A book about "The Red Baron"

[Gibbs505]

The red Baron: Beyond The Legend.
By Peter Kilduff

ISBN: 0 304 35207 1

http://www.milsurps.com/imagehosting/102473784df2e16b.jpg

This is a newe book for me. So new that in fact I have not yet read it!:o:nono: I have however given it a good look over.:)

There are a good number of photos, allmost all of the german view. This is a book that I am looking forward to reading. Perhaps with a good glass of scotch in my hand!:D

Manfred von Richthofen was a gallent and dashing gentleman and a deadly hunter. Shooting down a then record 80 allied aircraft between 17 september 1916 and 20 April 1918, he proved his deadly combination of marksmanship, steel-hard nerves. Showing a outstanding talent for the brandnew art of areal combat, he became a legend in his own lifetip that endures to this day.

I am sure that this book is going to be a fixture in my library.

[Claven2]

Is it me, or does he have an evil-looking face? Maybe he was a zombie? (j/k)

[Gibbs505]

Here is another view! More traditional then the'candid' shot above!

http://www.milsurps.com/imagehosting/1024737c17ceef05.jpg

[Claven2]

Looks like two different people! Wish I had an original "Pour Le Merite" like he is wearing.

[MiG25]

it is a pretty good book. IIRC he did see action at the start of the war as a cavalryman and was praised at that time by one of the kaiser's sons.

[Swede]

So was The Blue Max loosely based on his life?

[MiG25]

So was The Blue Max loosely based on his life?

doesn't the character in the blue max meet the red baron? i would assume the character is a composite of richtofen, immelmann, etc.

[Claven2]

Stachel is completely fictional.

[Gibbs505]

This book was a good read. Worth a look!

[John Lawson]

His own brother, Lothar, posted to his jasta, called him a butcher. After that very long duel with Lanoe Hawker, the Baron chose to fly above his jasta and pounce on targets of opportunity. Usually, they were on the way down before they detected the threat.
In 1948, Air Trails interviewed his elderly mother, who told them that she was informed by the German government that he had been killed by ground fire. While the RAF credited gunners Buie and Evans (who were firing Lewis guns) with the kill, it was really Cedric Popkin, who killed him instantly, with a single bullet from his watercooled Vickers on an AA mount. Roy Brown had put some rounds through the Fokker's airframe a few miles below Morlancourt Ridge before he turned for home due to severe stomach cramps, but none had hit the pilot. Had not the medical orderly who prepared Richtofen's body for autopsy stolen the fatal bullet, which had lodged in his wallet in his breast pocket, ballistics could have solved this dilemma. One wonders if he also stole the wallet; it contained a large amount of French currency for use if he had been forced down behind enemy lines. (The fatal bullet, which had become a valuable souvenier, was lost when the former Aussie soldier moved to a different location in Australia some time during 1936.)
Manfred was a mediocre pilot. Ernst Udet was the best pilot in the German air service and he survived the war to go on to develop the JU87 Stuka dive bomber of the second war. He became annoyed with Goering's making him a scapegoat and committed suicide in 1940.
Had the Baron met some of the better French aces or British aces in fair combat, he would not have racked up that large tally. Luckily for him, he only fought the second string.
But, then, Monday morning quarterbacking is all supposition and prejudices coming out, isn't it?
Although Pete Kilduff is a good WW-I aerial historian, he has been known to stub his toe on research. The book by Paul Carisella, "Who killed the Red Baron?" is much better researched, but it also contains some strange errors and omissions.
Hello to all readers who are former members of the original American Cross and Cockade society of WW-I Aerial Historians. I miss it, don't you?

[MiG25]

well, i think it goes without saying that the high totals ran up by the WWI aces had a lot to do with surviving long enough too gain experience, then preying on those that had little.

there must have been a lot of second string pilots around, it has also been said that barker meet a lot of second rate pilots on the italian front.

[John Lawson]

Precisely so. A surviving pilot who had been at the front for a few weeks had a decided advantage over a green pilot with, perhaps, five hours on type.
Stupidity also played a great hand.
Early in his flying career, before he had any victories to his credit, a young German pilot got into a duel with Guynemer, the great French ace. Laying in long bursts, he got class 3 jams in both guns and was helpless. Guynemer saw his perdicament and out of chivalry, gallantry and gross stupidity, wagged his wings and flew away, sparing Ernst Udet, who became the second highest ranking ace of WW-I.

[longbranch*]

I literally grew up hearing about the Red Baron on a daily basis. It has been my fathers life-long passion and he finally had his works published in 2000, "The Many Deaths of the Red Baron" by Frank McGuire.
Cheers
Geoff