Manfred von Richthofen
From Metapedia
Manfred von Richthofen (1892 - April 21, 1918) was a German flying ace who is credited with having 80 known kills during the First World War.
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[edit] Early Years
Richthofen was born in 1892 in Breslau, Silesia to a well to do family of Prussian Nobility. During his childhood he enjoying horseback riding and gymnastics. When he was 11 he formly started his military training which was completed in 1911 and he was transferred to the 1st Regiment of West Prussia. With the outbreak of WWI in 1914, Richthofen served as a cavalry scout on both the Western Front and Eastern Front. Gradually the Cavalry Scouts were phased out due to the usage of machine guns and barbed wire and the Scouts were newly formed as basic infantry units. Not happy with the amount of action he was seeing, in 1915 he joined up with the newly formed Imperial German Army Air Service, which was a forerunner to the Luftwaffe.
[edit] World War I
His early flying career was flying basic reconnaissance missions over the Eastern Front where he shot down his first aircraft, a French Farman. He is not credited with this kill, as the enemy's plane fell behind Allied lines. In 1916 he transferred to the Bomber unit, piloting a two seater Albatros C.III. August 1916 saw Richthofen meeting Oswald Boelcke who was in the process of forming a new fighter squadron, Jasta 2 and in September won his first aerial combat over Cambrai, France. This first kill would start a tradition with Richthofen, where he would have a custom made Silver Cup crafted with the names,date and type of aircraft destroyed engraved onto it. He amassed 60 of these Cups until there was blockade of Silver into Germany.
Late November 1916, he would meet his renowned adversary, the famed fighter ace, Britain's Major Lanoe Hawker VC, in which he shot down Hawker in his Albatros D.II. In early 1917 Richthofen was able to score a further 22 kills before switching aircraft types, to a Fokker Dr.I,which is Triplane variation. Contrary to popular belief, he only scored 20 kills using a Triplane. In January 1917 he was awarded the highest medal in the German Army, the Blue Max and by April 1917 his tally for confirmed kills had reached 52. By June of that year, Richthofen was promoted to Captain, which was not unusual in the German Army for low ranking officers to be Commanders of units.
On July 6 1917 he was forced down and landed near Wervicq with a severe wound to the head and was grounded for several weeks. The man who had shot him down was Captain Donald Cunnell who himself was shot down and killed several days later.
By 1918, Richthofen had became such a legend it was feared if he was killed it would be a major blow to the Germany fighting units. On April 21 1918, the Red Baron was shot down whilst flying over the Somme River. During this battle he was chasing a Sopwith Camel flown by Canadian pilot, Wilfrid "Wop" May of the Royal Air Force. While engaging May he was spotted by fellow Canadian and Royal Air Force pilot,Arthur "Roy" Brown. After shaking off Brown with a great display of machine and tactics, he returned to engage combat with Canadian pilot, May. During this event, Richthofen was hit with a single bullet, a .303 which penetrated his lung and cause severe damage to his heart. Amazingly Manfred was able to land his aircraft behind Australian lines near Vaux-sur-Somme.
The Red Barons last word was muttered to Australian Medical Sgt.Ted Smout which was "Kaput" (Finished in English). His mainly intact aircraft was soon ripped apart by souvenir hunters and his body was placed in care of the nearest Australian Flying Unit.
[edit] Burial
Richthofen was buried by a Major Blake, an Australian air officer who had held Manfred with the greatest of respect and organized a full military funeral which was conducted by the 3rd Australian Flying Corps. Six men of the the same rank (Captain) served as pallbearers and he was buried in the cemetary in Bertangles. Like all military funerals, there was wreaths placed and shot fired as a salute to the fallen fighter ace.
After the war, Richthofen's engine was donated to the Imperial War Museum in London,England where it is still to this day. In 1925 his brother, Bolko went to France and retrieved the body and brought it back to Germany to be buried in the family tomb. With insitance from the German government, the body was to be buried in Berlin in the Invalidenfriedhof Cemetery along side other heroes and military leaders were buried. The body remained there until 1975, when it was moved to the family tomb in Südfriedhof.
[edit] Total Number of Victories
In the decades following World War I some historians questioned weather the Red Baron achieved a total of 80 confirmed kills. In the 1990's three British historians did an in depth examination into this matter and they came to the conclusion that Richthofen had scored no lower than 73 kills, but also determined the number could be as high as 100. The highest scoring allied ace was Frenchman René Fonck, with 75 victories and the highest scoring British Empire fighter pilot was Canadian Billy Bishop with 72 kills.
[edit] Awards and Medals
- Prussian Pour le Mérite Order: 12 January 1917 (in recognition of his 16th aerial victory).
- Prussian Red Eagle Order, 3rd Class with Crown and Swords: 6 April 1918 (in recognition of his 70th aerial victory).
- Prussian Royal Hohenzollern House Order, Knight’s Cross with Swords: 11 November 1916.
- Prussian Iron Cross, 1st Class (1914)
- Prussian Iron Cross, 2nd Class (1914): 12 September 1914.
- Bavarian Military Merit Order, 4th Class with Swords: 29 April 1917.
- Saxon Military St. Henry Order, Knight’s Cross: 16 April 1917.
- Württemberg Military Merit Order, Knight’s Cross: 13 April 1917.
- Saxe-Ernestine Ducal House Order, Knight 1st Class with Swords (issued by the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha): 9 May 1917.
- Hesse General Honour Decoration, “for Bravery”
- Lippe War Honour Cross for Heroic Deeds: 13 October 1917.
- Schaumburg-Lippe Cross for Faithful Service: 10 October 1917.
- Brunswick War Merit Cross, 2nd Class: 24 September 1917.
- Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Duke Carl Eduard Medal, 2nd Class with Swords and Date: 30 December 1916
- Hamburg Hanseatic Cross
- Bremen Hanseatic Cross: 25 September 1917.
- Lübeck Hanseatic Cross: 22 September 1917.
- Austrian Order of the Iron Crown, 3rd Class with War Decoration: 8 August 1917.
- Austrian Military Merit Cross, 3rd Class with War Decoration
- Bulgarian Bravery Order, 4th Class (1st Grade): June 1917.
- Turkish Imtiaz Medal in Silver with Sabres
- Turkish Liakat Medal in Silver with Sabres
- Turkish War Medal (“Iron Crescent”): 4 November 1917.
- German Army Pilot’s Badge
- German Army Observer’s Badge
- Austrian Field Pilot’s Badge (Franz Joseph pattern)
