To the brave and worthy opponent
Event ID: 499
Categories:
23 April 1918
Source ID: 22
“The Richthofen family received a detailed account of Richthofen’s burial after his death from the British and American sides. It follows here:
A high, deep tent had been cleared out, and in the centre of this tent, on a raised platform, lay the body of Manfred von Richthofen in the uniform of the 1st Uhlans, which he had been wearing when the black lot tore him from his life. The canvas walls of the tent fluttered in the wind, and the light that penetrated dimly into the tent illuminated his sharply cut, young face.
At five o’clock in the afternoon, military commands rang out in the vicinity of the tent. Twelve English soldiers, steel helmets on their heads, marched up under the leadership of an officer and formed a guard of honour in front of the tent. Six English aviation officers, all squadron leaders who had distinguished themselves before the enemy, entered the tent and lifted the coffin in which the deceased lay onto their shoulders. As they stepped out of the tent, a command sounded. The troops, who were lined up in a trellis, presented their rifles, and so the English officers carried the dead enemy comrade to a lorry, which slowly began to move.
The procession proceeded in this way to the entrance of a small war cemetery. Here at the gate stood the English clergyman, his surplice over his khaki uniform adorned with the English war cross. The coffin was followed by the twelve men of the funeral parade, their eyes lowered to the ground and carrying their rifles under their arms with the barrel pointing downwards. And then came English officers and non-commissioned officers, among them fifty airmen alone, who were lying nearby, and they all walked silently behind the coffin with their eyes lowered to the ground. The airmen had all rushed over to pay their last respects to the brave and distinguished enemy. They had brought wreaths with them, woven from immortelles and decorated with the German colours. One of the officers, however, wore a large wreath with the inscription: ‘To Rittmeister von Richthofen, the brave and worthy enemy’, and this wreath had been sent from the headquarters of the British air force.
The clergyman said the funeral prayer. Officers, non-commissioned officers and enlisted men stood around the grave, and when the clergyman had finished, they all stepped back, for the sharp command of an English officer caused the crews in the funeral parade to take up their positions and raise their rifle barrels into the air. And then three volleys of honour rang out over the grave. A metal plaque was nailed to the coffin, bearing the inscription in German and English: ‘Here rests Rittmeister Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, killed on the field of honour at the age of 25 in aerial combat on 21 April 1918.’ Aircraft with the three-coloured cockade circled over the grave as the coffin slowly descended. This grave is not far from Amiens. A hawthorn hedge, always whipped by the wind, casts its shadow over the place where Manfred von Richthofen was laid to rest.”
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