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00:03Autumn 1916. A deadly new German fighter, the Albatross. One of its pilots was Manfred
00:12Brunrichtorben, the legendary Red Baron. The Allies countered with the light, fast-climbing
00:22Sopwith Pup, underpowered but superbly agile. A year later, the Fokker triplane and the Red
00:34Baron's Flying Circus terrorized the Allies. It was the golden age of the World War I fighter.
01:07The planes on the ground are British Sopwith one-and-a-half strutters. Coming into land
01:12is an FE-2. It's Autumn 1916. This film shows women of the WRAF, the Women's Royal Air Force,
01:25building one-and-a-half strutters. The WRAF made an enormous contribution to the British
01:31war effort. Women were particularly effective in speeding up the slow pace of British aircraft
01:36production. Strutters began to arrive on the Western Front in late May 1916, just before
01:46the Battle of the Somme. They were British two-seat fighter reconnaissance aircraft, the first used
01:54by the Royal Flying Corps to have a synchronized machine gun firing through the propeller arc.
02:06An additional Lewis gun, operated by the Observer, made it a formidable opponent.
02:14It was slow into production. By the time it entered service with the RFC in mid-1916,
02:20much of its potential advantage was lost.
02:29It was more heavily armed than most two-seaters.
02:36Here, the Lewis gun is being fitted to a scarf ring, a device that allowed the Observer to
02:41aim the gun freely in almost any direction.
02:53Lewis gun ammunition came in drums. When a drum was emptied, it was removed, and another one
02:59clipped on.
03:09The one-and-a-half strutters could dogfight, escort bombers, perform reconnaissance. They were the
03:16forerunners of today's multi-role fighters like the F-16.
03:25Here, the pilot is furiously pumping fuel to start the engine.
03:29The relationship between pilot and observer was crucial. Compatible partners tended to stay
03:36together. Their bond could become so strong, the Germans referred to it as a flyer's marriage.
03:49For a while, strutters performed well. But they were soon obsolete.
03:56On August the 28th, 1916, Chief of the German General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, resigned,
04:03having failed to force victories at Verdun and the Somme.
04:07His replacement, Field Marshal Hindenburg with Quartermaster General Erich von Ludendorff,
04:12set about revolutionizing Germany's use of air power.
04:22Pursuit squadrons, called Jastas, were established.
04:28Jasta leaders, like the great Oswald Bulger, were instructed to switch their tactics from defense
04:34to attack. Bulger trained new pilots in his own theories of aerial combat.
04:41Secure every advantage. Fire only at close range. Fight as a team. Always carry an attack through.
04:54Among Bulger's young protégés, one stood out.
05:00Manfred von Richthofen drank in everything Bulger had to say.
05:08He learned fast and achieved immediate success.
05:14Hindenburg and Ludendorff also ordered an increase in Germany's aircraft production.
05:19The Albatross Company had a new fighter design on the drawing board.
05:23Wood was a major component in its construction.
05:29Germany needed a fighter to compete with allied Newports and TH-2s.
05:34In the absence of a better idea, it ordered that the French Newport be copied.
05:40But Albatross's own concept was far better.
05:46It would re-establish aerial superiority for Germany, not seen since the months of the Fokker scourge.
05:56The unique feature of Albatross fighters was the construction of the fuselage.
06:02The framework used conventional formers and stringers, but the skin was sheet plywood.
06:08At a time when almost all aircraft were covered with stretched fabric, this was very unusual.
06:16The plywood, bent into curves around the framework, gave the fuselage great strength and rigidity.
06:29The first model was called the D-1.
06:32It became available in August 1916 and impressed the German authorities.
06:41It reached the front in late summer.
06:45Feedback to the factory was good.
06:47Oswald Boecker shot down 11 allied planes in 16 days.
06:59On September the 17th, Boecker led his Yasta of Albatross D-1s
07:03in the first large formation of German fighter aircraft ever to cross into allied territory.
07:10German air power was at last on the offensive.
07:14The new Albatross fighters and their elite young pilots
07:18completely outclassed the obsolete British pusher designs.
07:28There was one criticism of the D-1.
