From the times of the Romans through the American Civil War very little changed in combat except weapons. Armies would meet on a field and battle either on foot or on horseback. New ways to get the advantage were being sought after all the time. Armies used the catapult and trebuchet to gain the advantage by being able to fight from a distance. Then came the cannon and after that handguns and rifles began to replace hand to hand combat. World War I (WWI) was the first war to use the incredible flying machine called an airplane.

Airplanes at that time were just wood frames covered in cloth. The airplanes were used for reconnaissance, or finding the enemy and watching them. These were called spy planes and they were slow and had no guns. The Germans decided that the Allies were very good at spying and decided they needed to stop them. At first pilots just held pistols and rifles and tried to shoot each other. That didn’t work too well so many improvements were made. The best pilots were called Aces. To be an ace was a special thing. First, you had to survive. Pilots only had a 30% chance of living every time they left the ground. Second, you had to have shot down at least five enemy planes.

Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen was German. He trained to be in the cavalry and ride horses which he loved. When WWI started the Germans horses were only used to pass messages and equipment along.  Manfred didn’t like that so he decided he wanted to fly and become an ace. After a lot of training and hard work he was assigned to a fighter unit called Jasta 2. The battles in the air were called dogfights and on 9/17/1916 Manfred made his first “kill” by shooting down a British plane. It did not take long for him to become an ace and less than four months to be given his own flying group, Jasta 11.

Manfred was a beast in the air. He painted his airplane bright red and became famous world wide. By April of 1917 he shot down more than 50 planes and Allied pilots feared him. They named him the Red Baron. The Red Baron’s legend grew when he was shot in the head during a dogfight, and he was able to land his plane safely. Even though he was told by doctors he should never fly again he went back to battle. He was given a new plane, the DR1 Fokker.

On April 21, 1918 The Red Baron flew in his last dogfight. He was shot and his plane crashed in France. The most feared pilot of WWI was only 25 when he died. The Allied soldiers who found the wreckage treated Manfred very respectfully and even buried him with honors like a hero.

Strange but true

Manfred Albrecht Richthofen had a jeweler make a silver trophy cup for each plane he shot down. By the time he quit having the cups made he had 60 trophies.