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N0KFQ > TODAY 21.04.14 16:50l 59 Lines 2699 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 18355_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Apr 21
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JM1YTR<JE7YGF<XE1FH<N0KFQ
Sent: 140421/1447Z 18355@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.60
Apr 21, 1918:
Red Baron killed in action
In the well-trafficked skies above the Somme River in France,
Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the notorious German flying ace
known as the Red Baron," is killed by Allied fire on April 21,
1918.
Richthofen, the son of a Prussian nobleman, switched from the
German army to the Imperial Air Service in 1915. By 1916, he was
terrorizing the skies over the Western Front in an Albatross
biplane, downing 15 enemy planes by the end of the year,
including one piloted by British flying ace Major Lanoe Hawker.
In 1917, Richthofen surpassed all flying-ace records on both
sides of the Western Front and began using a Fokker triplane,
painted entirely red in tribute to his old cavalry regiment.
Although only used during the last eight months of his career, it
was this aircraft with which Richthofen was most commonly
associated and that led to an enduring English nickname for the
German pilot_the Red Baron.
On April 21, 1918, with 80 victories under his belt, Richthofen
led his squadron of triplanes deep into Allied territory in
France on a search for British observation aircraft. The flight
drew the attention of an Allied squadron led by Canadian Royal
Air Force pilot Captain Arthur Roy Brown. As Richthofen pursued a
plane piloted by Brown's compatriot, Wilfred R. May, the Red
Baron ventured too far into enemy territory and too low to the
ground. Two miles behind the Allied lines, just as Brown caught
up with Richthofen and fired on him, the chase passed over an
Australian machine-gun battery, whose riflemen opened fire.
Richthofen was hit in the torso; though he managed to land his
plane alongside the road from Corbie to Bray, near
Sailley-le-Sac, he was dead by the time Australian troops reached
him. Brown is often given credit for downing Richthofen from the
air, though some claimed it was actually an Australian gunner on
the ground who fired the fatal shot; debate continues to this
day.
Manfred von Richthofen was buried by the Allies in a small
military cemetery in Bertangles, France, with full military
honors. He was 25 years old at the time of his death. His body
was later moved to a larger cemetery at Fricourt. In 1925, it was
moved again, at the behest of his brother, Karl Bolko, this time
to Berlin, where he was buried at Invaliden Cemetery in a large
state funeral. In a time of wooden and fabric aircraft, when 20
air victories ensured a pilot legendary status, the Red Baron
downed 80 enemy aircraft and went down in history as one of the
greatest heroes to emerge from World War I on either side of the
conflict.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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