Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von
Richthofen (German: [ˈmanfreːt fɔn ˈʁɪçthoːfn̩]; 2 May
1892 – 21 April 1918), known in English as Baron von Richthofen or
the Red Baron, was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during
World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, being
officially credited with 80 air combat victories.
Originally a cavalryman, Richthofen
transferred to the Air Service in 1915, becoming one of the first
members of fighter squadron Jagdstaffel 2 in 1916. He quickly
distinguished himself as a fighter pilot, and during 1917 became the
leader of Jasta 11. Later he led the larger fighter wing
Jagdgeschwader I, better known as "The Flying Circus"
or "Richthofen's Circus" because of the bright
colors of its aircraft, and perhaps also because of the way the unit
was transferred from one area of Allied air activity to another –
moving like a traveling circus, and frequently setting up in tents on
improvised airfields. By 1918, Richthofen was regarded as a national
hero in Germany, and respected by his enemies.
Richthofen was shot down and killed
near Vaux-sur-Somme on 21 April 1918. There has been considerable
discussion and debate regarding aspects of his career, especially the
circumstances of his death. He remains one of the most widely known
fighter pilots of all time, and has been the subject of many books,
films, and other media.
Name and nicknames
Richthofen was a Freiherr (literally
"Free Lord"), a title of nobility often translated
as "baron". This is not a given name nor strictly a
hereditary title, since all male members of the family were entitled
to it, even during the lifetime of their father. Richthofen painted
his aircraft red, and this combined with his title led to him being
called the "Red Baron" ("der Rote Baron" ),
both inside and outside Germany. During his lifetime, he was more
frequently described in German as Der Rote Kampfflieger, variously
translated as "The Red Battle Flyer" or "The
Red Fighter Pilot". This name was used as the title of
Richthofen's 1917 autobiography.
Early life
Richthofen was born in Kleinburg, near
Breslau, Lower Silesia (now part of the city of Wrocław, Poland), on
2 May 1892 into a prominent Prussian aristocratic family. His father
was Major Albrecht Philipp Karl Julius Freiherr von Richthofen and
his mother was Kunigunde von Schickfuss und Neudorff. He had an elder
sister, Ilse, and two younger brothers.
When he was four years old, Manfred
moved with his family to nearby Schweidnitz (now Świdnica, Poland).
He enjoyed riding horses and hunting as well as gymnastics at school.
He excelled at parallel bars and won a number of awards at school. He
and his brothers, Lothar and Bolko, hunted wild boar, elk, birds, and
deer.
After being educated at home he
attended a school at Schweidnitz for a year before beginning cadet
training at the Wahlstatt (now Legnickie Pole, Poland) military
school when he was 11. After completing cadet training at the
Groß-Lichterfelde Preußische Hauptkadettenanstalt in 1911, he
joined an Uhlan cavalry unit, the Ulanen-Regiment Kaiser Alexander
der III. von Russland (1. Westpreußisches) Nr. 1 ("1st
Emperor Alexander III of Russia Uhlan Regiment (1st West Prussian)")
and was assigned to the regiment's 3. Eskadron ("No. 3
Squadron").
Early war service
When World War I began, Richthofen
served as a cavalry reconnaissance officer on both the Eastern and
Western Fronts, seeing action in Russia, France, and Belgium; with
the advent of trench warfare, which made traditional cavalry
operations outdated and inefficient, Richthofen's regiment was
dismounted, serving as dispatch runners and field telephone
operators. Disappointed and bored at not being able to directly
participate in combat, the last straw for Richthofen was an order to
transfer to the army's supply branch. His interest in the Air Service
had been aroused by his examination of a German military aircraft
behind the lines, and he applied for a transfer to Die Fliegertruppen
des deutschen Kaiserreiches (Imperial German Army Air Service), later
to be known as the Luftstreitkräfte. He was widely reported to have
written in his application for transfer, "I have not gone to
war in order to collect cheese and eggs, but for another purpose."
His request was granted, and Manfred joined the flying service at the
end of May 1915.