07:31The pilot didn't have a clear view to the front and above.
07:35The upper wing was brought closer to the fuselage to solve this problem.
07:40The modified version was called the D-2.
07:48The Albatross had two machine guns fixed in front of the pilot, synchronized to fire through the propeller arc.
07:55This two-gun pattern would set the standard for both German and allied fighter aircraft.
08:05By the end of 1916, Albatross fighters were being produced at a rate which gave Germany numerical as well as
08:12technical fighter superiority.
08:25Manfred von Richthofen's father was an army reserve major.
08:29Manfred continued his family's strong military tradition.
08:33A month after receiving his Albatross, his score was six allied aircraft.
08:43Von Richthofen and his colleagues in other Jastas honed their fighting skills.
08:47German records for September and October 1916 show 211 allied aircraft destroyed, compared with a German loss of 39.
09:01This is rare film of an Albatross attacking a cauldron biplane.
09:07There was little doubt about the outcome of such an unequal contest.
09:11The lumbering cauldron must be destroyed, unless fate or an allied fighter intervened.
09:24German morale in the air, severely damaged by reversals that were done at the Somme,
09:28recovered quickly.
09:30By October, the Allies had lost their air superiority.
09:43A new generation of German fighter pilots headed by von Richthofen was making the most of a license to be
09:49aggressive.
09:55But on October the 28th, a grey autumn day, Belker was scheduled to fly an infantry support mission.
10:03Dodging an enemy fighter, he brushed his wingtip against his friend Erwin Boehmer's plane.
10:09His Albatross crashed to the ground.
10:12Belker, the great pilot, tactician, was dead at 25, with 40 victories.
10:20Jasta, too, was renamed Jasta Bolker in his honor.
10:24Germany had lost its greatest aerial hero.
10:28But another was preparing to take his place.
10:38By early November 1916, von Richthofen had eight victories.
10:43On a patrol above Lanycourt, in northern France, he was attacked by a British DH2.
10:50In the longest dogfight of the war, von Richthofen claimed his ninth victim.
10:59It was Britain's hero, Victoria Cross winner Major Lano Hawker.
11:05Von Richthofen had delivered another major blow to Allied morale.
11:13In January 1917, von Richthofen was given command of his own squadron, Jasta 11.
11:20It had been in existence for several months, but it only scored one unconfirmed victory.
11:27Von Richthofen set out to pass on the knowledge and experience he'd learned from Boehmer.
11:31He coached his pilots personally, analyzing their performance and suggesting improvements.
11:44At about this time, a new British fighter was arriving on the Western Front.
11:50The Sopwith Pup faced a grave task.
11:54Albatrosses were overwhelming every Allied aircraft, except the French Spad.
12:03The Pup's Lerone Rotary developed only half the Albatrosses' 160 horsepower.
12:12But what it lacked in power, it made up for in delightful flying qualities.
12:18In a dogfight, it could hold its height better than any aircraft of the period, Allied or German.
12:24It had a single Vickers machine gun firing through the propeller arc.
12:32But production was slow.
12:35Germany was able to maintain numerical superiority.
12:49In January 1917, Germany introduced a new Albatross, the D-3.
12:56This is a D-3 tail assembly, framed in wood with a fabric covering.
13:07The D-3's appearance was similar to the earlier models.
13:11The fuselage was almost identical.
13:14The strong ply covering and sleek shape were retained.
13:20The engine was a high compression model of the 160 horsepower Mercedes.
13:31The wing layout was changed to improve downward visibility.
13:35The lower wing was made smaller, with V-shaped wing struts, like the French Newports.
13:41V-struts had given Newport problems.
13:44And they'd do the same for Albatross.
13:47They allowed the lower wing to twist dangerously.
13:51One of the first D-3's was supplied to Manfred von Richthofen.
13:55His lower wing cracked in flight.
14:01Von Richthofen had his Albatross fuselage painted red,
14:05identifying himself to friends and challenging enemies.
14:14Von Richthofen would become known to the Allies as the Red Devil.
14:24In March 1917, Germany retreated to the heavily fortified Siegfried Line.
14:29German aircraft fought to control the air, protecting troops as they moved back.
