Memorial is located with his parents' graves at the Wrentham Center Cemetery in Wrentham Massachusetts.
First Lieutenant, 4th Fighter Squadron, 52nd Fighter Group.
Killed In Action while engaged in an aerial dogfight with a German fighter while piloting a Supermarine Spitfire Vc JK160.
Lt. Bishop shipped out over the Atlantic aboard the transport RMS Queen Elizabeth, arriving in Morocco. He would train using P-38 Lightnings and other fighter aircraft, and participate in campaigns to retake the Italian homeland. As the war progressed, he would eventually be stationed at Calvi, on the French island of Corsica. It was while here he was tasked with patrolling the north Mediterranean Sea for enemy shipping, between Cannes, France and Genoa, Italy.
On February 9, 1944, shortly after 2:30 p.m., Bishop and three other Spitfire pilots spotted and attacked a small German convoy off the coast of Nice. Diving on the ships, strafing and releasing their small bombs, they would then climb out to 10,000 feet to avoid the 20mm anti-aircraft fire but were intercepted by the German Luftwaffe. Falling prey to the superior performing Focke-Wulf 190 "Würger" fighters (350 m.p.h. vs. 215 m.p.h.), John's Spitfire (designated 'Black 4') was shot down by legendary German ace Siegfried Lemke, and he was killed. Pilots FLT O James Howe Montgomery Jr and Bob Hoover (who survived but was taken as a POW) were also shot down. Lemke claimed a fourth Spitfire shootdown that day, but apparently without the loss of an American pilot.
Service Number: O-885276
Memorial is located with his parents' graves at the Wrentham Center Cemetery in Wrentham Massachusetts.
First Lieutenant, 4th Fighter Squadron, 52nd Fighter Group.
Killed In Action while engaged in an aerial dogfight with a German fighter while piloting a Supermarine Spitfire Vc JK160.
Lt. Bishop shipped out over the Atlantic aboard the transport RMS Queen Elizabeth, arriving in Morocco. He would train using P-38 Lightnings and other fighter aircraft, and participate in campaigns to retake the Italian homeland. As the war progressed, he would eventually be stationed at Calvi, on the French island of Corsica. It was while here he was tasked with patrolling the north Mediterranean Sea for enemy shipping, between Cannes, France and Genoa, Italy.
On February 9, 1944, shortly after 2:30 p.m., Bishop and three other Spitfire pilots spotted and attacked a small German convoy off the coast of Nice. Diving on the ships, strafing and releasing their small bombs, they would then climb out to 10,000 feet to avoid the 20mm anti-aircraft fire but were intercepted by the German Luftwaffe. Falling prey to the superior performing Focke-Wulf 190 "Würger" fighters (350 m.p.h. vs. 215 m.p.h.), John's Spitfire (designated 'Black 4') was shot down by legendary German ace Siegfried Lemke, and he was killed. Pilots FLT O James Howe Montgomery Jr and Bob Hoover (who survived but was taken as a POW) were also shot down. Lemke claimed a fourth Spitfire shootdown that day, but apparently without the loss of an American pilot.
Service Number: O-885276
Inscription
4 FTR SQ 52 FTR GP MA
Gravesite Details
Entered the service from Massachusetts.
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