From June to August 1915, Richthofen
served as an observer on reconnaissance missions over the Eastern
Front with Feldflieger Abteilung 69 ("No. 69 Flying
Squadron"). In August 1915, he was transferred to a flying
unit in Ostend, a coastal city in Belgium. There he flew with a
friend and fellow pilot Georg Zeumer, who would later teach him to
fly solo. On being transferred to the Champagne front, he is believed
to have shot down an attacking French Farman aircraft with his
observer's machine gun in a tense battle over French lines; he was
not credited with the kill, since it fell behind Allied lines and
therefore could not be confirmed.
Piloting career
"I had been told the name
of the place to which we were to fly and I was to direct the pilot.
At first we flew straight ahead, then the pilot turned to the right,
then left. I had lost all sense of direction over our own aerodrome!
... I didn't care a bit where I was, and when the pilot thought it
was time to go down, I was disappointed. Already I was counting down
the hours to the time we could start again."
John Simpson, quoting Richthofen's own
description of his first flying experience.
Manfred von Richthofen had a chance
meeting with German ace fighter pilot Oswald Boelcke which led him to
enter training as a pilot in October 1915. In February 1916, Manfred
"rescued" his brother Lothar from the boredom of
training new troops in Luben and encouraged him to transfer to the
Fliegertruppe. The next month, Manfred joined Kampfgeschwader 2 ("No.
2 Bomber Squadron") flying a two-seater Albatros C.III.
Initially, he appeared to be a below-average pilot. He struggled to
control his aircraft, and he crashed during his first flight at the
controls. Despite this poor start, he rapidly became attuned to his
aircraft. He was over Verdun on 26 April 1916 and fired on a French
Nieuport, shooting it down over Fort Douaumont—although he received
no official credit. A week later, he decided to ignore more
experienced pilots' advice against flying through a thunderstorm. He
later noted that he had been "lucky to get through the
weather" and vowed never again to fly in such conditions
unless ordered to do so.
Richthofen met Oswald Boelcke again in
August 1916, after another spell flying two-seaters on the Eastern
Front. Boelcke was visiting the east in search of candidates for his
newly formed Jasta 2, and he selected Richthofen to join this unit,
one of the first German fighter squadrons. Boelcke was killed during
a midair collision with a friendly aircraft on 28 October 1916, and
Richthofen witnessed the event.
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 17 September
1916. His autobiography states, "I honored the fallen enemy
by placing a stone on his beautiful grave." He contacted a
jeweler in Berlin and ordered a silver cup engraved with the date and
the type of enemy aircraft. He continued to celebrate each of his
victories in the same manner until he had 60 cups, by which time the
dwindling supply of silver in blockaded Germany meant that silver
cups could no longer be supplied. Richthofen discontinued his orders
at this stage, rather than accept cups made from base metal.
His brother Lothar (40 victories) used
risky, aggressive tactics, but Manfred observed a set of maxims known
as the "Dicta Boelcke" to assure success for both
the squadron and its pilots. He was not a spectacular or aerobatic
pilot like his brother or Werner Voss; however, he was a noted
tactician and squadron leader and a fine marksman. Typically, he
would dive from above to attack with the advantage of the sun behind
him, with other pilots of his squadron covering his rear and flanks.
Major Lanoe Hawker VC
On 23 November 1916, Richthofen shot
down his most famous adversary, British ace Major Lanoe Hawker VC,
described by Richthofen as "the British Boelcke".
The victory came while Richthofen was flying an Albatros D.II and
Hawker was flying the older DH.2. After a long dogfight, Hawker was
shot in the back of the head as he attempted to escape back to his
own lines. After this combat, Richthofen was convinced that he needed
a fighter aircraft with more agility, even with a loss of speed. He
switched to the Albatros D.III in January 1917, scoring two victories
before suffering an in-flight crack in the spar of the aircraft's
lower wing on 24 January, and he reverted to the Albatros D.II or
Halberstadt D.II for the next five weeks.
