The Red Baron

The autobiography of the most successful fighter pilot of the First World War. Newly illustrated with 21 contemporary images. Includes many of the Red Barons 80 combat reports contemporary interviews with a selection of his surviving victims and an extra chapter on the death in combat of von Richthofen. Has sold over 3 million copies. THE RED BARON is the memoir of the undisputed top gun of World War 1s aerial war Captain Manfred von Richthofen who shot down 80 Allied aircraft. Originally published in German in late 1917 as DER ROTE KAMPFFLIEGER (THE RED AIR FIGHTER) it was a runaway bestseller. The English language edition followed in 1918 without any official deal with the German publishers as it was argued that Richthofens accounts of combat against the Allied air force aircraft provided valuable intelligence to use against the enemy. Originally a cavalryman Manfred transferred to the Imperial German Army Air Service in May 1915 and quickly distinguished himself as a fighter pilot. During 1917 he became leader of Jagdgeschwader 1 better known as the Flying Circus because of the bright colours of its aircraft and because the squadron moved from place to place as a self-contained unit in the manner of a traveling circus so that it appeared wherever the fighting was thickest. It would be operating at Verdun one week. The next week it would be north of Arras. A few days later it would be down on the Somme. Richthofen was a brilliant tactician although his modus operandi was as simple as it was deadly. Typically he would dive from above to attack with the advantage of the sun behind him (the victim would not see him coming blinded by the glare) with other pilots of his flying circus covering his rear and flanks. By 1918 he was regarded as a national hero in Germany and held the countrys highest honour the Blue Max. Richthofen was well-known in the Allied countries and a respected advisory of military aviators. THE AUTHOR Manfred von Richthofen was born in 1892 in Kleinburg near Breslau Lower Silesia to a prominent Prussian aristocratic family. He wrote his life story in six weeks whilst convalescing after sustaining an injury in aerial combat in July 1917. Richthofen had been ordered to write the memoir by the German Supreme Army Command because of its huge impact on morale on the home front. He returned to active duty in October but was shot down and killed on 21 April 1918 aged just 25.