On this day in 1918 – World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as “The Red Baron”, is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France.
On this day in 1918 – World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as “The Red Baron”, is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France.
14 comments
He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, being officially credited with shooting down 80 enemy aircraft.
10 20 30 40 50 or more the bloody red baron was rolling out the score 80 men tried to end that spree of the bloody red baron of Germany
[Man and machine and nothing there in between…](https://youtu.be/1snEYPg8TXs)
‟The murder of a man is still murder, even in wartime.”
-Manfred von Richthofen
He was 25 years old when he died.
Born a soldier from the horseback to the skies – thats where the legend will arise!
Thats the Red Baron for anyone who does not know
Shot down by Australian ground troops. Of course.
One of his descendants killed his parents
Man and machine and nothing there in between
Funnily enough as a German i didnt even know the Red Baron until some American came onto r/Germany and asked what we think about him
I could have sworn his name was ‘Max(imilian) Von Richthofen
[ Someone call the ‘Mandela effect’ hotline, straight away]
Old school badass.
Funny how this particular piece of WWI propaganda still survives to this day. I don’t mean he wasn’t a fighter ace, just that his celebrity is based on contemporary German propaganda hype and sensational news stories from the Allied press. Pilots were particularly popular in this time because they supposedly represented an older, nobler tradition of war, in contrast to the depressing trench warfare.
We have to thank Snoopy for ridding us of this aerial menace.