Posted on 09/17/2012 6:15:19 AM PDT by KingOfVagabonds
On this day in 1916, the German air ace Manfred von Richthofen—known to history as the "Red Baron"—shoots down his first enemy plane over the Western Front during World War I.
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
There has been an attempt in the popular media to romanticize Richthofen but the bottom line is that he got a number of his kills by intentionally trying to shoot the pilots. He was very skilled and war is war -- I am not suggesting that he should not have tried to kill his enemy -- but there was nothing romantic about what he did. He was a very efficient killer.
That must have been when he was still using training wheels and only 2 wings.... ; )
Spet 17, 1878.... Manfred kills his first fly as it stood upon his boiled cauliflour. “That was too easy” he spoke to his parents.
Time to break out Avalon Hill’s ‘Richthofen’s War’ and shoot down a few planes.
The Germans were better trained, often had better planes, and developed more refined tactics. Perhaps more important, they built up much more actual combat experience. They simply flew many more hours. As in WWII, there was none of this XX missions and you're through stuff. You flew until you were dead.
Oh the hundreds upon hundreds of times I’ve played that game. Brings back memories of my childhood. I wish I still had a copy....
Richtofen recorded only 19 of his 80 kills flying the Fokker D.1 triplane. Although it’s the iconic plane, he’d be more accurately pictured flying an Albatross (C.III, D.II or D.III).
Amen - awesome game. Remember the anxiety of rolling the dice after receiving a ‘critical hit,’ hoping your pilot wasn’t killed?
Ooooh, to re-live those years. What fun we had.
Of my Avalon Hill games from childhood, Richtofen’s War is the only one I kept.
He was a rock star in Germany at the time. I believe he was born in Breslau which is now Wroclaw, Poland. Damn Pollock!
When a British plane was shot down in 1916 the German pilot followed the stricken aircraft and landed nearby to check the two-man crew had survived. He then braved French and British fire to cross enemy lines and drop a letter to Allied forces telling them the pair were alive.
I have quite a few AH games still. Problem is finding an opponent. I’ve “played” solitaire a few times but they just aren’t the same.
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