Captain Manfred von Richthofen: The Real Red Baron

Military history is chock full of famous (and infamous) nicknames: Old Blood and Guts, Chesty Puller, Mad Anthony Wayne, Stormin’ Norman, White Death, Lady Death, Iron Ass, another Iron Ass, and so on.

Yet one of the most widely known of these sobriquets, one that’s printed on everything from comic strips to frozen pizzas, first belonged to a man who few Americans have ever heard of: the greatest fighter ace of the First World War, Baron Manfred von Richthofen.

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The man better known as The Red Baron. Over the course of his service in WWI, the baron shot down 80 aircraft in aerial combat, more than any other aviator on either side of the Great War.

The Early Life of Manfred, Baron of Richthofen

The man who would become the famed Red Baron began his short, legendary life on May 2nd, 1892. Born to Prussian aristocrats in what is now the city of Wroclaw, Poland, Manfred spent his childhood engaged in typical pastimes of European gentry in those days: playing sports, riding horses, and hunting on his family’s massive estate.

At age eleven, he entered a military academy from which he graduated in 1911, receiving a commission as a cavalry officer in the Prussian Army shortly before his 18th birthday. A few months after his 22nd birthday, the world erupted in a war of unprecedented proportions.

Richthofen and the Start of WWI

Richthofen’s cavalry unit, the 1st Regiment of the Uhlans, saw heavy action on both the Eastern and Western Fronts during the opening months of the First World War. But after the ineffective brutality of trench warfare became the defining tactic of the conflict, relegating cavalry units to support roles, Richthofen sought out a new role that would regularly put him in harm’s way.

Following a brief jaunt in the infantry, he transferred to the Imperial German Air Service in June of 1915. After spending that summer as an aerial observer on the war’s Eastern Front, he returned to the Western Front to successfully qualify as a fighter pilot.

Richthofen spent much of the next year honing his skills in the skies over France. Not long after becoming a pilot, he shot down his first Allied aircraft on September 17th, 1916. He soon downed four more aircraft, making him a certified fighter ace. By early 1917, Richthofen had shot down a total of 16 planes, earning him Prussia’s highest military honor (the Pour le Mérite, nicknamed the “Blue Max”) and command of his own fighter squadron. As the year went on, he continued living up to his reputation, shooting down dozens more Allied planes and cementing his status as a hero for the German people.

A meticulous tactician who flew with precision and meticulous coordination with his fellow aviators, Richthofen commissioned a German jeweler to craft a unique silver cup (sometimes referred to as “honor goblets”) to commemorate each of his victories. And in June of 1917, less than a year after his first aerial victory, he took command of a fighter wing, Jagdgeschwader I.

The Red Baron and Richthofen’s Flying Circus

Richthofen’s wing soon earned a reputation as an astonishingly deadly formation of fighters. A wing unit whose pilots made a point of painting their aircraft in bright and brilliant colors and patterns, which used Germany’s railroads to quickly move their planes up and down the Western Front, earned a rather unique nickname: “The Flying Circus.”

Or, as some called it, “Richthofen’s Flying Circus,” in honor of their commanding officer, who painted every fighter he flew bright red. Hence, his own nickname was the Red Baron.

Flying under his command were many of the top living aces of Imperial Germany, including Manfred’s younger brother Lothar. But the Red Baron’s life, unlike his legend, would prove fairly short.

The Death of the Red Baron

Richthofen’s aura of invincibility finally cracked on July 6th, 1917. During a dogfight in the skies over France, a bullet struck the Baron in the head. Though the grazing shot did not penetrate his skull, it did fracture it. After successfully landing, albeit none too smoothly, behind German lines, the injured Richthofen began suffering recurring bouts of nausea, headaches, and depression.

Still, he insisted on returning to combat and returned to the skies the following month. Over the course of the next year, Richthofen continued to prove his skills by shooting down even more Allies. And on April 20th, 1918, he shot down his then-unprecedented 80th aircraft. Little did he know it would be his last victory.

Vaux-sur-Somme, France. The 21st of April 1918. The Red Baron and several other members of his Flying Circus engaged a group of British aircraft in the skies above the Western Front. In the midst of the aerial scrum, Richthofen doggedly pursued one of the British planes.

At the same time, Canadian Captain Arthur Roy Brown followed in his own fighter and eventually opened fire on the Red Baron. At roughly the same time, Australian troops on the ground unleashed a barrage of machine gun fire at Richthofen’s plane as it soared overhead. To this day, historians disagree on who exactly shot down the Red Baron. And while his nickname has been co-opted in ways that kept its popularity alive while obscuring its origins, the true story of Manfred von Richthofen, the original Red Baron, is well worth remembering.