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On April 21, 1918, Manfred von Richthofen, a German fighter pilot known as the "Red Baron," was killed in action over the battlefields of the Somme. Richthofen is considered the ace-of-aces of the First World War, being officially credited with 80 air combat victories. His popularity was such that he was idolized by his fellow officers and hero-worshipped by the German people. But over a century later, the exact circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery. So, who did shoot down the Red Baron?
Click through this gallery and find out more about the First World War's most successful fighter pilot.
Manfred von Richthofen was born on May 2, 1892, in Breslau, Lower Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland).
As a member of a prominent Prussian aristocratic family, he was afforded the title Manfred, baron von Richthofen. Both Manfred and his younger brother Lothar followed their father into military careers.
After completing cadet training in 1909, Richthofen enlisted in the 1st Uhlan Cavalry Regiment of the Prussian Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant.
As a member of this regiment, Richthofen served as a cavalry reconnaissance officer at the outbreak of the First World War. He participated in the invasions of Russia, Belgium, and France until the advent of trench warfare made traditional calvary operations redundant.
Still eager to see combat, Richthofen joined the infantry but ended up serving as a dispatch runner. In 1915 after a chance encounter with German ace fighter pilot Oswald Boelcke, he applied for a transfer to the Imperial Air Service (later to be known as the Luftstreitkräfte). The young aviator initially served as an observer on reconnaissance missions over the Eastern Front.
His fellow pilot Georg Zeumer would later teach him to fly solo, and Richthofen's early combat missions saw the novice airman fly a Albatros C.III. He later advanced to the Albatros D.II, in which he perfected the Dicta Boelcke—a series of fundamental aerial maneuvers of aerial combat formulated by his compatriot Oswald Boelcke.
Richthofen was later invited to join Boelcke's Jasta II, one of the first German fighter squadrons. It was Richthofen's Albatros D.II that was first painted bright red, in January 1917, and in which he earned his name and reputation. He's pictured here in the cockpit with comrades from his squadron, including his brother Lothar (sitting, front).
It was while in Jasta II that Richthofen scored his first confirmed victory, when he engaged Second Lieutenant Lionel Morris and his observer Tom Rees in the skies over Cambrai, France, on September 17, 1916. He credited the kill to his use of Dicta Boelcke— tactics he would go on to teach his own squadron and its pilots.
Richthofen's most famous adversary was Captain Lanoe George Hawker (pictured). A recipient of the Victoria Cross, Hawker was an equally skilled fighter pilot and was even described by Richthofen as the "British Boelcke." On November 23, 1916, the German ace shot down Hawker over northern France.
In 1917, Manfred von Richthofen began leading Jasta II's larger fighter wing Jagdgeschwader I, better known as "The Flying Circus" or "Richthofen's Circus" because of the bright colors of its aircraft.
Richtofen flew a number of different aircraft during his time with the Flying Circus. These included the Albatros D.II, Albatross D.III, Halberstadt D.II, and Albatros D.V.
Richthofen received the Pour le Mérite in January 1917 after his 16th confirmed kill, the highest military honor in Germany at the time and informally known as "The Blue Max."
His standing was such that Richtofen had by now become quite the celebrity. He is picture here with German Empress and Queen of Prussia Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein, shorty after being awarded The Blue Max.
Richthofen's reputation in the air and leadership skills on the ground endeared him to his fellow officers, themselves elite German fighter pilots whom he trained himself, and several of whom later became leaders of their own squadrons.
Manfred von Richthofen is most commonly associated with the Fokker Dr.I triplane. He also had this aircraft painted red. German high command permitted this practice and, recognizing the propaganda value in such a flamboyant paintjob, started referring to Richthofen as Der Rote Kampfflieger ("the Red Fighter Pilot"), better known to Entente forces as the Red Baron.
The Red Baron only flew the Fokker Dr.I triplane from late August 1917. Furthermore, only 19 of his officially 80 kills were made in this distinctive three-winged aircraft. Earlier, Richthofen's luck nearly ran out when he sustained a serious head wound on July 6, 1917, during combat near Wervik, Belgium.
