The War in the Air

The War in the Air Continued… 1. War in the trenches offered no glory; it seemed safer and cleaner and more romantic to fight in the air; being a pilot meant a greater chance of becoming a “Hero”.

The War in the Air Continued… 2. A ‘dogfight’ is an aerial duel between pilots. In a dogfight pilots would try to out-maneuver their adversary until they could fire their guns.

The War in the Air Continued… 3. Pilots would carry the bombs on their laps and throw them out of the open cockpit.

The war in the air continued… 4. Germany’s ace was known as the Red Baron, and Canada’s ace was Billy Bishop.

The War in the Air Continued… 5. Melancholic, naïve, excited, betrayed…

The War in the Air Continued… 6. The tones of these songs show the innocence of your Billy Bishop, which we may extrapolate to include all young Canadian Soldiers. Bishop is unaware of the ironies within his songs. There remains a haunting tone that the life of a pilot is really not as great as he imagines it to be (in contrast with trench fighting). Such naivete and irony in the line “let us dance together in the sky”