The Official Report
Event ID: 790
Categories:
22 April 1918
Source ID: 39
ISBN: 9781904943334
“SECRET
REPORT ON THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN BARON VON RICHTHOFEN at 62D.J.19.b.5.2 about 11 am wqst April 1918.
The following report is based on the evidence of eyewitnesses, written down immediately after the events.
Capt. Baron von Richthofen was flying a Single Seater tri-plane painted red and reported to be of a new pattern. When first engaged he was pursuing one of our own machines, reported to be a Sopwith Camel, in a W.N.W. direction, flying towards the wood in J.19c. Here, according to a reliable witness , he was fired at by an A. A. gun of the 24th Australian Machine Gun Company. Richthofen’s machine seemed to move unsteadily for a moment, but still continued in pursuit of the British plane.
He had now left the Somme valley and come over the high ground North of Corbie. Both machine were flying very low, being not more than 150 feet up. They were coming swiftly towards the A guns of the 53rd Battery, 14th Australian Field Artillery Brigade, situated at I.24.b.9.5 and I.24.b.6.5. respectively. Richthofen was firing into the plane before him but it was difficult for the Lewis gunners to shoot owing to the British plane being directly in the line of fire. The accordingly waited their time until the British plane had passed. Richthofen’s plane was not more than 100 yards from each when they opened fire. The plane was coming frontally towards them so that they were able to open fire directly on to the person of the aviator. Almost immediately the plane turned N.E. being sti11 under fire from the Lewis guns. It was now staggering as though out of control. Further effective bursts were fired; the plane veered to the North and crashed on the plateau near the brickworks near J.19.b.5.2.
The aviator was already dead. There were bullet wounds in the knees, abdomen, and chest, The plane was badly smashed; it was a triplane painted dull Red, and was armed with two air-cooled machine guns. It had only been assembled in March 1918.
The British plane was undoubtedly saved by the action of the Lewis gunners . It altered its course and circled back over the spot where the enemy plane had crashed.
The papers of the aviator were then taken to the HQ of the 11th Australian Infantry Brigade , They established his identity as Capt. Baron Mannheim von Richthofen, born 2nd March 1892 in Breslau, province of Silesia, Prussia. The machine was numbered D.R. 425.
Capt. Baron von Richthofen was a great adversary. The German Official wireless for the 21st April 1918, the very day of his death, contains the notice “Capt. Baron von Richthofen, at the head of Pursuit Flight 11, attained his 79th and 80th air victories” It was fitting that he should have fallen, in old Roman fashion, with all his wounds in front”.
After the machine crashed, a troupe of German planes flew over and circled above the spot until driven off by the A.A. guns. An Infantry guard was posted over the body and the plane, but they were relieved of their duty shortly after by the German artillery, who placed a ring of shells, bursting with instantaneous fuzes, around the plane.
The Lewis gunners who brought down the plane were : No. 598 Gunner W.J. Evans and No 3801 Gunner R Buie, of the 53rd Battery, 14th Australian Field Artillery Brigade, 5th Australian Divisional Artillery.”
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