Richthofen was flying his Halberstadt
on 6 March in combat with F.E.8s of 40 Squadron RFC when his aircraft
was shot through the fuel tank, by Edwin Benbow, who was credited
with a victory from this fight. Richthofen was able to make a forced
landing near Hénin-Liétard without his aircraft catching fire. He
then scored a victory in the Albatros D.II on 9 March, but his
Albatros D.III was grounded for the rest of the month so he switched
again to a Halberstadt D.II. He returned to his Albatros D.III on 2
April 1917 and scored 22 victories in it before switching to the
Albatros D.V in late June.
Richthofen flew the celebrated Fokker
Dr.I triplane from late July 1917, the distinctive three-winged
aircraft with which he is most commonly associated—although he did
not use the type exclusively until after it was reissued with
strengthened wings in November. Only 19 of his 80 kills were made in
this type of aircraft, despite the popular link between Richthofen
and the Fokker Dr.I. It was his Albatros D.III Serial No. 789/16 that
was first painted bright red, in late January 1917, and in which he
first earned his name and reputation.
Richthofen championed the development
of the Fokker D.VII with suggestions to overcome the deficiencies of
the current German fighter aircraft. He never had an opportunity to
fly the new type in combat, as he was killed before it entered
service.
Flying Circus
Richthofen received the Pour le Mérite
in January 1917 after his 16th confirmed kill, the highest military
honour in Germany at the time and informally known as "The
Blue Max". That same month, he assumed command of Jasta 11,
which ultimately included some of the elite German pilots, many of
whom he trained himself, and several of whom later became leaders of
their own squadrons. Ernst Udet belonged to Richthofen's group and
later became Generaloberst Udet. When Lothar joined, the German high
command appreciated the propaganda value of two Richthofens fighting
together to defeat the enemy in the air.
Richthofen took the flamboyant step of
having his Albatros painted red when he became a squadron commander.
His autobiography states: "For whatever reasons, one fine day
I came upon the idea of having my crate painted glaring red. The
result was that absolutely everyone could not help but notice my red
bird. In fact, my opponents also seemed to be not entirely unaware
[of it]". Thereafter he usually flew in red-painted
aircraft, although not all of them were entirely red, nor was the
"red" necessarily the brilliant scarlet beloved of
model- and replica-builders.
Other members of Jasta 11 soon took to
painting parts of their aircraft red. Their official reason seems to
have been to make their leader less conspicuous, to avoid having him
singled out in a fight. In practice, red coloration became a unit
identification. Other units soon adopted their own squadron colours,
and decoration of fighters became general throughout the
Luftstreitkräfte. The German high command permitted this practice
(in spite of obvious drawbacks from the point of view of
intelligence), and German propaganda made much of it by referring to
Richthofen as Der Rote Kampfflieger—"the Red Fighter
Pilot".
During a visit to her home, the Baron’s
mother asked him why he risked his life every day, and he said: "For
the man in the trenches. I want to ease his hard lot in life by
keeping the enemy flyers away from him."
Richthofen led his new unit to
unparalleled success, peaking during "Bloody April"
1917. In that month alone, he shot down 22 British aircraft,
including four in a single day, raising his official tally to 52. By
June, he had become the commander of the first of the new larger
"fighter wing" formations; these were highly mobile,
combined tactical units that could move at short notice to different
parts of the front as required. Richthofen's new command,
Jagdgeschwader 1, was composed of fighter squadrons No. 4, 6, 10, and
11. J.G. 1 became widely known as "The Flying Circus"
due to the unit's brightly colored aircraft and its mobility,
including the use of tents, trains, and caravans, where appropriate.
Richthofen was a brilliant tactician,
building on Boelcke's tactics. Unlike Boelcke, however, he led by
example and force of will rather than by inspiration. He was often
described as distant, unemotional, and rather humorless, though some
colleagues contended otherwise. He was cordial to officers and
enlisted men alike; indeed, he urged his pilots to remain on good
terms with the mechanics who maintained their aircraft. He taught his
pilots the basic rule which he wanted them to fight by: "Aim
for the man and don't miss him. If you are fighting a two-seater, get
the observer first; until you have silenced the gun, don't bother
about the pilot."
