‘Red Falcon’ Relics

The legend of Manfred von Richthofen remains larger than he was in life and often obscures the history of objects supposedly related to his fatal crash. Dr. Aaron Pegram examines the story behind objects held by the Australian War Memorial.

On the morning of 23 January 1917, Second Lieutenant Jack Hay, the Australian pilot of an F.E.8 ‘pusher’ scout with 40 Squadron RFC, scored his second victory by diving on an Albatros C.III twin-seater reconnaissance aircraft during an offensive patrol over La Bassée. Later that morning, his flight assailed six German scouts over the village of Harnes. The enemy, however, refused battle. Notably, their leader was seen flying an Albatros D.II, its fuselage painted entirely red.

Hay was back up that afternoon, escorting a flight of F.E.2 reconnaissance aircraft during a line patrol over Lens, where he engaged and brought down another German twin-seater. Then, at 3 pm, his flight spotted ten German scouts in formation below – their earlier opponents led by the red-painted

Albatros. This time, the German airmen did not refuse to fight, and a scrap developed over Lens. Hay’s machine was singled out by the red Albatros and within minutes was seen trailing smoke and then bursting into flames. Falling from the sky, Jack Hay became the 17th victim of Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, the young commander of Jasta 11 and recipient of the Pour le Mérite.

Better known today as the Red Baron, Richthofen went on to become the top scoring pilot of the First World War and one of its most celebrated combatants. Of his short but violent encounter with Hay over Lens, Richthofen reported:

‘The plane I had singled out caught fire after 150 shots, discharged from 50 metres. The plane fell, burning. Occupant fell out at 500 metres.’

As the RFC did not then equip pilots with parachutes, Hay was forced to jump from his burning machine, and he fell to his death. Canadian troops recovered his broken body from no man’s land under shellfire. One of them wrote to Hay’s mother in Sydney to say:

‘I had to bring him in, alive or dead; he put up such a magnificent fight.’

Jack Hay was the only Australian victim of Manfred von Richthofen. He was buried at Aire Communal Cemetery, where a broken propeller bearing a small brass plaque temporarily marked his grave. It was inscribed:

‘The Earth Holds Not A Braver Gentleman.’

Hay’s memorial plaque and his personal effects are today held in the collection of the Australian War

Memorial, Canberra, along with various items associated with the most celebrated airman of the Great War – Manfred von Richthofen himself.

MID-AIR COLLISION

Richthofen was born in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) on 2 May 1892, part of a prominent aristocratic family that expected its men to serve in the Imperial German Army with distinction.

As a child, Richthofen enjoyed gymnastics, horseback riding and hunting wild boar, elk, deer and birds. Eventually, the family moved to Schweidnitz where Richthofen attended school until 1903 before entering the

Prussian military school at Wahlstatt (now Legnickie Pole, Poland) at the age of 11. Having completed his training in 1911, Richthofen was commissioned into Ulanen-regiment Kaiser Alexander der II von Russland (1. Wespreußisches) Nr. 1. By the outbreak of war in August 1914, he was a cavalry reconnaissance officer.

Richthofen fought in Russia, France and Belgium during the opening engagements of the war, but the onset of trench warfare on the Western Front rapidly reduced the need for reconnaissance by horseback. His regiment was dismounted, its troops repurposed as dispatch runners and field telephone operators. Disappointed by the reduced prospect of combat, Richthofen transferred to the Fliegertruppen, the German Army’s air service branch, in May 19151. He flew as an observer on the Eastern Front in the

twin-seater reconnaissance

aircraft of Feld-fliegerabteilung 69 and spent several weeks at the BrieftaubenAbteilung, or carrier pigeon section, at Ostend, Belgium.

A brief encounter with the German fighter ace Oswald Boelcke inspired him to carry out pilot training, after which he was posted to Kampfgeschwader 2, flying Albatros C.III twin-seaters against the French over Verdun.

Richthofen again crossed paths with Boelcke in August 1916 while the latter was on a search for promising pilots to join the newly formed Jasta 2 at Vélu on the Somme front. Richthofen joined the squadron and became a dedicated student of ‘Dicta Boelcke’: the list of fundamental aerial manoeuvres promulgated by Boelcke as the axioms of pilot success.

