The First Flight of the Red Baron

The Red Baron

World War I was a bloody war, fought in muddy trenches and overwhelmed with slaughter. Yet a few soldiers escaped this anonymous end - fighter pilots. They volunteered to fly when just going up in an airplane seemed heroic. However, most fighter pilots achieved only a few victories before they too were shot down.

Yet, there was one man, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, who liked to fly in a blazing red airplane and shoot down plane after plane. His achievements made him both a hero and a propaganda tool. With 80 credited victories, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron," defied the odds and became a legend in the air.

The Young Soldier

Manfred Albrecht von Richthofen's entry into the world on May 2, 1892 made his father, Major Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (Freiherr = Baron), extremely happy. Though Manfred was his second childsecond child, Manfred was his first son. Two more sons, Lothar and Karl Bolko, soon followed.

The Richthofens came from a long line that could be traced back to the sixteenth century. Many in the family raised merino sheep and farmed on their landslands in Silesia. Manfred grew up in his family's villa in the town of Schweidnitz. There, his Uncle Alexander, who had hunted in Africa, Asia, and Europe, fired in Manfred a passion for hunting.

Even before Manfred was born, Albrecht von Richthofen had decided that his first son would follow in his footsteps and join the military. Albrecht himself had become one of the first Richthofen's to become a career military officer. Unfortunately, a daring rescue to save several other soldiers who had fallen into the icy Oder River had left Albrecht deaf and with an early retirement.

Manfred did follow in his father's footsteps. At age eleven, Manfred entered the Wahlstatt cadet school in Berlin. Though he disliked the school's rigid discipline and received poor grades, Manfred excelled at athletics and gymnastics. After six years at Wahlstatt, Manfred graduated to the...