World War I Services
When the First World War broke out in later in 1914, Bishop left RMC and joined the Mississauga Horse cavalry regiment. He was commissioned as an officer but was ill with pneumonia when the regiment was sent overseas. After recovering, he was transferred to the 8th Canadian Mounted Rifles, a mounted infantry unit, then stationed in London, Ontario. Bishop showed a natural ability with a gun, and excelled on the firing range. His seemingly "super-human" eyesight allowed him to put bullets in a target placed so far away others saw only a dot. They left Canada for England on 6 June 1915 on board the requisitioned cattle ship Caledonia. On 21 June, off the coast of Ireland, the ship's convoy came under attack by U-boats. Two ships were sunk and 300 Canadians died, but Bishop's ship remained unharmed, arriving in Plymouth Harbour on 23 June.
Read more about this topic: Billy Bishop
Famous quotes containing the words world, war and/or services:
“The predicate of truth-value of a proposition, therefore, is a mere fictive quality; its place is in an ideal world of science only, whereas actual science cannot make use of it. Actual science instead employs throughout the predicate of weight.”
—Hans Reichenbach (1891–1953)
“The more prosperous and settled a nation, the more readily it tends to think of war as a regrettable accident; to nations less fortunate the chance of war presents itself as a possible bountiful friend.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“It seems I impregnated Marge
So I do rather feel, by and large,
Some cash should be tendered
For services rendered,
But I can’t quite decide what to charge.”
—Anonymous.