1918
Red Baron Killed In Action
In the skies over Vauz sur Somme, France,
Manfred von Richthofen, the notorious German flying ace known as “The Red
Baron,” is killed by Allied fire.
Richthofen, the son of a Prussian nobleman,
switched from the German army to the Imperial Air Service in 1915. By 1916, he
was terrorizing the skies over the western front in an Albatross biplane,
downing 15 enemy planes by the end of the year, including one piloted by
British flying ace Major Lanoe Hawker. In 1917, Richthofen surpassed all flying
ace records on both sides of the western front and began using a Fokker
triplane, painted entirely red in tribute to his old cavalry regiment. Although
only used during the last eight months of his career, it is this aircraft that
Richthofen was most commonly associated with and it led to an enduring English
nickname for the German pilot–the Red Baron.
On April 21, 1918, with 80 victories under his
belt, Richthofen penetrated deep into Allied territory in pursuit of a British
aircraft. The Red Baron was flying too near the ground–an Australian gunner
shot him through his chest, and his plane crashed into a field alongside the
road from Corbie to Bray. Another account has Captain A. Roy Brown, a Canadian
in the Royal Air Force, shooting him down. British troops recovered his body,
and he was buried with full military honors. He was 25 years old. In a time of
wooden and fabric aircraft, when 20 air victories ensured a pilot legendary
status, Manfred von Richthofen downed 80 enemy aircraft.