Although Richthofen was now performing
the duties of a lieutenant colonel (a wing commander in modern Royal
Air Force terms), he was never promoted past the relatively junior
rank of Rittmeister, equivalent to captain in the British army. The
system in the British army was for an officer to hold the rank
appropriate to his level of command, if only on a temporary basis,
even if he had not been formally promoted. In the German army, it was
not unusual for a wartime officer to hold a lower rank than his
duties implied; German officers were promoted according to a schedule
and not by battlefield promotion. It was also the custom for a son
not to hold a higher rank than his father, and Richthofen's father
was a reserve major.
Wounded in combat
Richthofen sustained a serious head
wound on 6 July 1917, during combat near Wervik, Belgium against a
formation of F.E.2d two-seat fighters of No. 20 Squadron RFC, causing
instant disorientation and temporary partial blindness. He regained
his vision in time to ease the aircraft out of a spin and execute a
forced landing in a field in friendly territory. The injury required
multiple operations to remove bone splinters from the impact area.
The Red Baron returned to active
service against doctor's orders on 25 July, but went on convalescent
leave from 5 September to 23 October. His wound is thought to have
caused lasting damage; he later often suffered from post-flight
nausea and headaches, as well as a change in temperament. There is a
theory linking this injury with his eventual death.
Author and hero
During his convalescent leave,
Richthofen completed an autobiographic sketch, Der rote Kampfflieger
(The Red Battle Flyer, 1917). Written on the instructions of the
"Press and Intelligence" (propaganda) section of the
Luftstreitkräfte (Air Force), it shows evidence of having been
heavily censored and edited. There are, however, passages that are
most unlikely to have been inserted by an official editor. Richthofen
wrote: "My father discriminates between a sportsman and a
butcher. The latter shoots for fun. When I have shot down an
Englishman, my hunting passion is satisfied for a quarter of an hour.
Therefore I do not succeed in shooting down two Englishmen in
succession. If one of them comes down, I have the feeling of complete
satisfaction. Only much later have I overcome my instinct and have
become a butcher". In another passage, Richthofen wrote "I
am in wretched spirits after every aerial combat. I believe that [the
war] is not as the people at home imagine it, with a hurrah and a
roar; it is very serious, very grim." An English translation
by J. Ellis Barker was published in 1918 as The Red Battle Flyer.
Although Richthofen died before a revised version could be prepared,
he is on record as repudiating the book, stating that it was "too
insolent" and that he was no longer that kind of person.
By 1918, Richthofen had become such a
legend that it was feared that his death would be a blow to the
morale of the German people. He refused to accept a ground job after
his wound, stating that "every poor fellow in the trenches
must do his duty" and that he would therefore continue to
fly in combat. Certainly he had become part of a cult of officially
encouraged hero-worship. German propaganda circulated various false
rumours, including that the British had raised squadrons specially to
hunt Richthofen and had offered large rewards and an automatic
Victoria Cross to any Allied pilot who shot him down. Passages from
his correspondence indicate he may have at least half-believed some
of these stories himself.
Death
Richthofen received a fatal wound just
after 11:00 am on 21 April 1918 while flying over Morlancourt Ridge
near the Somme River, 49°56′0.60″N 2°32′43.71″E. At the
time, he had been pursuing, at very low altitude, a Sopwith Camel
piloted by Canadian novice Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May of
No. 209 Squadron, Royal Air Force. May had just fired on the Red
Baron's cousin Lt. Wolfram von Richthofen. On seeing his cousin being
attacked, Manfred flew to his rescue and fired on May, causing him to
pull away. Richthofen pursued May across the Somme. The Baron was
spotted and briefly attacked by a Camel piloted by May's school
friend and flight commander, Canadian Captain Arthur "Roy"
Brown. Brown had to dive steeply at very high speed to intervene, and
then had to climb steeply to avoid hitting the ground. Richthofen
turned to avoid this attack, and then resumed his pursuit of May.
