1918 Red Baron killed in action

[Felix/FFDS]

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.


Note that this article in the History Channel's site does not attribute the "Allied fire" to one or another specific source  (ie. Roy Brown or Australian gunners) ..

[Yurei]

he took down 80 allied aircraft in the war (holding the record for the first ww). he was my hero when i was a kid. i had my little red baron toy plane and loved it more than any other

edit to add: of course he wasn't my hero for killing all those people (i was a kid, i didn't even understand the concept of death and war). i guess i just really liked that plane

[eno]

Didn't we have this debate this time last year

[Hagar]

Didn't we have this debate this time last year

Not on the anniversary of his death.

[quote]i had my little red baron toy plane and loved it more than any other

[TacitBlue]

I really like his pizza.

[ATI_7500]

A great man from the era when dogfights still had a knightly touch.
Sadly, this era ended around 1941...

[Hagar]

A great man from the era when dogfights still had a knightly touch.
Sadly, this era ended around 1941...

I always understood the Red Baron was a cool calculated killer. Only way to survive & he was an experienced huntsman like most of the nobility. A good fighter pilot will shoot you in the back without you knowing he's there. That's his job. A large percentage of his victims were either inferior two-seat reconnaissance types or rookies. From what I've read over the years, chivalry in the air in WWI is mostly myth. This might have been so in the early days before aircraft carried armament.

[Felix/FFDS]

I agree with Hagar.

[Flt.Lt.Andrew]

I think the gentlemanly aspect only exists in Historians' minds...I've heard of 12 on 1 kind of thing...tell me how thats chivalrous?
Same went for on the ground as well...

A.

[RichieB16]

\The legend of the Red Baron in his all-red Fokker Triplane owes more to a cartoon strip & a pop record than the truth.

Although it has been blown out of proportion-I think part of it is due to the fact that he was shot down while flying a basically all red Triplane.

[Yurei]

The legend of the Red Baron in his all-red Fokker Triplane owes more to a cartoon strip & a pop record than the truth.  

lol there's a pop record?

[Hagar]

lol there's a pop record?

Actually there was more than one. Probably before your time.

Snoopy vs. The Red Baron
1966
The Royal Guardsmen

After the turn of the century
In the clear blue skies over Germany
Came a roar and a thunder men had never heard
Like the scream and the sound of a big war bird

Up in the sky, a man in a plane
Baron von Richthofen was his name
Eighty men tried, and eighty men died
Now they're buried together on the countryside

Chorus: Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin' out the score
Eighty men died tryin' to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany

In the nick of time, a hero arose
A funny-looking dog with a big black nose
He flew into the sky to seek revenge
But the Baron shot him down--"Curses, foiled again!"

Chorus

Now, Snoopy had sworn that he'd get that man
So he asked the Great Pumpkin for a new battle plan
He challenged the German to a real dogfight
While the Baron was laughing, he got him in his sight

That Bloody Red Baron was in a fix
He'd tried everything, but he'd run out of tricks
Snoopy fired once, and he fired twice
And that Bloody Red Baron went spinning out of sight

Chorus

Fade on chorus second time

http://www.petcaretips.net/snoopy_song.html

[Yurei]

excellent! very interesting, thanks doug

[RichieB16]

Actually there was more than one. Probably before your time.

I know that song!!!  

[Felix/FFDS]

[quote] or the one for which William Barker won the Victory Cross (which I think is one of the most amazing stories of WWI).