Report by R.H. Barron
Event ID: 618
Categories:
21 April 1918
Source ID: 54
“62 Richmond Road, South Tottenham, London, NO. 15.
On 21 April 1918, the 11th Section “F” Anti-Aircraft Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, was deployed alongside the Bray-Corbie road. The section (platoon) consisted of thirteen 18-pounder guns mounted on trucks.
At that time, we were assigned to the Australian Division, which held a position in front of a high ridge running parallel to the road, about a quarter of a mile from the road. The ground between our position and the ridge was occupied by Australian field batteries.
Shortly before noon, our attention was aroused by machine-gun fire, and suddenly two Sopwith Camels (single-seat fighters) appeared, coming at high speed from the German positions and flying so low that they were just visible above the crest of the ridge. Immediately behind them, close on their heels, appeared the red aircraft, which, as events later proved, was flown by Baron Richthofen. He fired bursts of machine-gun fire at the two Camels, but without causing them any visible damage.
We immediately sprang into action and laid a barrage of shrapnel between them and the Fokker to protect the British aircraft. At the same time, fire was opened on the Baron by our own Lewis machine gun (operated by Sergeant Franklyn) and by the machine guns assigned to the Australian batteries. A moment later, the Baron, who had apparently now realised the dangerous situation he was in, performed an Immelmann manoeuvre, but then descended at a steep angle over the ridge.
Some accounts claim that his aircraft made a smooth landing, but this was not the case. However, he was flying so low – about 250 feet high – that the aircraft was not badly damaged.
The Baron was already dead when he landed, and there is not the slightest doubt that he was shot from the ground, because the only British aircraft in the vicinity at the time were the two Camels that were in front of the German aircraft, and everyone knows that the machine guns of the Camels could only fire forward, as they are coupled to the propeller, so that in the position in which they were flying, it was impossible for them to fire at the Germans. There was definitely no other aircraft in the area at the time.
One of the two Camel pilots later came to our machine guns with his squadron leader on the same day and thanked us for our help. When asked why the two British pilots had not tried to engage the Baron in combat, he replied that the machine guns on both Camels had jammed.
It is, of course, impossible to say whether Richthofen was hit by the Australians’ machine guns or by our own.
The claim that the direction in which the fatal bullet travelled through his body proves that it was fired from the air is not conclusive, as the angle of his body to the ground at the moment of the Immelmann manoeuvre would have allowed a shot from the ground to enter behind his shoulder and travel down through his body to his heart.
Signed R. H. Barron, former Bombardier, No. 296 400 “F” Battery A. A. Royal Garrison Artillery.”
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