• English Combat Report of MvR's final flight. (picture source: The Red Baron's Last Flight - Norman Franks - Alan Bennett)

3 AFC – The first claim

Event ID: 781

Categories: 

Air Combat
English
The Red Baron's Last Flight - Norman Franks - Alan Bennett

21 April 1918

49.932804234339855, 2.5372532
On a ridge by the Bray to Corbie road
Vaux-sur-Somme

Source ID: 39

The Red Baron's Last Flight - Norman Franks - Alan Bennett p.  26 

ISBN: 9781904943334

Opponent was  

flying the     

VS

MvR was flying the Fokker Dr.I 425/17 

Below are excerpts of Norman Franks’ and Alan Bennett’s book ‘The Red Baron’s last flight’. It contains much more detail than below, and is the ultimate reference on the subject.

“…As the weather improved and the sky began to clear, 3 AFC Squadron despatched two of their RE.8 observation two-seaters off to the Front from their base at Poulainville. Their target area was the German supply dump and troops assembly area around Le Hamel. Both machines were crewed by highly experienced airmen who were well-practised in the art of working together. Their progress was noted by German observers who very quickly made a telephone call to JG1 at Cappy…

…Barrow caught sight of about eight aircraft (there were actually nine) approaching them from the east. Suspecting they would be German, the two observers alerted their pilots and all four men prepared for action. The time was noted as 1045.

The nine hostile aircraft were soon identified as Fokker Triplanes, two of which separated from the formation and headed towards them. The colour of the leading Fokker was noted as red and itspilot selcted Garret and Barrow’s RE.8 for attention. The second Dr.I which had come from the outer edge of the German formation, attacked Simpson and Banks. The first shots of the day’s action were about to be fired…

…From the description of the formation of Triplanes it has to be assumed that the red Triplane, the formation leader, was flown by von Richthofen and the supernumerary position on the outside edge would probably have been taken by Leutnant Hans Weiss….

…Manfred von Richthofen was not famous for abandoning a fight without proper cause. There is a good possibility that the poor ammunition quality problems which were to plague him this day had started to appear and that, being temporarily disarmed, he sought some quiet airspace where he could try to unjam his guns….

…The RE.8 crews recorded their height when the fight began as 7500 feet, and although neither crew claimed a Triplane shot down, later events made it seem to 3 AFC’s CO, Major David V J Blake, that his men had downed von Richthofen.He annotated their combat report accordingly with the word ‘decisive’ and entered it as suvh in the Squadron Record Book. However, the fight having been fought between about 1040-50, this is too early to have been von Richthofen’s final action…

…The waters were further muddied by later events as far as 3 AFC were concerned, for when Major Blake was asked to provide a salvage crew to bring in the wreckage of a downed Fokker Triplane later that day (after lunch), which had crashed near Vaux-sur-Somme, included was the news that the pilot, who had been killed, wwas none other than von Richthofen. Blake may well have added two-and-two together even if it had not been the Baron, and assumed at this stage the Triplane had been that engaged by his crews that morning, but as it was the Baron, he would have been even more keen to do so…”

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