Richthofen scored his first victory flying an Albatros D. II on 17 September 1916, bringing down a British F.E.2B of 11 Squadron RFC in an egagement over Villers-plouich. Soon after, he witnessed his mentor, Boelcke, die in a mid-air collision with a fellow squadron member during an engagement with British Airco DH.2S.

Tragic though it was for the squadron, Boelcke’s death did little to impair Richthofen’s success: within three months, his tally stood at fifteen victories.

RECURRING NIGHTMARES

Flying an Albatros D. II, Richthofen’s eleventh victory claimed the life of Major Lanoe Hawker of 24 Squadron RFC, awarded the Victoria Cross in 1915 and recognised as the first British fighter ace. On 23 November 1916, Hawker and Richthofen engaged in a 30-minute duel that ended when Richthofen fired a fatal burst into the rear of Hawker’s DH.2. Shot in the back of the head, Hawker died instantly. Richthofen did not attend his funeral — he thought it bad taste for the hunter to be at the graveside of his victim — but he did visit the crash site, taking Hawker’s Lewis gun as a trophy to hang above the door to his quarters. In fact,

Richthofen kept souvenirs of the men and machines he brought down over German lines and had a Breslau jeweller make silver cups to celebrate his victories, each one inscribed with the date of the engagement and the type of aircraft destroyed. Sixty such cups were made until a paucity of silver prevented Richthofen from ordering more.

Longing for recognition as a leading fighter pilot, Richthofen was made commander of Jasta 11 at Brayelles, near Douai, and was awarded the Pour le Mérite in January 1917. He was promoted to Rittmeister and had the fuselage of his Albatros painted red to honour the colours of his old cavalry regiment. While the vibrant colours of his airframe aided aircraft recognition in the melee of combat, it was a deliberate attempt to make himself known to his opponents and to fuel his notoriety. To the French, he became La Petit Rouge or Le Diable Rouge; to the British, he was ‘the Red Pirate’ and ‘the Red Falcon’. Only after the war did Richthofen become known as the ‘Red Baron’.

Clashing with the F.E.8S of 40 Squadron RFC near Lens on the afternoon of 23 January 1917, Australian Jack Hay was the first victim to be claimed by Richthofen in his distinctive red Albatros. Interestingly, Richthofen later wrote of recurring nightmares of the first Englishman he saw plummeting from the sky.

Richthofen’s score rose rapidly throughout April, a period known as Bloody April because of the appalling losses the RFC suffered during the battle of Arras. By May, his tally stood at 52. With such a score came more fame and honour. Publicly revered in Germany as a hero, Richthofen was seen as a victorious knight of the sky at a time when the war was beginning to move in the opposite direction for Germany.

In June, Richthofen was given command of Jagdgeschwader 1 ( JG1), consisting of four Jastas within a centralised and more flexible command. Known as ‘the Flying Circus’, JG1 moved in caravan by train from one area of the front to another in efforts to wrest control of the skies over particular sectors. Each of the Jastas adopted their own squadron colours, and the lurid decoration of German scouts soon became standard across the Luftstreitkräfte.

Before long, Richthofen made JG1 an elite flying unit, selecting the best commanders and pilots (and in doing so stripping other Jastas of skilled and experienced airmen) and leading them in combat over Flanders.

RED FALCON FALLING

Flying an Albatros D. V on 6 July 1917, Richthofen received a head wound during an engagement with F.E.2 scouts of 20 Squadron RFC over Wervik, Belgium. Disoriented and temporarily blinded by a bullet that creased his forehead, he regained his vision in time to pull out of a spin to make a forced landing in an open field behind the German front.

Richthofen underwent several operations to remove bone fragments

from the affected area, but insisted on returning to flying duties against the advice of medical authorities. The Rittmeister became notably disinhibited from that point on.

Convalescing throughout September and October, he laid his head on the dining table of a restaurant to display the gaping wound. He was more irritable and suffered terribly from post-flight nausea and headaches. While not recognised at the time, it is now suspected that Richthofen was exhibiting signs of a traumatic brain injury, and one that may have affected his judgement during his final sortie.