Richthofen was piloting an Albatros D.V at the time and managed to make a forced landing in friendly territory (pictured). He returned to active service against doctor's advice just 20 days later.
Though his injury appeared to have healed, it's thought to have caused lasting damage. Richthofen later complained of post-flight nausea and headaches. Colleagues also noticed a change in his temperament. In fact, a theory linking this injury emerged after his death.
By 1918, the Red Baron had become part of a cult of officially encouraged hero-worship. So much so that the Luftstreitkräfte feared his death would be a blow to the morale of the German people. A worried German High Command offered Richthofen a desk job, but he refused.
On April 21, 1918, the Red Baron took off from an airfield in northern France and piloted his bright red Fokker Dr.I triplane over the trenches at Morlancourt Ridge, near the Somme River.
Richthofen was spotted flying low over the ground by Canadian Captain Arthur "Roy" Brown (pictured), who pursued the German ace. What happened next has been a source of speculation and conjecture for over a century.
During the pursuit over Entente territory, Richthofen sustained a fatal bullet wound to his chest; it would have killed him in less than a minute. His aircraft stalled and went into a steep dive, smashing into the ground just north of the village of Vaux-sur-Somme near Amiens in a sector defended by Australian forces.
When witnesses reached the crash site, they found Richthofen already dead. The British Royal Air Force credited Arthur Brown with shooting down the Red Baron, who'd engaged with his adversary in a brief dog fight.
However, it is now generally agreed by historians, medics, and ballistics experts that Richthofen was actually killed by an anti-aircraft machine gunner firing from the ground. And the likely trigger man is Sergeant Cedric Popkin of the Australian 24th Machine Gun Company. The fact is there's no definitive proof as to the identity of the man who shot down the Red Baron. In this group portrait, Popkin is second from the right in the middle row.
What remains unclear is why Richthofen was flying so low over enemy territory in the first place. Contemporary theories suggest the German ace may have been suffering from cumulative combat stress, which made him fail to observe some of his usual precautions, his perceived lack of judgment the result of the brain injury he suffered the previous year.
Manfred von Richthofen was given a full military funeral conducted by members of No. 3 Squadron AFC (Australian Flying Corps). Officers served as pallbearers and other ranks from the squadron acted as a guard of honor. The body was buried in the cemetery at the village of Bertangles, near Amiens, on April 22, 1918.
In the early 1920s, French authorities created a military cemetery at Fricourt, in which a large number of German war dead, including Richthofen, were reinterred. However. in 1925 his body was again moved, this time at the request of the German government. During a state funeral, his casket was placed in a grave at the Invalidenfriedhof Cemetery in Berlin.
In 1936, the Third Reich held a further grandiose memorial ceremony at the site of the grave, erecting a massive new tombstone engraved with the single word: Richthofen. Overseeing the rededication was Hermann Göring, himself a noted fighter ace during the First World War.
In a further twist, during the Cold War era Richthofen's tombstone was damaged by bullets fired at attempted escapees from East Germany by Russian border guards. The memorial stood on the boundary of the Soviet zone in Berlin and thus fell in the line of sight of trigger-happy frontier police.
In 1975, the body was moved to a Richthofen family grave plot at the Südfriedhof cemetery in Wiesbaden, Germany, where it rests today.
A roadside sign marks the place where Manfred von Richthofen was killed by enemy fire over 100 years ago. It serves as a fitting reminder of the life and times of the fighter ace they called the Red Baron.
Sources: (Britannica) (The Western Front Association) (ACT Government)
See also: How important was the Battle of Britain?
Who shot down the celebrated flying ace known as the Red Baron?
The life and death of the First World War's most successful fighter pilot
LIFESTYLE History
On April 21, 1918, Manfred von Richthofen, a German fighter pilot known as the "Red Baron," was killed in action over the battlefields of the Somme. Richthofen is considered the ace-of-aces of the First World War, being officially credited with 80 air combat victories. His popularity was such that he was idolized by his fellow officers and hero-worshipped by the German people. But over a century later, the exact circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery. So, who did shoot down the Red Baron?
Click through this gallery and find out more about the First World War's most successful fighter pilot.