It was almost certainly during this
final stage in his pursuit of May that a single .303 bullet hit
Richthofen through the chest, severely damaging his heart and lungs;
it would have killed Richthofen in less than a minute. His aircraft
stalled and went into a steep dive, hitting the ground at 49°55′56″N
2°32′16″E in a field on a hill near the Bray-Corbie road, just
north of the village of Vaux-sur-Somme, in a sector defended by the
Australian Imperial Force (AIF). The aircraft bounced heavily upon
hitting the ground: the undercarriage collapsed and the fuel tank was
smashed before the aircraft skidded to a stop. Several witnesses,
including Gunner George Ridgway, reached the crashed plane and found
Richthofen already dead, and his face slammed into the butts of his
machine guns, breaking his nose, fracturing his jaw and creating
contusions on his face.
In 2009, Richthofen's death certificate
was found in the archives in Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland. He had
briefly been stationed in Ostrów before going to war, as it was part
of Germany until the end of World War I. The document is a one-page,
handwritten form in a 1918 registry book of deaths. It misspells
Richthofen's name as "Richthoven" and simply states
that he had "died 21 April 1918, from wounds sustained in
combat".
Arthur Roy Brown
The RAF credited Brown with shooting
down the Red Baron, but it is now generally agreed by historians,
doctors, and ballistics experts that Richthofen was actually killed
by an anti-aircraft (AA) machine gunner firing from the ground. An
autopsy showed the bullet that killed Richthofen penetrated from the
right underarm and exited next to the left nipple. Brown's attack was
probably from behind and above Richthofen's left. Even more
conclusively, Richthofen could not have continued his pursuit of May
for as long as he did (up to two minutes) had his wound come from
Brown. Brown himself never spoke much about what happened that day,
claiming, "There is no point in me commenting, as the
evidence is already out there."
Many sources have suggested that
Sergeant Cedric Popkin was the person most likely to have killed
Richthofen, including a 1998 article by Geoffrey Miller, a physician,
and historian of military medicine, and a 2002 edition of the British
Channel 4 Secret History series. Popkin was an AA machine gunner with
the Australian 24th Machine Gun Company, and he was using a Vickers
gun. He fired at Richthofen's aircraft on two occasions: first as the
Baron was heading straight at his position, and then at long range
from the plane's right. Given the nature of Richthofen's wounds,
Popkin was in a position to fire the fatal shot when the pilot passed
him for a second time. Some confusion has been caused by a letter
that Popkin wrote in 1935 to an Australian official historian. It
stated Popkin's belief that he had fired the fatal shot as Richthofen
flew straight at his position. In this respect, Popkin was incorrect;
the bullet which caused the Baron's death came from the side.
A 2002 Discovery Channel documentary
suggests that Gunner W. J. "Snowy" Evans, a Lewis
machine gunner with the 53rd Battery, 14th Field Artillery Brigade,
Royal Australian Artillery is likely to have killed von Richthofen.
Miller and the Secret History documentary dismiss this theory because
of the angle from which Evans fired at Richthofen.
Other sources have suggested that
Gunner Robert Buie (also of the 53rd Battery) may have fired the
fatal shot. There is little support for this theory. In 2007, a
municipality in Sydney recognized Buie as the man who shot down
Richthofen, placing a plaque near his former home. Buie died in 1964
and has never been officially recognized in any other way.
Theories about last combat
Richthofen was a highly experienced and
skilled fighter pilot—fully aware of the risk from ground fire.
Further, he concurred with the rules of air fighting created by his
late mentor Boelcke, who specifically advised pilots not to take
unnecessary risks. In this context, Richthofen's judgment during his
last combat was clearly unsound in several respects. Several theories
have been proposed to account for his behavior.
In 1999, a German medical researcher,
Henning Allmers, published an article in the British medical journal
The Lancet, suggesting it was likely that brain damage from the head
wound Richthofen suffered in July 1917 played a part in his death.
This was supported by a 2004 paper by researchers at the University
of Texas. Richthofen's behaviour after his injury was noted as
consistent with brain-injured patients, and such an injury could
account for his perceived lack of judgment on his final flight:
flying too low over enemy territory and suffering target fixation.