Richthofen returned to flying duties, however, and his victories continued to soar. By late April 1918, his tally stood at 80, with the final 16 victories occurring over a six-week period in which he flew the new and more manoeuvrable Fokker Dr. I triplane.

On 21 April 1918, flying an all-red

Fokker Dr. I (serial 425/17), Richthofen was mortally wounded and made a forced-landing near Vaux-sur-somme around 11am. He had been pursuing a Sopwith Camel flown by Canadian

Lieutenant Wilfred ‘Wop’ May of 209 Squadron RAF2, himself hotly pursued by another Canadian of the same squadron, Captain Arthur ‘Roy’ Brown.

Richthofen had appeared to suffer

from an uncharacteristic episode of target fixation, breaking his own rule to never obstinately stay with an opponent. He flew low along the River Somme, and over British lines, appearing at eye-level to hundreds of Australian troops from the 3rd and 4th Australian Divisions dug in on Morlancourt Ridge. Hit by a bullet that passed laterally through his chest, Richthofen made a controlled crash landing in the field along the BrayCorbie road where he succumbed to his wounds almost immediately.

The ‘Red Falcon’ was down. He was 25 years old.

‘I SHOT THE BASTARD DOWN’

Much ink has been spilt debating who killed Richthofen. The RAF credited the victory to Brown, Richthofen’s aerial pursuer, but given the trajectory of the bullet that passed through Richthofen’s body it is now almost commonly agreed that the fatal shot came from the ground. For many, it seemed more fitting that the Red Falcon should fall in aerial combat against a worthy opponent than by blundering into a veritable storm of Australian ground fire.

However, it is likely that either Sergeant Cedric Popkin (24th Machine Gun Company) or Gunner Robert Buie (53rd Battery, 14th Field Artillery Brigade) fired the fatal shot. Popkin was equipped with a Vickers machinegun employed in an anti-aircraft role, and his position more-or-less corresponds with the trajectory of the bullet that felled Richthofen.

Also situated on Morlancourt Ridge, Buie fired with a Lewis gun fitted with anti-aircraft sights and similarly presents a strong case as being the victor. Both were experienced antiaircraft gunners trained at deflection shooting. But it is equally possible that any one of the thousands of soldiers dug in on Morlancourt Ridge, who shouldered their Lee Enfield rifles and engaged the Rittmeister as he flew low across the Australian front, could have been responsible for his death.

Richthofen’s machine came to ground not far from the dugout occupied by 11th Brigade headquarters. Intelligence officer Lieutenant Donald Fraser witnessed the crash from about 200 yards away and wrote the following report hours later.

‘I ran out and over to where [the aircraft] had fallen… About six men reached the wrecked plane before me. I immediately undid the airman’s safety belt and got assistance to pull him from the wreckage, but he was quite dead, and was considerably cut about the face and was apparently shot through the chest and body. As a large number of men were collecting, I requested Captain Adams of the 44th Battalion AIF to place a guard over the plane to prevent looting and to disperse the crowd, as the spot was open to the enemy observation and I feared we would be shelled. I searched the dead airman, taking his papers and personal effects which consisted of a few papers, a silver watch, gold chain with a medallion attached, and a pair of fur lined gloves. I gave them to Captain Hillary of 11th Brigade Staff who took them down to our German speaker who on investigation gave the identification of the famous German airman, Baron von Richthofen.’

Fraser’s report to 3rd Australian Division headquarters paints a clear picture of the scene and Richthofen’s personal effects at the time. This is an important detail, because Australians who had been at the crash site later gave accounts of their encounter with ‘the Red Pirate’, the details of which had tended to change as time went on. Writing in the 1960s, one man who had been an officer with the 44th Battalion claimed he had been tasked with posting a guard over Richthofen’s body. He remembered Fraser studying Richthofen’s identity disc as a crowd of souvenir hunters converged on the wreckage:

‘While this was going on, a sergeant in the crowd started souveniring. I had Richthofen’s large black flying gauntlets in my hands. Turning to the sergeant, I said, ‘Sergeant, you ought to be helping me, not showing a bad example’. He replied: ‘Sir, I shot the bastard down, so I ought to have something.’ I handed him the gauntlets, saying, ‘Sergeant, you have these. That was a mighty fine shot.’

