GERMANY'S RED BARON SHOT DOWN 100 YEARS AGO
Vaux-sur-Somme, France (JFK+50) A century ago today, April 21, 1918, Manfred von Richthofen*, the most successful fighter pilot of World War I, was shot down by Allied gunners.
Richthofen was flying close to the ground when he was shot in the chest by Allied gunners. His aircraft then crashed alongside a French road.
Richthofen, who was 25 years old at the time of his death, was known as The Red Baron. He had amassed 80 "kills" at this point in the war.
Alan Hall of The Mirror asks "Was the Red Baron a war hero or a cold-blooded killer..." He answers..."a cold-blooded zealot who shot down mortally wounded Allied airmen and kept bits of their charred planes as gruesome trophies."
Joachim Castan adds..."He hunted animals from 11, then went on to hunt people."
*Manfred von Richthofen (1892-1918) was born in Kleinburg (now Poland) into a prominent Prussian aristocratic family. MvR served in the German cavalry in the beginning of the war but then transferred to the Imperial German Air Service in May 1915. Richthofen was a "brilliant tactician" who by 1918 had become a legend.
SOURCE
"Was Red Baron Germany's last war hero or a cold-blooded killer who took hunting passion to the skies?", by Alan Hall, The Mirror, April 20, 2018, www.mirror.co.uk/
Vaux-sur-Somme, France (JFK+50) A century ago today, April 21, 1918, Manfred von Richthofen*, the most successful fighter pilot of World War I, was shot down by Allied gunners.
Richthofen was flying close to the ground when he was shot in the chest by Allied gunners. His aircraft then crashed alongside a French road.
Richthofen, who was 25 years old at the time of his death, was known as The Red Baron. He had amassed 80 "kills" at this point in the war.
Alan Hall of The Mirror asks "Was the Red Baron a war hero or a cold-blooded killer..." He answers..."a cold-blooded zealot who shot down mortally wounded Allied airmen and kept bits of their charred planes as gruesome trophies."
Joachim Castan adds..."He hunted animals from 11, then went on to hunt people."
*Manfred von Richthofen (1892-1918) was born in Kleinburg (now Poland) into a prominent Prussian aristocratic family. MvR served in the German cavalry in the beginning of the war but then transferred to the Imperial German Air Service in May 1915. Richthofen was a "brilliant tactician" who by 1918 had become a legend.
SOURCE
"Was Red Baron Germany's last war hero or a cold-blooded killer who took hunting passion to the skies?", by Alan Hall, The Mirror, April 20, 2018, www.mirror.co.uk/
Manfred von Richthofen
Photo by C.J. von Duhren (1917)
Replica of Red Baron's triplane
Photo by UseriEntity999
Foto von Oliver Thiele (o.thiele@gmx.net)
