Bishop came back to France in May 1918 to command No. 85 Squadron, RAF — the Flying Foxes — on the new S.E.5a. What followed was the most concentrated stretch of his career: twenty-five German aircraft in twelve days, five of them inside about twelve minutes on the morning of 19 June, which brought his official total to 72. That morning was his last at the front. He had not been shot down and he had not been wounded — he had been ordered home, officially to help organise a Canadian air force, and in practice because the government could not afford the morale blow of his death.

W. Britain has him on the ground rather than in a cockpit — khaki service dress with the collar open over shirt and tie, a field service cap set square on his head, belt and cross strap, binoculars held in both hands at his waist. It is a squadron commander between patrols, not a hero in flight, and it makes him easy to place: put him on an airfield diorama beside a hangar, a tender, or a parked machine. He also bridges the aces who shared his sky — Manfred von Richthofen, killed barely a month before Bishop arrived back in France, Eddie Rickenbacker, and Georges Guynemer.

W. Britain model 10211. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single standing figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.