The officer was undoubtedly at the crash site, but the gauntlets could not have been in two places at the same time. Did they go to brigade headquarters or to the unnamed sergeant who claimed to have killed Richthofen?

More certain is that the Australians

‘ratted’ the aircraft wreckage for souvenirs. As Richthofen’s body lay beside the aircraft under guard, souvenir hunters stripped Fokker Dr. I 425/17 down to its airframe until German shellfire dispersed the crowd about 15 minutes later. At nightfall, a work party under Lieutenant Walter Warneford, the equipment officer of 3 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps (AFC), transported the body and what remained of the wreckage to Poulainville aerodrome. Here, the souveniring continued.

Richthofen’s body was photographed and two post-mortem examinations were performed. The latter were both confused and contradictory and could not prove beyond reasonable doubt the origin of the fatal bullet3. Richthofen was buried with full military honours at Bertangles communal cemetery the following day before the issue could be resolved.

OVERSEEN RECOVERY

Over time, a number of objects from the Richthofen crash have made their way into the collection of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. One of the earliest was a Carl Bamberg compass collected from Richthofen’s aircraft by Sergeant Harold Tensch of the 41st Battalion, who passed it through his chain of command to the Australian War Records Section — a sub-unit of the Australian Imperial Force led by Major John Treloar - which sought to collect and organise the documentary record of Australian forces during the war. As an accompanying letter from Lieutenant Frederick Macgibbon tellingly noted in May 1918:

‘The souvenir is the compass belonging to Richthofen’s machine, and I was afraid to send it in, in case the Army or somebody else grabbed it.’

Also collected was the inscribed foresight of Robert Buie’s Lewis gun – Buie remaining certain that it was he who had shot down Richthofen.

Others came forward in the years after the war. Upon returning to Australia in 1919, Lieutenant Jack Warneford — who had overseen the recovery of Richthofen’s body and the aircraft — donated the broken control column of Fokker Dr. I 425/17 and one of Richthofen’s knee-high over boots, both of which had evidently been taken during the salvage operation.

Various squares of aircraft fabric, some featuring the black German Balkenkreuz, also made their way into the collection — not without a little encouragement from Treloar and his men. As Lieutenant George Travers of the 49th Battalion wrote in 1935:

‘A sergeant from the Records Section in London came down to see me and said he had been sent by Major Treloar, OC Records. He said they had heard that I had Richthofen’s cross and asked if I would let them have it for the Australian War Museum. Eventually I gave in to them.’

The collection also includes dozens of small pocketable scraps of redpainted linen fabric, wing strut, ammunition, engine components and timber propeller fragments.

Known pieces from Richthofen’s propeller were carefully analysed in the 1990s: the timbers were identified, and data used to check the authenticity of other items in collections all over the world. Similar work established the thread count of the aircraft fabric and the composition of red paint from Fokker Dr. I 425/17 when Richthofen last took to the skies on 21 April 1918.

FAKES AND PUZZLES

The Memorial has also seen a good number of fakes. In the 1970s, an Australian who claimed to be among the first at the crash site donated a small metal plaque bearing the serial details of Fokker Dr. I 425/17. Within months, an identical plaque turned up in the United States. To complicate matters further, the donor returned to the Memorial offering yet another plaque which he claimed to be the real item. Spelling mistakes in the inscriptions and other issues raised serious questions about these items. The Memorial now holds half a dozen plates of dubious origin, all of which claimed to be the real thing.

In the 1990s, a Balkenkreuz purporting to be Richthofen’s wing insignia turned out to be a convincing

For more on the post-mortem examinations, see M. Geoffrey Miller, ‘The Death of Manfred von Richthofen: Who fired the fatal shot?’, Sabretache: The 3 journal and proceedings of the Military Historical Society of Australia, vol. 39, iss. 2, 1998, pp. 16-29.

copy of an original by the Memorial. The circumstances of its manufacture remain obscure, but obviously involved a detailed examination of the original held in the Memorial’s collection. There are also examples of painted lozenge camouflage fabric and a telescopic sight for field artillery which have been donated in the mistaken belief they had come from Richthofen’s machine. Regrettably, the true stories behind these objects have been consumed by the legend of the ‘Red Baron’ and are lost forever.

