The Red Baron, Manfred Von Richthofen
The Red Baron, Manfred Von Richthofen
Original Pastel Painting WWI Pilot
Image Size 20 x 26 1/2, Overall Size Matting & Frame 29 1/4 x 38 1/2
Better known as the “Red Baron”—was the top scoring flying ace of World War I, with 80 aerial victories between September 1916 and his death in April 1918. Born on May 2, 1892, into a family of Prussian nobles. Growing up in the Silesia region of what is now Poland, he passed the time playing sports, riding horses and hunting wild game, a passion that would follow him for the rest of his life. On the wishes of his father, Richthofen was enrolled in military school at age 11. Shortly before his 18th birthday, he was commissioned as an officer in a German cavalry unit.
On April 20, 1918, he increased his tally of kills to 80 by shooting down a British Sopwith Camel. The victory would prove to be Richthofen’s last. The next morning, April 21, he and the Flying Circus engaged a group of British fighter planes over Vaux-sur-Somme in northern France. As he gave chase to a Sopwith Camel piloted by novice airman Wilfrid May, Richthofen zigzagged over enemy territory and passed a series of Allied infantry emplacements. Australian ground troops immediately spotted his red airplane and unleashed a storm of machine gun fire. At the same time, May’s squadron leader, Canadian Captain Arthur Roy Brown, zeroed in on Richthofen’s tail and fired a burst from his guns. It was once believed that one of the bullets—either from Brown or the Australian gunners—struck Richthofen in the torso, seriously wounding him. The question of who killed the Baron has not been conclusively answered. The 25-year-old crash-landed in a beet field and died moments later, still strapped into his cockpit.