14:38The retreating Germans destroyed anything that could be useful to the advancing Allies.
14:44Von Richthofen and his colleagues took their task as a personal challenge.
14:48They vowed not to relinquish the air to the Englishmen.
14:56From early April, Jaster 11 was based near Douai.
15:00On April 2nd, Von Richthofen's orderly awoke him.
15:04Announcing that the English had arrived.
15:11Von Richthofen took off and claimed his first victim of the month
15:15that became known to the British flyers as Bloody April.
15:30Two weeks later, he'd increased his score to 45.
15:37By the end of April, 150 British planes had been destroyed.
15:54German newspapers ran stories of a British squadron dedicated to killing Von Richthofen.
15:59In order to reduce their leader's visibility,
16:02his pilots painted their own albatrosses bright red.
16:05But Manfred's was still the only completely red machine.
16:12All the rest had at least a splash of some other colour.
16:21In spite of the growing Von Richthofen legend,
16:24all romance and chivalry had long disappeared from the war.
16:29As one British pilot said,
16:31More often, there was just the sheer bloody murder of the headhunter.
16:36Many British two-seaters in service were obsolete,
16:39little more than flying death traps for their crews.
16:53Yasta 11 spent the last days of April based at Rukur,
16:57southeast of Douai.
17:00In the village, there's a chateau,
17:02which Von Richthofen used as squadron headquarters.
17:10By the end of April, his score had passed 50.
17:17On May the 1st, he went on furlough.
17:20He left Yasta 11 in the hands of his brother, Lothar,
17:23who was following in Manfred's footsteps as a deadly fighter pilot.
17:29Bloody April was over.
17:32Germany had reinforced its superiority in the air.
17:46April 1917 had another significance.
17:50America entered the war.
17:52But American air power was non-existent,
17:56and it would take many months and many dollars to have an impact.
18:03In spite of the defeats of Bloody April,
18:06the spirit of the British Royal Flying Corps remained strong.
18:14A new fighter helped.
18:17SE-5s from the Royal Aircraft Factory
18:19began arriving at the front in the last week of Bloody April.
18:24The SE-5 was a stable, tough, single-seater
18:28with a powerful Hispano-Suiza engine.
18:33It had a synchronized Vickers machine gun
18:35firing through the propeller arc
18:37and a Lewis gun fixed to the upper wing.
18:46In the air, it proved to be superior to the Albatross.
18:57The SE-5's stationary engine and marked dihedral
19:01gave it stability.
19:03Great strength allowed it to dive very fast without breaking up.
19:10But British ace Albert Ball converted to the SE-5 reluctantly.
19:15He preferred his old Newport 17.
19:26On May the 7th, Ball took off in a new SE-5.
19:30His patrol would encounter von Richthofen's Jaster 11.
19:34Manfred was still on furlough, and Lothar was in command.
19:41In a confused struggle, Lothar was forced to crash land.
19:47Ball's engine was apparently damaged,
19:49but no one's really sure why he crashed.
19:55His SE-5 hit the ground, and he was killed.
20:04Lothar von Richthofen claimed the victory.
20:09Ball's death was a major blow to the RFC.
20:13But another new star was on the rise.
20:18Canadian Billy Bishop fought his first air combat in March 1917.
20:24His score mounted rapidly.
20:27Only six weeks later, he was promoted to captain.
20:30By early May, he had 20 victories, flying a Newport.
20:35His squadron was re-equipped with SE-5s.
20:39Bishop finished the war with 72 victories.
20:42But recently, his claims have been challenged.
20:47In the meantime, a curious little British fighter made its debut in battle.
20:52It was the Sopwith Triplane.
20:55Its stack of three wings was designed to reduce wingspan and increase wing area,
21:00making it handle and climb better than biplanes.
21:04It flew with the Royal Naval Air Service and did its job well.
21:08But its main legacy was to inspire a famous German copy, the Fokker DR-1.
21:21When Manfred von Richthofen returned to the front in June 1917,
21:25he had orders to implement a new German air strategy.
21:31The Jastas were to be combined into larger battle groups
21:34and housed in tents and portable sheds so they could be moved quickly to critical locations.