A number of key items from the Richthofen crash have appeared at auction before entering the holdings of museums and private collectors, including Richthofen’s silk scarf and flying goggles which came from the vast personal collection of historian P J Carisella. The Imperial War Museum in London holds the Oberursel Ur. II engine from Fokker Dr. I 425/17, the Royal Canadian Military Institute in Toronto has its seat and the San Diego Air and Space Museum is said to have Richthofen’s medal group, including his Pour le Mérite. The Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre in New Zealand has several of the silver cups that celebrate Richthofen’s victories, including number 11, the victory over Lanoe Hawker VC. Less clear is what happened to the two LMG 08/15 machine guns from Fokker Dr. I 425/17, which are not in the collection of the Australian War Memorial as it often assumed.

The gloves referred to in Fraser’s report were donated to the Memorial 80 years after Richthofen’s death. At first, the claim that they belonged to Manfred von Richthofen seemed spurious – veterans present at the crash-site claimed the gloves were black, and conservation staff at the Memorial were able to determine that the fur that covered them was consistent with that of kangaroo. But, on closer inspection, the gloves appear to have been private-purchase RFC ‘trigger pattern’ flying gauntlets originally made of dark otter fur which had deteriorated over time. According to the donor, a Flight Sergeant

Joseph Knapp, formerly a chief mechanic with 3 Squadron AFC, had given her father the gauntlets. Then, in attempts to restore them to their former glory, they were later covered in kangaroo fur. Knapp had certainly been at Poulainville when the recovery crew returned with Richthofen and his airframe, and wrote to P J Carisella in the late 1960s explaining his role in the story:

‘When the machine [arrived] I put a guard on it; mainly composed of keen souvenir hunters, and this gave them an opportunity of selecting just what they wanted. I can assure you that I did not have any difficulty in obtaining the men to mount this guard.’

Knapp claimed not to have any interest in souveniring, but he confessed to have once had a number of Bosch spark plugs from Richthofen’s Oberursel engine and some fabric cut from the fuselage. How the gauntlets went from 11th Brigade headquarters to Poulainville, or whether these were the gloves said to have been given to the unnamed sergeant who claimed to have brought down Richthofen, remains a puzzle. However, we do know that Richthofen took trophies from his victims and that Knapp was involved in guarding the wreckage at Poulainville. So, it is entirely plausible that the RFC gauntlets are what they purport to be and that Richthofen had collected them from one of his victims - although it is odd that Knapp seemingly failed to mention them when writing to Carisella.

Such is the legend of the ‘Red Baron’, and his uniquely stellar place in the narrative of the First World War, that we will never know for sure.

■ Members of 3 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, amid the remnants of Fokker Dr. I 425/17 at Poulainville aerodrome on 22 April 1918. Inspecting Richthofen’s LMG 08/15 machine-guns are (from left) Lieutenant Norman Mulroney (pilot), Lieutenant Oscar Witcomb (Observer) and Lieutenant Frank Mart (Observer). (AWM K00048 & Colour by RJM)

■ Second Lieutenant Jack Hay of 40 Squadron RFC, who was shot down and killed by Richthofen over Lens on 23 January 1917. The son of a prominent Australian grazing family, the town of Hay in the New South Wales Riverina region was named after his forebears. (AWM P02118.001.)

■ Manfred von Richthofen, seated in his all-red Albatros D.III, with pilots of Jasta 11 at either Brayelles or Roucourt aerodromes in April 1917. (AWM H12364.)

Retitled as the Luftstreitkräfte in October 1916, following a restructure 1 of all aviation-related elements within the Imperial German Army.

■ Henry A. Fulwood, Death of Baron von Richthofen by Henry A Fulwood in watercolour with pencil and charcoal, 1918. (AWM ART02495.)

■ The German ace, Rittmeister Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, depicted on one of the popular Sanke Cards.

