The Red Baron Is Shot Down

On April 21, 1918, Manfred von Richthofen, the German fighter ace universally known as the Red Baron, was shot down and killed near the Somme River in France. With eighty confirmed aerial victories, he was the highest-scoring ace of the First World War on either side, and his death removed the most famous airman of the conflict.

Flying his distinctive crimson Fokker triplane, Richthofen had pursued a Canadian pilot low over Allied lines when he was struck by a single fatal bullet. Long debate has surrounded who fired the shot, with credit variously assigned to Canadian pilot Roy Brown and to Australian machine gunners on the ground; modern analysis favors fire from the ground.

Richthofen was buried with full military honors by Allied forces who respected his skill and chivalry. As leader of the squadron nicknamed the Flying Circus, he became a legend in his own lifetime, and his name endures as the enduring symbol of the romance and danger of aerial combat in the Great War.