In World War I, air combat as a new thing has just entered the stage of history. Just like the knight duels in the era of cold weapons, early air battles were called "air duels" because their victory or defeat often depended on the bravery and wisdom of individual pilots, and those fighter pilots who fought in the sky were called "air knights". For the "Air Knight" with explosive performance, everyone prefers to use another word to call it - "Ace". Ace pilots have created one miracle of war beyond ordinary people with their own courage and fearlessness on the magnificent stage of the World War. The most admired Ace of world war I today is undoubtedly the protagonist of this article, Manfred von Richthofen, who shot down 80 enemy planes in his 20s.
Halfway out of the house pilot
Richterhofen was born on 2 May 1892 to an aristocratic family in the German Empire. Because he was the eldest son in the family, he grew up to inherit his father's baronship. In German, Richterhofen means "just and honest" and was given to their family by Emperor Leopold I of the Holy Roman Empire.
Coming from a Prussian family that revered Spartan martial arts education, Richterhofen entered the military academy at the age of 11, began to receive systematic military education, and was later recommended to the Royal German Army Academy for further study. As a "rich and handsome man", he can obviously rely on his ancestors and rely on his family to eat, but the young Richterhofen prefers to eat according to his ability. He was clear-headed, talented, non-theordinalist, and had excellent grades, and from admission to graduation, he took scholarships for almost all projects. Because of this, after graduation, he was assigned to serve in the First Lancer Regiment, an elite unit of the German Army, and was promoted to second lieutenant the following year.
But, catch up with his back. Soon after, the outbreak of The First World War made Richterhoven, who was eager to make a great achievement in the cavalry position, lose its place - with the advent of machine guns and trench warfare, the cavalry lost the conditions of the past, and gradually became a chicken rib in the army. So Richterhofen, who was looking forward to getting ahead as soon as possible, became a pilot halfway through with the encouragement of the German ace pilot Bernk, whom he admired.
The legend begins
Thanks to Richterhofen's good learning background, his diligence and cleverness, and his careful guidance from Burke, it did not take long for him to pass all the tests and be approved to take off to the war. However, this time, luck still did not take his side. On April 24, 1916, he shot down an Allied warplane, but sadly the plane fell into the Allied control zone, and the Germans could not verify whether it was destroyed or not, so they did not admit the result. The young and vigorous Richhoven called a qi ah, he picked a son, the grandfather did not dry, packed his bags and went to the mentor Bernerke. Berk was delighted with the arrival of the little apprentice, kept him under his command, and let him follow him in the air battle, learning the techniques of flight and combat.
On September 17 of that year, Richterhofen followed Berk to the forefront of the western front, and finally achieved the first officially recognized victory. However, before he could be happy, he received bad news - Berke was killed in a close-quarters fight with a friendly plane!
The loss of Bó Lè and the leader of the way was a huge blow to Richterhofen. But he soon came out of his grief and turned it into strength, applying the skills that Burke had taught him to the fullest in air combat, winning repeatedly. On 23 November, Richterhofen caught a big fish – British ace Major Hawker became his 11th victory. Thus, at the beginning of the following year, he was personally awarded the highest honor of the German Empire by Kaiser Wilhelm II, the "Medal of Merit", commonly known as "Blue Max".
Later, though, Richterhofen became famous for flying the famous Fokker Dr.1 triplane fighter. But in fact, most of his achievements were achieved while flying the biplane Albatross D.III and D.V fighters. He painted his landline a striking blood red, both as a tribute to the First Lancers ,the unit he had just served in, marked by the same color, and as a challenge to all his opponents: See no, Grandpa is coming, and if you have the ability, you can duel!
The Terrible "Red Baron"
1917 was undoubtedly a disastrous year for the Allied Air Force. At the beginning of the year, Richterhofen, who had become the commander of the squadron, led a group of friends to block the killing, the Buddha to block the killing of the Buddha, and killed the enemy in various air battles. By 4 January, his record had risen to 16, surpassing the legendary German Captain Inmamann (15 aircraft) nicknamed "The Eagle of Lille", a record that was no more than 1 of the German aces still alive at the time.