■ Members of No. 3 Squadron Australian Flying Corps amid the remains of Fokker Dr. I 425/17. From left: Lieutenant Cyril Gray (observer), Lieutenant Frank Mart (observer), Lieutenant Norman Mulroney (pilot), Lieutenant Oscar Witcomb (observer), Lieutenant Tom Baillieu (pilot), Lieutenant Reginald Kirkwood (observer), Lieutenant Albert Taylor (observer, KIA 20 May 1918), Private Leslie Reid, Lieutenant Malcom Sheehan (pilot). (AWM E02044. Colour by RJM)

The private purchase RFC trigger-pattern flying gauntlets donated to the Memorial in the belief they were from Manfred von Richthofen. Originally made of otter fur, they deteriorated over time and were later covered in kangaroo fur in attempts to restore them to their former glory. (AWM REL27258.) A piece of black and white German medal ribbon for the Iron Cross 2nd Class, believed by the donor to have been taken from the body of Manfred von Ricthofen on 21 April 1918. The RFC was amalgamated with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air 2 Force (RAF).

■ The grave of Manfred von Richthofen at Bertangles communal cemetery following his burial by the Australians on 22 April 1918. After the war, Richthofen was moved to the German cemetery at Fricourt, before he was taken to Germany in the Second World War and reburied at the Invalidenfriedhof, Berlin. He was then moved to the family plot in the Südfriedhof in Wiesbaden in 1975 where he rests today. (AWM H12937.)

■ (AWM REL/000922.) ■

■ The funeral of Manfred von Richthofen at Bertangles communal cemetery with members of No. 3 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, 22 April 1918. (AWM K00044.) ■ Left: The buckle and strap from Manfred von Richthofen’s flying overalls, recovered by 2nd Class Air Mechanic Frank Rawlinson, 3 Squadron, AFC. Rawlinson was allegedly present at Richthofen’s post-mortem examination and recovered the strap when it was removed by examining officers. (AWM RELAWM15900.)

■ The Carl Bamberg compass removed from Fokker Dr. I 425/17 by Sergeant Harold Tesch, 41st Battalion. (AWM RELAWM00706.)

■ Richthofen’s left flying overboot salvaged by Lieutenant Walter Warneford of 3 Squadron, AFC. (AWM RELAWM00705.)

(AWM REL/00938.) ■ A square of red aircraft fabric presented to Major General Leslie Beavis, the officer commanding 53rd Battery, 14th Field Artillery Brigade by members of the unit who believed they had been responsible for Richthofen’s death. (AWM REL/00934.)

■ A piece of red aircraft fabric from ‘one of the Red Devils’ send home to Australia as a souvenir in 1918.

■ Identity disc made from aluminium taken from Richthofen’s triplane, most likely from its engine cowling. (AWM REL/20216.) ■ Large portion of red aircraft fabric with black Balkenkreuz cut from the left lower wing of Fokker Dr. I 425/17. (AWM RELAWM12173.) ■ A British telescopic sight for field artillery, donated to the Memorial in the mistaken belief it had been taken from the wreckage of Richthofen’s machine. (AWM REL/00942.) ■ One of the many fake manufacturing plates purporting to be from Ricthofen’s Fokker DR.I 425/17. Notwithstanding that several that appeared in collections around the world at the same time, they contain spelling errors and made-up words. (AWM REL/00941.)

■ Right: A rough square of red aircraft fabric with black Balkenkreuz cut from Fokker Dr. I 425/17 by Lieutenant George Travers MC, 49th Battalion AIF, on 21 April 1918. (AWM RELAWM07570.)

■ Left: A section of cotton webbing ammunition belt from one of Richthofen’s LMG08/15 machine guns. (AWM REL/00927.)

■ The control column of Richthofen’s triplane, Fokker Dr. I 425/17, salvaged by Lieutenant Walter Warneford of 3 Squadron, AFC. Upon closer inspection, one can see that Richthofen had his control column slightly modified. The centralised ‘blip’ switch used to intermittently control the speed of the Fokker’s rotary engine during flight was relocated to the upper corner of the main frame of the wooden handle, making it easier for Richthofen to access with his right thumb. There was also a slight modification to the auxiliary throttle housing to enable greater control during landings. (AWM RELAWM00704.) ■ Above: A propeller fragment from Fokker Dr. 1 425/17. (AWM REL/00925.) ■ A length of pocketable-sized wing strut removed from Manfred von Richthofen’s Fokker Dr. 1 by members of 53rd Battery, 14th Field Artillery Brigade. (AWM RELAWM16029.)