Manfred Albrecht (Richthofen) von Richthofen (1892 - 1918)

Born 2 May 1892 in Breslau, Breslau, Silesia, Prussia, Germany

Ancestors

Died 21 Apr 1918 at age 25 in Morlancourt Ridge, Vaux-sur-Somme, France

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Biography

Manfred (Richthofen) von Richthofen is Notable.

Manfred (Richthofen) von Richthofen was awarded the Pour le Mérite.

Hauptmann Manfred (Richthofen) von Richthofen was Killed in Action during World War I.

Hauptmann Freiherr Manfred von Richthofen, also known as the "Red Baron", was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I and one of the most famous aviators in history. Manfred was a skillful aviator and formidable adversary. Everywhere he went, his reputation preceded him. Despite being on opposite sides during the war, his opponents respected his abilities. When he was finally killed in combat, the Allied squadrons stationed nearby presented memorial wreaths, one of which was inscribed with the words, "To Our Gallant and Worthy Foe."

Manfred was awarded the Pour le Mérite or "Blue Max", the highest Prussian military order and was credited with 80 kills.

Family

Manfred Albrecht was born 1892 in Breslau, Lower Silesia, Prussia, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland). He was the son of Albrecht Philipp von Richthofen and Kunigunde von Schickfus und Neudorff von Richthofen.

Richthofen (originally: Prätorius von Richthofen ) is a German noble family from Silesia . The family comes from Sebastian Schmidt called Faber resp. Fabricius (1515–1553), who was a Lutheran priest in Berlin and Potsdam . His son Samuel (1543–1605) simplified the name of Faber , and in 1562 was adopted by his mother's cousin Paulus Praetorius (1521–1565) who was a chamberlain and scientist. Samuel later became a judge and jurist, and later also mayor of Frankfurt an der Oder .

Samuel's son Tobias Praetorius (1576–1644), was a landlord in Silesia and a civil servant. Tobias' son Johann Praetorius was lord of the estate Rauske near Striegau (today Strzegom) in Silesia, and was admitted to the Bohemian Knights on July 29, 1661 , and admitted to the Prussian Knights on March 30, 1681 , with the name Richhofen and the noble predicate ""von"".

Death

He was killed in action in 1918. At the time Manfred was Germany's greatest hero and his loss was heavily mourned. He was given a state funeral to honor his memory. He died following an extremely serious and inevitably fatal chest wound from a single bullet, penetrating from the right armpit and resurfacing next to the left nipple. Who killed him is in dispute:

The RAF credits a Royal Naval Air Service lieutenant Arthur Roy Brown with shooting down the Red Baron, but it is now generally agreed that the bullet which hit Richthofen was fired from the ground. Brown's attack was from behind and above, and from 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 this wound come from Brown's guns.

Some suggest that Sergeant Cedric Popkin, who was an anti-aircraft (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.

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 recognised Buie as the man who shot down Richthofen, placing a plaque near his former home. Buie died in 1964 and has never been officially recognised in any other way.

No. 3 Squadron AFC's commanding officer Major David Blake initially suggested that Richthofen had been killed by the crew of one of his squadron's R.E.8s, which had also fought members of Richthofen's unit that afternoon. This claim was quickly discounted and withdrawn, if only because of the time factor. Following an autopsy that he witnessed, Blake became a strong proponent of the view that an AA machine gunner had killed Richthofen.

^[1] He was buried at Südfriedhof Wiesbaden, Wiesbadener Stadtkreis, Hessen, Germany in the Westhain section, west of the main entrance. He was originally buried in Berlin, but after World War II the Berlin Wall passed directly over his grave and his family had his remains moved to Wiesbaden. When he was exhumed and reburied, he was given full military honors by both the Germans and British.^[2][3]

Published Works

von Richthofen, Captain Manfred Freiherr (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.

Von Richthofen, Manfred. The Red Baron. Norderstedt, Germany: BOD, 2008 (reprint). ISBN 978-3-8370-9217-2.

Von Richthofen, Manfred. Red Fighter Pilot: The Autobiography of the Red Baron. St Petersburg, Florida: Red and Black Publishers, 2007 (reprint). ISBN 978-0-9791813-3-7.

Von Richthofen, Manfred. The Red Baron. Translated by Peter Kilduff. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1969.

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia: Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen. "The Red Baron
2. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #4333 Coordinates: 50.060260°N 8.265810°E
3. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #8682454 centotaph memorial, cemetery location where he was originally buried until the Berlin Wall was erected over his grave. Invalidenfriedhof, Berlin-Mitte, Mitte, Berlin, Deutschland

See also:

• This WikiTree profile is referenced from Wikidata: Item Q4701, en:Wikipedia
• WHO SHOT DOWN RICHTHOFEN? (1934, August 11).Smith's Weekly (Sydney, NSW : 1919 - 1950), p. 6. Retrieved August 19, 2019
• Richthofen Family on Wikimedia
• Von Richthofen, Manfred. The Red Baron. Translated by Peter Kilduff. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1969.
• Schmidt, Wolfgang, "Richthofen, Manfred von" in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 21 (2003), S. 544-545 [Online-Version]; URL: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd118600575.html#ndbcontent

Research Notes

People – WarTree

• Leslie Hubert Holden MC AFC (1895 - 1932)
• Cedric Bassett Popkin (1890 - 1968)
• Edward David Smout (1898 - 2004)