BECOMING “THE RED BARON”
Rittmeister (cavalry captain) Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen (May 2, 1892-April 21, 1918), known from the color he painted his fighter planes as “The Red Baron” to his allied enemies (to fellow Germans he was “der rote Kampfflieger”—“the Red Battle Flyer,” or “the Red Fighter Pilot”), was the Great War’s famed “Ace of Aces.” Between September 17, 1916, and April 20, 1918, Richthofen scored 80 officially credited victories before being killed by ground fire (most likely fired by an Australian machine gunner, Sergeant Cedric Popkin) near Morlancourt, France, on April 21, 1918. He was 11 days short of his 26th birthday.
Richthofen’s 200-page memoir, written and published in Germany following his 52nd aerial combat victory, devotes the first 60 pages or so to his family background, his entry into service as a cavalry officer, and the first year of the war. He then recounts transferring to the Imperial German Air Service (Die Fliegertruppe) in May 1915 and his becoming a pilot. Notably, Richthofen’s journey to becoming Germany’s—and World War I’s—most famous fighter ace began with a chance meeting on a train with then-Leutnant Oswald Boelcke in October 1915. Already making a name for himself as Germany’s best fighter pilot, Boelcke replied to aerial observer (still not a certified pilot) Richthofen’s “Tell me, how do you manage it?” question in typical, straightforward Boelcke style: “Well, it is quite simple. I fly close
