17 September 1916: Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen (1892-1918), immortalized in the popular imagination as "the Red Baron," scored his first official aerial victory, flying for Jasta 2, commanded by the ace of aces Oswald Boelcke (1891-1916). Richthofen would be credited with eighty aerial victories in his career, more than any other pilot in the war, & be regarded as a legend in his own time.
Lest we forget.
Bonus! Song of the Day
The Staggers, "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" via iTunes (The Last Angry Man)
Commentary:
"After the turn of the century,
In the clear blue skies over Germany
Came a roar and a thunder they had never heard,
Like the screaming sound of a big warbird.
"Up in the sky, a man and his plane,
Baron von Richthofen was his name,
And eighty men tried and eighty men died,
Now they're buried all together on the countryside.
"Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or more!
The bloody Red Baron was rolling up the score!
And eighty men died trying to end that spree
Of the bloody Red Baron of Germany…"
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