21:39JG-1, von Richthofen's group, was made up of four Jastas and their 50 aircraft.
21:48A new Albatross fighter, the D-5, was introduced.
21:56Its wooden fuselage had an oval cross-section.
21:59The top wing was very close to the cockpit.
22:04The tremendous success of the first three models convinced the Albatross factory to continue the line.
22:10They were confident they had a winning formula.
22:19The wings and tail of the D-5 were identical to the D-3.
22:23The V-strut layout was retained, in spite of its problems under stress.
22:29There was a series of fatal crashes as soon as the D-5 entered service.
22:34They were caused by wing failure.
22:37Extra wire bracing and small struts were added for strength.
22:42Pilots were warned not to dive too steeply.
22:47Further strengthening was ordered.
22:50Aircraft already delivered were to be modified.
22:54But inspections showed that this work was not performed.
22:58The crashes continued.
23:07By then it was clear that new Allied fighters could match the Albatross.
23:11And the D-5 offered little advance over its predecessors.
23:16But Germany had no real alternatives ready for service.
23:21The Albatross D-5 and 5A continued in production.
23:28Germany planned a diversion that would help its new fighter groups get established.
23:34On June the 13th, 14 long-range Gotha bombers were prepared to take off.
23:40Their target was London.
23:46The raid was successful.
23:49162 Londoners were killed.
23:51Britain was outraged.
23:52The Royal Flying Corps began withdrawing fighter squadrons from France to protect Britain.
24:01Ironically, the efficiency of the Gothas may have been improved by a mistake involving Britain's own long-range giant.
24:09On February the 2nd, 1917, a brand new Hanley Page bomber went off course and landed unintentionally behind German lines.
24:17The Germans were able to examine this latest British strategic weapon in detail, before it had even entered service.
24:27The Hanley Page had a wingspan of 100 feet.
24:32It could carry almost 1,800 pounds of bombs.
24:36A far cry from the finned artillery shells dropped over the side by hand.
24:46The war in the air was approaching its third birthday.
24:50To the young men who'd survived that long, it seemed like many lifetimes.
24:55It was a strange existence.
24:58Conditions on the ground were relatively comfortable, miles behind the trenches.
25:02And there was plenty of leisure.
25:05Often the weather prohibited flying for days at a time.
25:12The spirit that developed in the air services was one of easy-going, casual irreverence.
25:20Dress codes were informal.
25:22Status was a question of achievement and experience, rather than a badge of rank.
25:29New arrivals to this elite brotherhood found that acceptance wasn't automatic.
25:34It took time and performance.
25:40Casualty rates were high.
25:42There was a constant stream of new arrivals to replace those who were killed or transferred.
25:48Squadrons developed identities and styles that remained constant in spite of changing personnel.
25:55Compared with other services, a high degree of individualism was tolerated.
26:00Some of the most extreme and talented pilots were eccentric and difficult to get on with.
26:06Squadron life, with its facade of fight hard and play hard, was never without tension.
26:12And death was always present.
26:15Most pilots coped with this by living as fully as they could in each moment they survived.
26:22Squadron identity was proudly cultivated.
26:26The French were famous for their escadrille insignia.
26:32It was flair, not only in the choice of symbol, but in the elegant execution of the graphics.
26:41Some pilots took individualism to the extreme.
26:45The French ace, Charles Nungesser, repeatedly wounded and injured, was officially ordered to rest.
26:53He agreed only on the condition that he was given a roving commission to fly whenever he felt fit.
27:02Pilots could achieve almost godlike status.
27:05When France's beloved leading ace, Georges Gennemer, disappeared without trace in September 1917,
27:11the French population refused to believe he was dead.
27:22René Fonc would become the highest scoring allied ace.
27:26But he never found a place in the heart of France as Gennemer had.
27:34There was no doubt about his skill as a pilot.
27:37He made sure of that.
27:39He became known as a braggart and a boar.
27:44And there was no denying his marksmanship.
27:50He was famous for extreme economy in his use of ammunition.
27:57He took no unnecessary risks and studied the tactics of his opponents carefully.
