their mouths rather than their Vickcrs. he drew men of substance to him - men who were bold and idealists.