Captain, Imperial German Air Service
One hundred years ago today, Manfred von Richthofen was killed in action over France during the First World War. He was twenty-five years old.
Scion of an aristocratic Prussian family, he began his military career as a cavalryman, but the trenches and machine guns of the new world war made this role obsolete. He transferred to the air service rather than serve as a commissary officer. Not a natural pilot, he had to work hard to master the fragile planes of his time. He was a skillful hunter and deadly marksman however, and after mastering Albatros, Halberstadt, and Fokker fighter planes, he went on to shoot down 80 Allied aircraft. In later years it was not uncommon to contest his score, the highest of any pilot in World War I, but von Richthofen kept careful records of his victories, and his score is now generally held to be more accurate than most of his contemporaries.
Albatros D.I
Halberstadt D.II
Fokker Dr. I
He was shot down twice, once in March 1917, without injury, and again on July 7, 1917. This time he received a serious head wound. He survived, but many believe his abilities were impaired as a result of this injury.
His brother Lothar was likewise a successful fighter pilot. Lothar survived the war but died flying a commercial plane in 1922. Von Richthofen's cousin, Frieda, was married to British novelist D. H. Lawrence.
D. H. Lawrence, 1885-1930
Von Richthofen was killed on April 21, 1918, while pursuing British fighter pilot Wilfred May at low altitude. He was not shot down by an Allied pilot, but by Australian troops occupying that sector of the line. His death is a cautionary example of the phenomenon known today as 'target fixation,' in which a hunter is so preoccupied with his prey he fails to notice external dangers to himself.
1896-1952
One lucky S.O.B.
Von Richthofen gained renewed fame in the 1960s as a result of the 'Peanuts' comic strip. Snoopy the beagle had an ongoing fantasy about hunting 'the Red Baron' while flying his Sopwith Camel (i.e., his doghouse.) There was even a novelty song, "The Ballad of Snoopy and the Red Baron."
On behalf of all the fallen in World War I, I offer this small salute to the Red Baron. Tum somnum, venandi.
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