28:03Through 1917, his rate of kills accelerated.
28:13Eventually, he succeeded in overtaking Gennemer's score, but never supplanted him, as France's most beloved ace.
28:21At this decoration ceremony, the pilot in black is Captain Alfred Hertel,
28:26who'd just been shot down and was recovering from severe wounds.
28:31René Fonc is on the right.
28:33During the war, he received a total of 26 decorations.
28:36He destroyed 75 enemy aircraft.
28:49In August 1917, a new German fighter appeared on the front.
28:55It was the Fokker DR-1.
28:57DR stood for the German word,
28:59meaning tri-decker, meaning triplane.
29:05Its design owed a great deal to the Sopwith triplane.
29:09Tony Fokker never hesitated to take other people's ideas
29:13and apply his own genius to reinventing them.
29:24When the DR-1 appeared, it was scoffed at by the German army authorities at the front.
29:28They were strong supporters of the Albatross.
29:37But in the hands of the ace, Werner Vos, the agile little fighter quickly changed their minds.
29:56This is a replica of the DR-1 painted in Werner Vos' colors.
30:01The most distinctive feature of the Vos' paint scheme
30:04was the face pattern around the engine cowling.
30:12In 21 days, Vos shot down 22 British aircraft.
30:25The DR-1 was small, light, and used a rotary engine.
30:30This combination made it an excellent dogfighter.
30:39Tony Fokker was happy to concede that he wasn't fast.
30:42I sacrificed speed for climb and maneuverability.
30:46The Allies never had an opportunity to realize how slow the triplane was
30:51because of the way it climbed, flipped, and stunted in a fight.
30:55But Fokker was not the triplane's designer.
30:59Like all the later Fokker fighters,
31:01it was the work of Reinhold Platz,
31:04something Fokker was careful not to advertise.
31:16Manfred von Richthofen was shot down in July,
31:19wounded in the head.
31:21This film of von Richthofen and the Kaiser
31:23was shot in August 1917.
31:26Von Richthofen still has a bandage under his cab.
31:30The wound was serious,
31:32and he was forbidden to fly.
31:34He disobeyed, but experienced giddiness and nausea.
31:42He took delivery of his DR-1 on September the 1st.
31:46On that day, von Richthofen's score stood at 59 kills.
31:51His closest German rival was Werner Vos, with 38.
31:55On his first mission in the Fokker,
31:58von Richthofen had his easiest and one of his strangest victories.
32:01He attacked a lone British RE-8.
32:05He approached to within 100 yards,
32:08and the crew didn't react.
32:10The observer simply stood,
32:12leaving his guns untouched.
32:16Von Richthofen fired 20 bullets,
32:17and the RE-8 went down.
32:20Von Richthofen was sure his DR-1
32:22had been mistaken for a British Sopwith triplane.
32:27Unlike the Albatross, the DR-1 had a rotary engine.
32:31Germany's major rotary was the Oberösel,
32:34a copy of the French Lerone.
32:41As the war went on,
32:42Germany found it harder and harder
32:44to find adequate engine supplies.
32:47Some DR-1s were fitted with actual Lerones,
32:50removed from crashed Allied aircraft.
32:57On September the 3rd,
32:58von Richthofen prepared for another patrol in his DR-1.
33:02This time, his opponent would be a real fighter.
33:07The Fokker triplane would meet a British Sopwith pup
33:10in single combat.
33:33Von Richthofen and five of his Yasta-11 pilots
33:36met a patrol of Sopwith pups.
33:44By 1917, patrols at altitudes over 16,000 feet were common.
33:50Extreme cold and lack of oxygen
33:52caused hypothermia and hypoxia.
33:55Both could result in mental confusion and blackouts.
33:59Noise from unmuffled engines was constant and intense.
34:03Von Richthofen singled out a pup
34:05flown by Lieutenant R.F. Byrd.
34:12The pup and the triplane were well-matched.
34:15Both were light and highly maneuverable.
34:17Both were rotary-powered.
34:20By 1917, any novelty associated with flying military aircraft
34:24had long since disappeared.
34:27It was a difficult, taxing job,
34:29making extreme physical and mental demands on the pilot.
