Manfred Von Richthofen

“This book is recommended for readers interested in the physical and psychological impacts unique to Manfred von Richthofen’s experience of life and death.” -Over the Front It is more than a hundred years since Manfred von Richthofen, the ‘Red Baron’, was killed in combat on the Western Front. Yet this gallant fighter pilot is probably as well known today as he was his lifetime. Beginning in 1916, when his lethal skills were first realised, his image proved a godsend to his country’s propaganda machine. There, far above the misery of life in the trenches, was a shooting star of unimaginable potency to help pacify a weary nation that was now beginning to believe that the war was no longer necessary or the losses justified. And so, an image of chivalry was conjured up and exploited with little regard of the cost of this to an increasingly war weary man. Read more