- The Red Baron remains
one of history's most feared fighter pilots,
but also one of the most well-respected.
In fact, when he was killed,
his enemy gave him a funeral with full military honors.
But even now, 100 years after his death,
it is still unknown who exactly killed him.
You know the name, but why is this one pilot so legendary?
Other than the fact that he flew a red plane, in combat,
which is totally true.
Let's get into it.
At the dawn of aerial war fighting,
Manfred von Richtofen was credited with 80 kills,
the final 19 of which were earned
in triplanes infamously painted bright red.
And by the way, most aircraft have color schemes designed
to make them difficult to see,
whether from the ground or the sky.
Not The Red Baron.
In fact, he was known for taking risks even as a kid.
Von Richtofen was born into German royalty
as a freiherr
I don't speak German, it's similar to an English baron.
His father was a military officer who was disappointed
when his own career was cut short by injury,
so he pushed his son to succeed where he had failed.
At age 11, Von Richtofen attended
the Cadet Institute at Wahlstatt, a military school.
The boy who would become the Red Baron was undisciplined
and barely maintained his studies,
according to his autobiography.
He was also prone to dangerous stunts.
He once recounted a time when he climbed
the famous Wahlstatt steeple,
navigating the slippery gutters
by traversing the lightning conductor.
He tied his handkerchief to the top as proof of his victory.
Not exactly planting a flag on the moon,
but still it's some satisfying foreshadowing.
While Von Richtofen wasn't interested in the military
and was kind of a lackluster student,
he was a gifted athlete and he felt it was his duty
to fulfill his father's wishes.
He graduated from the school
and was commissioned as a cavalry officer in 1912.
After the outbreak of World War I,
Von Richtofen initially spent his time doing reconnaissance.
For the Allies' sake, one might wish
that he had stayed there.
But as the armies dug into trenches around Paris,
the need for cavalry waned
and its soldiers were reassigned
to positions laying cable or acting as couriers.
Some officers, including Von Richtofen,
were told that they would be assigned quartermaster duty.
"I have not gone to war to collect cheese and eggs,
"but for another purpose," he said, probably just like that.
So he applied to train
as an observer on reconnaissance flights.
But his first training flight was a disaster.
He lost his equipment and failed
to keep track of his position or heading.
Still he rededicated himself to training
and became a skilled observer.
As the war labored on, he decided to become a pilot.
His ambition was bolstered
when he met Lieutenant Oswald Boelcke,
a famous fighter pilot for the Germans.
Von Richtofen earned his pilot's certificate
on Christmas of 1915 and continued his training.
He was eventually selected by Boelcke himself
to be in Boelcke's new unit.
On September 17, 1916, Von Richtofen went
on his first patrol and scored his first kill.
Now let's remember that in 1916,
airplanes were about a decade old.
They were basically made of paper and wood
with open cockpits and rudimentary instruments.
Pilots had roadmaps for navigation.
In the early days of World War I,
pilots would fire revolvers at each other
and drop bombs by hand from their aircraft.
It was (bleep) bananas.
The Germans however would quickly recognize
the potential airplanes had for warfare,
from long-range bombing campaigns
to advanced air-to-air weaponry.
They were the first to develop gun synchronizers,
which allowed pilots to fire machine guns from their planes
without shooting their own propellers.
'Cause like the bullet has to, you get it.
And Van Richtofen would become one of the best.
After that first aerial victory,
his momentum built as he scored kill after kill.
For each win, he commissioned a silver schnapps cup
with the type of the plane he shot down
engraved on the bottom.
He would then raise a toast to honor the death of his enemy.
He continued this tradition for his first 60 kills,
and some of the original cups are still accounted for today.
Historians believe he just ran out of silver at that point.
It wasn't until late 1916
that Von Richtofen painted his aircraft red.
By this time, he was an accomplished fighter
with nine confirmed kills.
A number of nicknames cropped up
after Von Richtofen adopted the trademark paint job,
including The Red Baron, which stuck.
In January 1917 the Baron reached 16 kills
and was given command of the squadron Jagdestaffel 11.
He and his men continued to fight the British.
And in April Von Richtofen set a new record,
finally passing Boelcke's record of 40 kills.
By the end of the month,
Von Richtofen had 52 total victories.
His strategy was to attack with the sun behind him,
which made it difficult for his enemy to see him.
The sun is here and it's like,
shooting into the sun like, you get it.
But only a few months later, Von Richtofen was wounded
in an air battle when a round struck him in the head.
He was initially blinded,
but regained his sight in time to land the plane.
After a forced convalescent leave,
Von Richtofen demanded to return to the front
where he continued to achieve new aerial victories.
They seem to have lost their allure for him however.
After the shot to his head, he became angry and brooding,
but continued to fight.
In April 1918, he doubled Boelcke's record
and achieved his 80th kill.
But death was tired of waiting for The Red Baron.
On April 21, 1918, the day after his 80th victory,
Von Richtofen was shot through the chest
while aggressively chasing a rookie Canadian pilot.
There is some speculation that his defeat can be credited
to the traumatic brain injury
he sustained the summer before,
but regardless of his performance that day,
someone shot him down.
There are many theories about who exactly it was.
The Royal Air Force gave official credit
to Captain Roy Brown, who made a combat report claiming
to shoot down a pure red triplane that day.
Australian Sergeant AJ Franklyn also claimed
to have shot down The Red Baron with a Lewis gun
while manning an anti-aircraft battery.
But subsequent research places Franklyn's German kill
a day later, so not The Red Baron.
An Australian intelligence officer gave credit
to Sergeant Cedric Popkin,
of an Australian anti-aircraft machine gun company,
for shooting down the lethal ace
at 400 feet, from the ground.
Today the consensus seems to be
that Brown brought down the aircraft
while Popkin made the kill.
Either way, Manfred von Richtofen died on April 21, 1918,
at the age of 25.
The Red Baron had been feared and loathed,
but also respected by his enemies.
His body was taken to a British hangar
where airmen could pay their respects,
and they did in droves, and the following day
he was buried with full military honors, by the Allies.
His funeral included an honor guard,
six Royal Flying Corps pallbearers, and a wreath
on his grave that read "To Our Gallant and Worthy Foe."
He remains the world's second highest fighter ace,
with 80 kills, bested only by his countryman Erich Hartmann,
a World War II pilot with 352 kills.
Now I do not condone shooting down Allied planes,
however we do have a video about a World War II ace
who shot down a US plane and earned a medal and a wife.
Check it out in the link below.
(beep)
Today the consensus seems to be
that Brown brought down the aircraft
while Popkin made the kill
in the study with a (groans).