34:38Not only was the possibility of death or horrific injury constant,
34:42there were also many physical hardships.
34:45Planes could not be set for steady flight.
34:48In rotaries, pilots were continually fighting
34:51the twisting effect of the spinning engine.
34:59After two hours in the air,
35:01they were often so exhausted
35:02they could hardly climb out of the cockpit.
35:13Von Richthofen forced Byrd down to lower and lower altitudes.
35:18Byrd used up his ammunition, firing at troops on the ground.
35:23In a forced landing, he deliberately crashed into a tree
35:26so the Germans couldn't take his pup intact.
35:35Von Richthofen had scored his 61st victory.
35:54This is film taken after that battle.
35:57Von Richthofen in the cap
35:59and Tony Fokker in the flying helmet
36:01are kneeling down to examine bullet holes
36:04in the pup's engine cowling.
36:14Lieutenant Byrd, now a prisoner of war,
36:17is there as well, on the left.
36:20Four days later, Von Richthofen returned
36:22to convalescent leave.
36:24In October, two Fokker triplanes broke up in the air.
36:29For the time being, the DR-1 was withdrawn from the war.
36:33Its reputation never recovered.
36:39On September the 23rd, Werner Voss had 48 victories
36:42and a massive hangover from celebrating in Berlin.
36:48On that day, in one of the epic combats of the war,
36:52he was shot down by the RFC's Rhys Davids
36:55in an SE-5A.
37:01Von Richthofen had lost his challenger.
37:05He concentrated on recovering his health.
37:08He relaxed by hunting.
37:16In the summer of 1917,
37:18a new British fighter entered service.
37:21It was the Bristol F-2B,
37:24a tough, rugged two-seater
37:26that would become one of the best all-round fighters of the war.
37:30It was well-armed with a forward-firing Vickers machine gun
37:33and a Lewis gun in the observer's cockpit.
37:37It was reasonably fast and highly maneuverable.
37:41It could be used like a single-seater
37:43with the advantage of an observer to cover the tail.
37:49This film was taken far away from the Western Front,
37:53in Palestine.
37:58Aircraft served on all battlefronts.
38:01Russia, Austria, Italy, the Balkans,
38:04and the Middle East.
38:05Britain destroyed Turkish forces with straffing attacks.
38:14Reconnaissance and bombing were the major functions
38:17of aircraft away from the Western Front.
38:20They battled the enemy
38:21and the physical conditions.
38:24Heat, dust, sand, and disease
38:27were constant problems.
38:29Airfields were few.
38:31Maintenance for aircraft
38:33like these Avro 504s was difficult.
38:36Fuel supplies were hard to maintain.
38:39But right throughout the war,
38:41from 1914 to the Armistice,
38:44aircraft continued to operate
38:46and provide service
38:47in the most remote and difficult locations.
38:53One of the most famous fighters of the Great War
38:56was the Sopwith Camel,
38:59introduced in the summer of 1917.
39:02This one is trailing castor oil fumes
39:05as it takes off.
39:09The Camel was fiery and temperamental,
39:12extremely difficult to learn to fly.
39:17It tricked many student pilots
39:20into stalling after takeoff
39:21and spinning to their deaths.
39:25But in the right hands,
39:27it was the most formidable of fighters.
39:31It destroyed almost 1,300 enemy aircraft,
39:35more kills than any other type in the war.
39:48Initially, supplies of camels to the front were slow.
39:51But by the armistice,
39:53more than 4,000 had seen service.
40:04They used several varieties of rotary engine.
40:07Horsepower could vary from 100 to 150.
40:16Pilots either loved or hated the Camel.
40:19No one who flew it could afford to take it lightly.
40:24The fuselage was a wooden box girder,
40:27braced with wires and covered with fabric.
40:30There were plywood panels below the cockpit
40:32and aluminium panels behind the engine cowling.
40:43The name Camel came from the hump
40:46in front of the pilot,
40:47housing two Vickers machine guns.
40:57A pilot who knew the Camel's ways
40:59could outmaneuver any other fighter of the time.
