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Captain McGrigor’s diary

Event ID: 786

Categories: 

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

22 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.  73 

ISBN: 9781904943334

“The information which the Commander-in-Chief of the British Fourth Army, General Sir Henry Rawlinson, had received until now was a little confusing. General Sir John Monash, who commanded the 5the Australian Division, had been told that the Red Devil (as he was often called by the front line troops) had been shot down by an RE8 reconnaissance aeroplane. General Sir William Birdwood, who commanded the Australian Corps within the Fourth Army, had heard quite a different story. His aide, Captain McGrigor, made the following entry in his diary for the 22nd:

Great excitement yesterday afternoon as Baron von Reichtofen (sic), the great Bosche (sic) flyer who is said to have accounted for 80 of our machines, met his fate yesterday nere here, being brought down by machine guns of one of our batteries at about 500 feet up while swooping on the tail of one of our reconnaissance machines. He was killed dead having about five bullets in him, and there is no doubt but that he is the famous pilot all Bosche communiqués have been making so much of the last few months. There is a lot of dispute as to who actually shot him down, but the machine gunners of the battery have finally established their claim. Went over to see his plane in the afternoon, it was a red triplane, but owing to the crash and the multitudinous souvenir hunters who got at it before the flying people, there was really very little of it left. Crowds of French troops still on the roads behind us, all moving north. Rode over and dined with Jack Cunningham at No. 65 Squadron; the talk was all about Reichtofen’s death, and they all swear that he was brought down by a plane and not from the ground. Had a most cheery evening finishing up with a good game of poker, did not get back until 1.15.”

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