Miloch wrote in
:

In article , Mitchell
Holman says...

Miloch wrote in
:




Despite his fame in the Fokker Triplane
most of his "kills" were in Albatroses.


Debate over the identity of the individual who fired the shot that
killed Richthofen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_von_Richthofen
Death

Richthofen received a fatal wound just after 11:00 am on 21 April 1918
while flying over Morlancourt Ridge near the Somme River,

49¡ã56¡ä0.60¡åN 2¡ã32¡ä43.71¡åE. At the time, he had been pursuing a
Sopwith Camel at very low altitude, piloted by novice Canadian pilot
Lieutenant Wilfrid "Wop" May of No. 209 Squadron, Royal Air Force. May
had just fired on the Red Baron's cousin Lt. Wolfram von Richthofen.
On seeing his cousin being attacked, Manfred flew to his rescue and
fired on May, causing him to pull away. Richthofen pursued May across
the Somme. The Baron was spotted and briefly attacked by a Camel
piloted by May's school friend and flight commander, Canadian Captain
Arthur "Roy" Brown. Brown had to dive steeply at very high speed to
intervene, and then had to climb steeply to avoid hitting the ground.
Richthofen turned to avoid this attack, and then resumed his pursuit
of May.



...The RAF credited Brown with shooting down the Red Baron, but it is
now generally agreed that the bullet which hit Richthofen was fired
from the ground. Richthofen 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. 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. Brown himself never spoke much about what happened that
day, claiming, "There is no point in me commenting, as the evidence is
already out there." [check quotation syntax] Many sources have
suggested that Sergeant Cedric Popkin was the person most likely to
have killed Richthofen, including a 1998 article by Geoffrey Miller, a
physician and historian of military medicine, and a 2002 edition of
the British Channel 4 Secret History series. Popkin 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 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, on the right. Some
confusion has been caused by a letter that Popkin wrote in 1935 to an
Australian official historian. It stated Popkin's belief that he had
fired the fatal shot as Richthofen flew straight at his position. In
this respect, Popkin was incorrect; the bullet which caused the
Baron's death came from the side (see above).

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

Theories about last combat

Richthofen was a highly experienced and skilled fighter pilot¡ªfully
aware of the risk from ground fire. Further, he concurred with the
rules of air fighting created by his late mentor Boelcke, who
specifically advised pilots not to take unnecessary risks. In this
context, Richthofen's judgement during his last combat was clearly
unsound in several respects. Several theories have been proposed to
account for his behaviour.

In 1999, a German medical researcher, Henning Allmers, published an
article in the British medical journal The Lancet, suggesting it was
likely that brain damage from the head wound Richthofen suffered in
July 1917 played a part in the Red Baron's death. This was supported
by a 2004 paper by researchers at the University of Texas.
Richthofen's behaviour after his injury was noted as consistent with
brain-injured patients, and such an injury could account for his
perceived lack of judgement on his final flight: flying too low over
enemy territory and suffering target fixation.

Richthofen may have been suffering from cumulative combat stress,
which made him fail to observe some of his usual precautions. One of
the leading British air aces, Major Edward "Mick" Mannock, was killed
by ground fire on 26 July 1918 while crossing the lines at low level,
an action he had always cautioned his younger pilots against. One of
the most popular of the French air aces, Georges Guynemer, went
missing on 11 September 1917, probably while attacking a two-seater
without realizing several Fokkers were escorting it.

There is a suggestion that on the day of Richthofen's death, the
prevailing wind was about 40 km/h (25 mph) easterly, rather than the
usual 40 km/h (25 mph) westerly. This meant that Richthofen, heading
generally westward at an airspeed of about 160 km/h (100 mph), was
travelling over the ground at up to 200 km/h (125 mph) rather than the
more typical ground speed of 120 km/h (75 mph). This was considerably
faster than normal and he could easily have strayed over enemy lines
without realizing it.

At the time of Richthofen's death, the front was in a highly fluid
state, following the initial success of the German offensive of
March¨CApril 1918. This was part of Germany's last opportunity to win
the war. In the face of Allied air superiority, the German air service
was having difficulty acquiring vital reconnaissance information, and
could do little to prevent Allied squadrons from completing effective
reconnaissance and close support of their armies.



As I recall Brown himself didn't take
credit for shooting down Richthofen.

PS: there is a very good movie about
the incident everyone here should see.
Not entirely accurate, but fun.

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