Manfred von Richthofen, German Fighter Ace, F-47 Phantom

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Rittmeister MANFRED FREIHERR von RICHTHOFEN RAFM HA(SP1) FAHRT ZUR NORD WITTMUND naal -SEE OVER DOUAI APRIL 1917 A 3340 THEDRALD Christian Daniel Rauch 1777 180 DEUTSCHE BUNDESPOST BERLIN 4. 292 50 Eugenie d'Alton 1977 DIESE BRIEFUMSCHLÄGE WURDEN AUF EINEM "ÜBERSCHALLFLUG" VON WITTMUND NACH MANSTON (1hr 15m) AN BORD EINER F-47 PHANTOM (Nr 3779) DES JAGDGESCHWADERS 71 "RICHTHOFEN" DER DEUTSCHEN LUFTWAFFE MITGEFÜHRT KOMMANDANT: HAUPTMANN MAYERHOFER FA Pour le Mé rite OBERLEUTNANT HÜBSCH Jagdgeschwader (Fighter Wing) 1 was formed in June 1917: this grouped Jastas 4, 6, 10 and 11 led by von Doering, Dostler, von Althaus and Wolff respectively, under Richthofen's command. This "Richthofen Circus" was a sort of fire-brigade, moving to various trouble-spots along the front. Manfred was rapidly promoted to Oberleutnant, then Rittmeister (cavalry Captain). On 6th July he was wounded in the head by fire from an F.E.2d and had to stay out of action for over a month. Richthofen flew a new Fokker triplane on 31st September, and scored his 60th and 61st victories with it before Obit. Wolff was killed in the aircraft on 15th October. Triplanes eventually arrived in quantity, and it was in Fok. Dr.l 425/17 that Manfred von Richthofen was killed in action during a battle with 209 Squadron, R.A.F., on 21st April, 1918. His all-red aircraft was pursuing the Sopwith Camel of Lt. Wilfrid May at low altitude over the river Somme when Captain Roy Brown fired at Richthofen from behind: the triplane crashed near Corbie, with its pilot dead of a single chest wound. Whether the bullet was fired by Roy Brown or by an Australian infantryman on the ground has never been conclusively discovered, but 209 Squadron was credited with the victory. Manfred von Richthofen, whose total confirmed victory tally was 80 aircraft, was buried next day with full military honours at Bertangles, and his body was transferred to Berlin in 1925. His brother Lothar, also a pilot in Jasta II, finished the war with 40 victories and died in an air crash in 1922. Much has been written about Manfred the Red Baron, speculating on his character; what is certain is that he was a capable leader, able to inspire by example. As one of the landed gentry with a military background (his father had also been a cavalry officer), he was an expert game shot with an acute sense of tactics, which well qualified him in aerial combat. He was also methodical, and his two major defeats in the air both resulted from his abandoning momentarily the careful approach which enabled him to bring down 80 enemy aircraft. He was succeeded as Geschwaderführer by Capt. Wilhelm Reinhard and finally by Hermann Göring. His name is perpetuated in the Richthofen Geschwader of the present-day Luftwaffe.

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GESCHWADER 71,,RICHT JAGD WITTMUND RICHTHOFEN" RITTMEISTER MANFRED, FREIHERR VON RICHTHOFEN, 1892-1918 Like many airmen of his time, Manfred von Richthofen began his military career in the cavalry: he had attended military schools since the age of 11, was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 1st Uhlan regiment at Easter 1911, and saw his first action on the Eastern front, not far from his home in Silesia, in 1914. Trans- ferred to the Western front, he was soon made a storemaster in the infantry, cavalry being obsolete in trench warfare. Chafing at the inactivity, Richthofen applied and was accepted in May 1915 for training as an observer in the Air Service. Having qualified, he was posted to Feldflieger Abteilung 69 on the Eastern front, then to Brieftauben Abteilung Ostende, a long-range reconnaissance and bombing unit. He flew as observer in an A.E.G. bomber, and subsequently in an Albatross C.III, on which he scored his first, unconfirmed victory in September 1915, downing a French Farman. He In October Richthofen was posted to Brieftauben Abteilung Metz, where his pilot gave him flying lessons. crashed on his first solo, but soon became a proficient pilot. During the battle of Verdun he shot down a Nieuport, again unconfirmed, with an improvised over-wing gun on his Albatros C.III. Back on the Eastern front, he received an invitation to join Jagdstaffel 2, a new fighter squadron commanded by Oswald Boelcke. Manfred's career as a fighter pilot began on 1st September 1916. His first confirmed victory was over a British F.E.2b on the 18th, and Richthofen ordered the first of his silver trophy cups, one for each aircraft shot down, but ending with the 60th. While Richthofen's score mounted, Boelcke, the founding father of German fighter aviation, was killed in a tragic accidental collision on the 28th October. Jasta 2, renamed Jasta Boelcke in his honour, was the cradle of many celebrated pilots, including Werner Voss and Adolf von Tutschek. Richthofen's 11th victory, on the 23rd November, killed 24 Squadron's leader Major Lanoe Hawker, V.C., D.S.O., the R.F.C's equivalent of Boelcke. His D.H.2 fell to Richthofen's Albatros D.II after a protracted dogfight near Bertangles. In January 1917, with a score of 16, Richthofen was posted to command Jasta at Douai, and on the 16th he was decorated with the Pour le Mérite, Germany's highest award. He soon inaugurated the red paintwork for which he and his Staffel were to become famous; while his own aircraft were largely, and in come cases com- pletely, red, those of his colleagues varied the red with extremities of different colours for identification pur- poses. The idea spread, and other Jastas developed brilliant colour-schemes of their own. In March, Richthofen was shot down in combat with 15 British aircraft, but was unhurt. His Staffel went from strength to strength under his inspiring leadership. P.T.O.