[KingOfVagabonds]

aka the Red Baron

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Richthofen followed the enemy plane to the ground, landing close to the German lines, where he discovered that both the pilot and the observer that accompanied him, Lieutenant T. Rees, were mortally wounded. According to Richthofen, "I honored the fallen enemy by placing a stone on his beautiful grave."

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.

[EGPWS]

That must have been when he was still using training wheels and only 2 wings.... ; )

[theDentist]

Spet 17, 1878.... Manfred kills his first fly as it stood upon his boiled cauliflour. “That was too easy” he spoke to his parents.

[oh8eleven]

[Monterrosa-24]

[Conan the Librarian]

Time to break out Avalon Hill’s ‘Richthofen’s War’ and shoot down a few planes.

[Kenny Bunk]

The average life-span of a new British pilot in WWI was measured in minutes.

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.

[Moltke]

The Daily Mail had an article about another WWI flyer last week:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2199749/Gentlemen-skies-The-German-flying-ace-shot-British-World-War-I-pilots--risked-life-deliver-letter-telling-superiors-alright.html

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.