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The red color

Event ID: 647

Categories: 

Ein Heldenleben, Ullstein & Co, 1920

07 May 1917

50.22803678981427, 8.61048946932352
Homburg

Source ID: 55

Ein Heldenleben, Ullstein & Co, 1920 p.  205 

“It had just become known that the English had put a bounty on my brother’s head. Every pilot over there knew him because he was still flying a red-painted plane on his own at the time. That’s why it had long been our wish to have all the planes in our squadron painted red, and we begged my brother to do so so that he wouldn’t stand out so much. The request was granted, because we too had proven ourselves worthy of the red paint by shooting down many enemy aircraft. The red paint signified a certain arrogance. Everyone knew that. It made you stand out. Consequently, you had to perform well. We finally looked proudly at our red birds. My brother’s plane was bright red. Each of us had a few features in other colours. Since you can’t see each other’s faces in the air, we had chosen these colours as identifying marks. Schäfer, for example, had black on the elevator, aileron and part of the rear fuselage, Allmenröder had the same in white, Wolff in green and I in yellow. As a yellow dragoon, that was the obvious colour for me. So everyone had a different one. In the air, the entire aircraft appeared red when viewed from the ground and by the enemy, as only small parts were painted in other colours. Anyone who took part in the defensive battle at Arras will have seen the red birds and their work often enough. Now some may ask: How did Cavalry Captain Richthofen come up with the idea of painting his plane red in the first place? The French described this as childish in an article. The reason is to be found elsewhere. When Manfred began to achieve his first successes with the Boelke fighter squadron, he was annoyed that the enemies saw him far too early in aerial combat. He tried to make himself as invisible as possible by using different colours. Among other things, he painted himself earth-coloured. From above, this colour would not be visible if such a thing did not move. To his dismay, Manfred realised that colour was of no use. There is no invisibility cloak for a pilot to make himself invisible. In order to at least be recognised by his comrades as the lead aircraft in the air, he chose the bright red colour. Later, the red aircraft also became known to the British. It was given names such as ‘Le petit rouge’ and others. Then it was claimed that a ‘Joan of Arc’ or similar woman was sitting in it. Friends and foes alike knew who was sitting in the red plane. It sparked indescribable enthusiasm among our troops at the front, but less so among the enemy. I was reminded of the well-known comparison with the red cloth that was once held in front of the bull in bullfighting to provoke it into a frenzied attack. But the comparison is not entirely accurate, in that the English, as soon as they saw the red machine, fled like sheep. In the Battle of Arras, the red machine only had to approach the front line to see the English immediately flee across their own lines.”

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