Richthofen may have been suffering from
cumulative combat stress, which made him fail to observe some of his
usual precautions. One of the leading British air aces, Major Edward
"Mick" Mannock, was killed by ground fire on 26 July
1918 while crossing the lines at low level, an action he had always
cautioned his younger pilots against. One of the most popular of the
French air aces, Georges Guynemer, went missing on 11 September 1917,
probably while attacking a two-seater without realizing several
Fokkers were escorting it.
There is a suggestion that on the day
of Richthofen's death, the prevailing wind was about 40 km/h (25 mph)
easterly, rather than the usual 40 km/h (25 mph) westerly. This meant
that Richthofen, heading generally westward at an airspeed of about
160 km/h (100 mph), was traveling over the ground at up to 200 km/h
(125 mph) rather than the more typical ground speed of 120 km/h (75
mph). This was considerably faster than normal and he could easily
have strayed over enemy lines without realizing it.
At the time of Richthofen's death, the
front was in a highly fluid state, following the initial success of
the German offensive of March–April 1918. This was part of
Germany's last opportunity to win the war. In the face of Allied air
superiority, the German air service was having difficulty acquiring
vital reconnaissance information, and could do little to prevent
Allied squadrons from completing effective reconnaissance and close
support of their armies.
Burial
In common with most Allied air
officers, No. 3 Squadron AFC's commanding officer Major David Blake,
who was responsible for Richthofen's body, regarded the Red Baron
with great respect, and he organized a full military funeral.
The body was buried in the cemetery at
the village of Bertangles, near Amiens, on 22 April 1918. Six of No.
3 Squadron's officers served as pallbearers, and a guard of honour
from the squadron's other ranks fired a salute.
Allied squadrons stationed nearby
presented memorial wreaths, one of which was inscribed with the
words, "To Our Gallant and Worthy Foe".
A speculation that his opponents
organized a flypast at his funeral, giving rise to the missing man
formation, is most unlikely and totally unsupported by any
contemporary evidence.
In the early 1920s, the French
authorities created a military cemetery at Fricourt, in which a large
number of German war dead, including Richthofen, were reinterred. In
1925 von Richthofen's youngest brother, Bolko, recovered the body
from Fricourt and took it to Germany. The family's intention was for
it to be buried in the Schweidnitz cemetery next to the graves of his
father and his brother Lothar von Richthofen, who had been killed in
a post-war air crash in 1922. The German Government requested that
the body should instead be interred at the Invalidenfriedhof Cemetery
in Berlin, where many German military heroes and past leaders were
buried, and the family agreed. Richthofen's body received a state
funeral. Later 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. During the Cold War, the
Invalidenfriedhof was on the boundary of the Soviet zone in Berlin,
and the tombstone became damaged by bullets fired at attempted
escapees from East Germany. In 1975 the body was moved to a
Richthofen family grave plot at the Südfriedhof in Wiesbaden.
Number of victories
For decades after World War I, some
authors questioned whether Richthofen had achieved 80 victories,
insisting that his record was exaggerated for propaganda purposes.
Some claimed that he took credit for aircraft downed by his squadron
or wing.
In fact, Richthofen's victories are
unusually well documented. A full list of the aircraft the Red Baron
was credited with shooting down was published as early as 1958—with
documented RFC/RAF squadron details, aircraft serial numbers, and the
identities of Allied airmen killed or captured—73 of the 80 listed
match recorded British losses. A study conducted by British historian
Norman Franks with two colleagues, published in Under the Guns of the
Red Baron in 1998, reached the same conclusion about the high degree
of accuracy of Richthofen's claimed victories. There were also
unconfirmed victories that would put his actual total as high as 100
or more.
For comparison, the highest-scoring
Allied ace, the Frenchman René Fonck, achieved 75 confirmed
victories and a further 52 unconfirmed behind enemy lines. The
highest-scoring British Empire fighter pilots were Canadian Billy
Bishop, who was officially credited with 72 victories, British Mick
Mannock, with 61 confirmed victories, Canadian Raymond Collishaw,
with 60, and British James McCudden, with 57 confirmed victories.