By April, Richterhofen had shot down four enemy planes in one day on the 29th – his best single-day record. Throughout April, dubbed the "Bloody April" by the British, the British lost 912 pilots and scouts that month, 21 of which were counted on Richthofen's account. In British war propaganda, the term "Red Baron" began to appear frequently. For the Allied Air Force, the term symbolized death, but it also inspired many pilots to target the shooting down of the Red Baron. Thereafter, Richterhofen was often surrounded by enemy aircraft in air combat. But he was fearless, often relying on superb technology to get rid of enemy aircraft, and then break the opponents individually, winning a big victory in a one-to-many battle. Encouraged by this, more and more German pilots also painted their planes red to show the unity of the Luftwaffe.com.
During an air battle, the wings of the Albatross biplane piloted by Richterhofen suddenly broke. Indignant, he wrote a long letter of complaint and sent it back to Berlin. The famous aircraft designer Dr. Fokker immediately rushed to the front line after seeing the letter, carefully inspected the damaged aircraft of the Red Baron, and also studied the captured British fighters, and designed the famous Fokker Dr.1 triplane. With this "divine machine", Richterhofen has become a tiger and his record has soared. Many later works depicting the "Red Baron" have taken this triplane as his symbol, in fact, Richterhofen did not fly this kind of aircraft for a long time in his flying career, but it is more in line with the image of the "Red Baron" car in people's minds.
However, often walking by the river, which can not get wet shoes, Lady Luck will not always patronize a person. In July 1917, the Red Baron was shot down during an air battle. Despite his successful forced landing, he was left with sequelae due to a shot in the head. What is awe-inspiring is that Richterhofen endured the torment of illness, still took off again and again, and continued to win victories, which greatly encouraged the German soldiers and civilians in distress.
Myth over
By 1918, the situation was getting worse for Germany. As the Allies put a large number of high-performance Sopwes Camel fighters into the battlefield, the Luftwaffe's advantage was gradually offset. Even the red baron, who was still unstoppable, gradually felt that every victory was more difficult than before. At this time, he often had to face countless Allied warplanes alone. In his mind, the sense of exhilaration and drenching that had previously triumphed over the sky was gone, replaced by anxiety and restlessness. In a letter to his loved ones, he wrote: "Allied warplanes are becoming more and more difficult to deal with, and you have nothing to do unless you risk chasing them into the enemy's hinterland." But for the sake of Germany, he still jumped into the cockpit again and again to take off. In order to avoid such an iconic combat hero from inflicting a serious blow on their morale due to the death or capture of such an iconic combat hero, the German army explicitly prohibited the commander of the fighter force from participating in the battle. But this was ineffective, because the Red Baron would often look for various reasons to take off.
Confucius said, "If you ask for mercy and get kindness, why complain!" On 21 April 1918, the Red Baron spotted a prey in the air, British pilot Fred May. In fact, Mei is a full-fledged rookie, and she almost posted a "novice please take more care" on the plane. In normal times, he was not even qualified to be a rival to the Red Baron. But xiao he did not want to succeed and xiao He defeated Xiao He, it was precisely because the level was too inferior, but it saved his life - Mei flew slowly, so that Richterhofen could not catch him. Just as the Red Baron was devoting all his attention to the erratic enemy plane, a bullet suddenly came and ended his life.
Exactly who fired the bullet has been controversial. Some say it came from the allied anti-aircraft fire on the ground, and some say it was fired by a Canadian pilot who came to the rescue of May. But in any case, it is an indisputable fact that the Red Baron was killed at the age of 26. Many Allied officers and soldiers came and took the red fragments of his landline as a souvenir. In order to pay tribute to this great opponent, the British army held a solemn funeral for the Red Baron: in response to the rank of Richterhofen, 6 captains carried the ace's coffin and slowly advanced under the guidance of a cleric; when the coffin entered the tomb, soldiers on both sides fired their guns into the sky to show the highest respect. Then, an Allied warplane took off and parachuted photos of the flower-covered cemetery and obituary onto the German positions. The bad news reached the Germans and caused a strong shock, they could not believe that Richterhofen would be shot down, and some people even frantically planned to use 20 divisions and 5,000 cannons to retrieve his body.
After World War I, Richter Hofende's remains were repatriated to Germany. The Red Baron, the strongest aerial ace of the First World War, rested forever in the Severyhof cemetery in Wiesbaden, and his final record was fixed on 80.
Planner: Fish and Sheep History Producer: Fish Boy
Author: Lin Sen Editor: Eat hard disk, small two
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