Sopwith Ace

Air Classics, Mar 2004 by Pahl, Gerard

Though Barker might have seemed to be bold beyond his own safety that was not the case. Cecil remembers letters their mother would receive from officers in Bill's squadron writing of other Canadian pilots who would begin to drink and start to think it was okay, "for tomorrow we may die and all of this. And Bill wouldn't think of that. he didn't figure on dying. Hc would study; he'd spend his time studying these enemy airplanes. He knew their weakness - he knew all of the German planes as well as his own and he knew what he could do. And I don't think he took so much chances, but he knew what he was doing."

Though Will probably never heard of the military theoretician Gen. Giulio Douhet, he in actuality was a proponent of the Italian's "Theory of Frightfulness" that the enemy had to succumb to defeat if the aerial forces of its opponent could create intolerable conditions of panic, hunger, fear, and loss of production.

In January, Bill received the Distinguished Service Order for valor in the skies of Italy. He was so good at what he did that command realized it was not just his competitive nature that brought him such great success, but that he was one of the most talented pilots ever. He was selected for spy missions, the most celebrated being the delivery of Lt. Alessandro Tandura at night and behind enemy lines to Serravalle. The courageous Italian parachuted into the inky black as Barker negotiated his way using only the light from lightning flashes and a scries of searchlights set up to guide him on his way. The Italian government awarded Bill the Medaglia al Valore Militare d'Argento - its highest honor granted to a foreigner. In August, he was awarded a second Bar to his Military Cross for a series of missions during which he attacked large enemy formations, shooting down several planes each time and for also destroying two observation balloons.

Barker lost his appetite for balloon busting after one mission, however. From They Fought for the Sky, Reynolds writes: "He shot down an Austrian observation balloon. The two observers leaped for safety with their parachutes arid were already halfway to the ground when the blazing wreck of the falling balloon enveloped them in its folds and bore them down in a sheet of flame. Barker was so upset at this ghastly spectacle that he never attacked another balloon." With over 40 victory notches on his Camel, Bill was given leave to London.

Sopwith B6313 was removed from service. It was not just Barker who was responsible for those victories - B6313 should have some credit too. It had withstood a tremendous amount of stress and strain. The Sopwilh had accumulated just over 404 hours. Though various parts of the plane had been rebuilt, recovered and it had engine upgrades, it still was pretty much the original aircraft. Even the guns were the originals. Unfortunately, this honest and reliable aeroplane was not preserved.

Though he needed the rest, Bill could not stay in England long - Richthofen had 80 victories and Bill was only a little over halfway to that mark. Barker had to get back into combat - it was like a drug addiction. Somehow he convinced the authorities that, if he was going to instruct, he really had to return to France for a while to learn what new techniques were being employed there as opposed to Italy. he was allowed to return to the Western Front, hut only for ten days.