Richthofen's early victories and the
establishment of his reputation coincided with a period of German air
superiority, but he achieved many of his successes later on against a
numerically superior enemy, who flew fighter aircraft that were, on
the whole, better than his own.
Orders and decorations, tributes,
and relics
Orders and decorations
Prussian Military Pilot Badge
Honour Goblet for the Winner in Air
Combat
Iron Cross, 1st Class (10 April
1916), 2nd Class (23 September 1914)
Duke Carl Eduard Medal with Sword
Clasp (9 November 1916)
Knight's Cross of the Royal House
Order of Hohenzollern with Swords (11 November 1916)
Pour le Mérite (12 January 1917)
Knight's Cross of the Military
Order of St. Henry (16 April 1917)
Order of the Red Eagle, 3rd Class
with Crown and Swords (2 April 1918)
Knight's Cross of the
Saxe-Ernestine House Order, 1st Class with Crown and Swords
Military Merit Order (Bavaria) 4th
Class with Swords
Knight's Cross of the Württemberg
Military Merit Order
Hessian Bravery Medal
Cross for Faithful Service
Lippe War Merit Cross, 2nd Class
Cross of War of Honour for a Heroic
Deed
Brunswick War Merit Cross, 2nd
Class
Wound Badge, 3rd Class (1918)
Hanseatic Crosses of the Three
Hanseatic Cities of Bremen, Hamburg, and Lübeck
Austro-Hungarian Empire
Order of the Iron Crown, 3rd Class
Austro-Hungarian Military Merit
Cross, 3rd Class with War Decorations
Field Pilot Badge
Ottoman Empire
Iron Crescent
Silver Imtiyaz Medal
Silver Liakat Medal
Kingdom of Bulgaria
Military Order for Bravery, 4th
Class (12 June 1917)
Tributes
At various times, several different
German military aviation Geschwader (literally "squadrons";
equivalent to Commonwealth air force "groups",
French escadrons or USAF "wings") have been named
after the Baron:
Jagdgeschwader 132 "Richthofen"
(1 April 1936 – 1 November 1938)—Wehrmacht aviation unit
Jagdgeschwader 131 "Richthofen"
(1 November 1938 – 1 May 1939)—Luftwaffe
Jagdgeschwader 2 "Richthofen"
(1 May 1939 – 7 May 1945)—Luftwaffe
Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen"
(from 6 June 1959)—the first jet-fighter unit established by the
post-World War II German Bundeswehr ("federal defence force");
its founding commander was the most successful air ace in history,
Erich Hartmann.
In 1941 a newly launched Kriegsmarine
(German navy) seaplane tender received the name ''Richthofen''
[de].
In 1968 Richthofen was inducted into
the International Air & Space Hall of Fame.
"Red Flag", the US Air
Force's large scale training exercise held multiple times a year, was
an outgrowth of Project Red Baron, which happened in three phases
(c. 1966 to c. 1974) during the period of the Vietnam War.
Relics
Captain Roy Brown donated the seat of
the Fokker triplane in which the German flying ace made his final
flight to the Royal Canadian Military Institute (RCMI) in 1920. Apart
from the triplane's seat, the RCMI, in Toronto, also holds a side
panel signed by the pilots of Brown's squadron. The engine of
Richthofen's Dr.I was donated to the Imperial War Museum in London,
where it is still on display. The museum also holds the Baron's
machine guns. The control column (joystick) of Richthofen's aircraft
can be seen at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. The
Australian National Aviation Museum has what is suspected to be the
fuel tank of Richthofen's Dr.I, however there is no conclusive proof.
Published works
Richthofen, Captain Manfred Freiherr
von (July 1918). The Red Battle Flyer. Translated by Barker, T.
Ellis. preface and notes by C. G Grey, editor of The Aeroplane. New
York: Robert M. McBride & Co – via Project Gutenberg.
