Ground fire killed the Red Baron

FROM his first-hand experience of the affair, Cr George Ridgeway, of Lang Lang, a life member of the RSL, had no doubt that Baron Manfred von Richthofen was brought down by small arms fire from the ground.
Cr Ridgeway was interviewed by Tony Charlton on Channel 9 and also sets out his version in this contribution to Mufti.
I was a signaller in the 29th battery, 8th brigade, 1st AIF, and in company with another linesman, Gunner Laugier, was repairing telephone lines on the crest of the hill, 100 yards from the Heilly chimney stack, at 11 am on 21 April when we heard aeroplanes firing above us, and the spent bullets hit near us, Cr Ridgeway wrote.
Looking up, we saw that three planes had broken away from the dozen or so that were fighting about two miles up over Sailly-Laurette, in the German lines, and were heading for us at angle of approximately 45 degrees. When about three-quarters of mile up, we could see that the first plane was British and being chased by a German red triplane with another British plane about 100 yards behind.
The first plane was flying up and down, wavelike, to escape the bullets of the German who was flying behind and manoeuvring wave-like also as he fired desperately at his quarry. We had a side view of them as they passed to our left about 100 yards away and only about 200 feet up.
Just after passing us the last plane flew away to the right and the other two continued down the gully below us, right above the waggon lines of artillery and infantry of the Australians camped in the gully.
Machine-guns opened fire from every direction at the German plane about seven seconds after the last plane piloted by Captain Brown turned to his right. The first plane, piloted by Lieutenant T. May, turned to his left, below the tree tops and gave up the chase. Just skimming the ground on the end of the hill. As von Richthofen banked to return to his own lines we could see him sitting up in the plane quite clearly.
When passing us on our right about 300 feet up, we saw his head fall over to the left and immediately the plane turned to its left and nosedived to the ground about 100 yards from us, sending dust and splinters everywhere. It bounced about 50 yards into a heap of pitted mangles.
We ran up and could see that the pilot was dead. He was dressed in a bear-skin flying suit. He had no hat, helmet or goggles on, and when he was taken out of the plane he had a patch of blood about nine inches below his right shoulder.
The plane crashed a few yards from the Bray-Corbie Road, in full view of the enemy, and as hundreds of Australians ran up for souvenirs the Germans began shelling.
The plane was dragged into the sunken road. I picked up a splinter of wood where the plane first hit, and it had the number plate on it Militaar Flugzeug Fokker DR.142517.
Thousands of machine-gun bullets were fired at von Richthofen from when Captain Brown left the chase from the Boonay and Vaux-Sur-Somme areas and there is no doubt that he was alive and not wounded until the last second when his head fell side-ways.
A medical inquiry was held at the aerodrome and the four medical officers agreed that there was only one bullet wound. It entered at the right armpit at the level of the ninth rib, passed through the body from the right to the left, and came out two inches above the left nipple.
I am certain that there was no aeroplane within a mile when von Richthofen fell.
Captain Brown, in the third plane, claims to have shot him von Richthofen down as recorded in C. E. W. Bean’s official war history Vol. 5, page 694.
In it are recorded interviews with about 70 witnesses of the battle and not one of them says that the plane bounced after crashing.
From when the battle began until the crash, von Richthofen flew only about four miles, which took only 60 to 75 seconds.
That is why many say there was only two planes. They saw only a quarter of the flight.
The German flew at least a mile after Brown gave up, yet Brown says in his report (above mine on page 694 of C. E. W. Bean’s record): “My thumbs eased on the triggers. Von Richthofen was dead, the triplane staggered, wobbled, stalled, flung over on its nose and went down.”
One could hardly believe that of the thousands of bullets fired from the Lewis guns, only one hit his body. In another 20 second he would have been safe over his lines.
Cavalry Captain Baron Manfred von Richthofen, to give him his right title, is credited with shooting down 79 aeroplanes and 114 balloons. He was head of his “circus” and when any pilot was wounded or left the formation he would chase him and finish him off.
When cloud was heavy and coming from his lines, he would climb to a great height shut off his engine, volplane (glide) over our lines, dart through the cloud start his engine and fire incendiary bullets through out balloons. We saw him shoot down in flames 14 out of 22 one morning.
I spent three hours with C. E. W. Bean in 1934 and gave him this full report but only part of it was published in the history.
I have been in touch with Pat Carisella of the American Aviation Historical Society, and he said he has received hundreds of letters from observers of the fight. He states in a letter of thanks to me that my “letter and documents were certainly the most detailed report he had ever received in 10 years of research in Australia”.
In the note to us enclosing the clipping from Mufti, Cr Ridgeway has this to say: “After the shooting down of von Richthofen old Fritz went mad and shelled all day on 24 April 1918 with gas and high explosive shells, and caused many casualties. We had a busy time keeping up communication on the telephone lines between observation post and battery.”
Cr Ridgway and his companion were each awarded the Military Medal.