41:02Because of the effect of its rotary engine,
41:05the nose would drop in a right turn
41:06and do the opposite, going left.
41:10An uncoordinated tight turn
41:12was likely to lead to a fatal spin.
41:14But these eccentricities could be harnessed
41:17to perform sudden and rapid movements
41:19that could win a dogfight.
41:22By early 1918, the Sopwith Camel
41:24was the most feared
41:25of all the Allied single-seat fighters.
41:34On the morning of April the 21st, 1918,
41:38Captain Roy Brown, a Canadian
41:40serving with Royal Flying Corps No. 209 Squadron,
41:43waited for the mist to clear.
41:46He was to lead a formation of Sopwith Camels
41:49in the Somme area, east of Amiens.
41:52It was due to leave at 8.15 a.m.,
41:54but was delayed for more than an hour.
41:58A new pilot had joined Brown's unit,
42:00an old-school friend,
42:02Wilfrid May,
42:03known as WAP.
42:08At 9.35 a.m.,
42:10Brown's squadron took off
42:12to patrol at 12,000 feet
42:14along the Somme Valley.
42:20A few miles across the front,
42:23Manfred von Richthofen,
42:24with a select group of his JASTA-11 pilots,
42:27took off for the same area.
42:33Von Richthofen,
42:35whose score was now 80 victories,
42:37was due to go on leave
42:38in two days' time.
42:42The two units met.
42:45Von Richthofen targeted Brown's friend,
42:47WAP May.
42:55Brown dived to help,
42:57and took a position behind von Richthofen.
43:00According to Brown,
43:02von Richthofen apparently didn't see him.
43:06One of the cardinal rules
43:08of the fighter pilot
43:09was to check six.
43:11Six is six o'clock,
43:13the point on an imaginary clock face
43:15directly behind the tail.
43:20Von Richthofen had still not recovered
43:22fully from his head wound.
43:23I am in wretched spirits
43:25after every aerial battle.
43:28The war is very serious,
43:30very grim.
43:32Brown fired.
43:33A full burst ripped
43:35to the side of the Fokker.
43:36According to Brown,
43:38the pilot looked back.
43:39Then, he collapsed in his seat.
43:42But at the same time,
43:43Australian troops on the ground
43:45were firing at the red triplane.
43:52It came in for a rough landing
43:54near a brickworks
43:55on Moulancourt Ridge,
43:57above the Somme Valley.
43:59Damage was slight,
44:01but the pilot was dead.
44:05Nobody's sure
44:06whether brown
44:06or Australian ground fire
44:08killed von Richthofen.
44:14As soon as the body
44:16was identified,
44:17a rush for souvenirs began.
44:19The red triplane
44:19was literally ripped to pieces.
44:30The fabric was torn off
44:32and bullet hole evidence destroyed.
44:40Von Richthofen's funeral
44:41took place near the village
44:42of Bertandre,
44:44north of Amiens.
44:48The Allies buried him
44:49with full honours.
44:51After the bitterness of the war,
44:54it was an extraordinary
44:55mark of respect.
45:07The honour guard
45:08was a group of 13 Australian soldiers
45:10with their rifles reversed.
45:24It was 11 days
45:26before von Richthofen's
45:2826th birthday.
45:30When the war ended,
45:31his record of 80 victories
45:33had not been equaled.
45:40On the left is Hermann Göring.
45:42On the right is Bruno Lerdzer.
45:44They were both successful pilots
45:46and had been friends
45:48for some time
45:48when von Richthofen was killed.
45:51In July,
45:53Göring, pompous and selfish,
45:55was given command
45:56of von Richthofen's fighter group.
45:58The flying circus
46:00would never be the same.
46:05A young aviator
46:08lay dying
46:09At the start
46:11of a bright summer's day
46:13To the mechanics
46:15assembled around him
46:18These few parting words
46:20he did say
46:21Take the cylinder
46:24out of my kidneys
46:26The connecting rod
46:28out of my brain
46:30From the small
46:32of my back
46:33Take the crankshaft
46:35And assemble
46:36the engine again
46:38As a king
46:39as the middle
46:40As a king
46:41As a king
46:42As a king
46:42As a king