• an old airplane with a quote on it
    picture source: Inside the victories of Manfred von richthofen - Volume 1, James F. Miller, Aeronaut Books, 2016
  • 17GW430 Manfred von Richthofen had his Albatros D.III painted red - hence the name the Red Baron. This aircraft is D789/17.
  • an old airplane is sitting on the ground
    picture source: The Illustrated Red Baron - The life and times of Manfred von Richthofen - Peter Kilduff -Cassel & Co - 2000
  • a group of men standing next to an airplane
    Richthofen's Albatros D.III Le Petit Rouge after an apparent off-field forced landing. The horizontal stabilizers and elevator have been removed and both ailerons have been disconnected, perhaps in preparation for wing removal and eventual airplane towing. Any battle damage cannot be discerned in this view but it is a speculative possibility this photograph shows Le Petit Rouge on 6 March, after having been attacked bu No.40 Squadron FE.8s that morning (Lance Bronnenkant) (picture source: Inside the victories of Manfred von richthofen - Volume 1, James F. Miller, Aeronaut Books, 2016)

»Le petit rouge«

Event ID: 158

Categories: 

Air Combat
Deutsch
Der rote Kampfflieger von Rittmeister Manfred Freiherrn von Richthofen, 1917, 351.000 - 400.000, Verlag Ullstein & Co, Berlin-Wien

16 January 1917

50.37622781830363, 2.8098147229337216
West of Vimy
Vimy

Source ID: 4

Der rote Kampfflieger von Rittmeister Manfred Freiherrn von Richthofen, 1917, 351.000 - 400.000, Verlag Ullstein & Co, Berlin-Wien p.  108 

Opponent was  Oscar Greig

flying the F.E.2b 6997   

VS

MvR was flying the Albatros D.III 789/17 

“For some reason, one fine day I had the idea of painting my bird bright red. The result was that my red bird was an absolute eye-catcher. Even my opponents seemed to be aware of this. During one battle, which took place on a different front from the others, I managed to shoot a two-seater Vickers that was peacefully photographing our artillery position. The enemy didn’t get a chance to defend himself and had to hurry to get to the ground, because he was already beginning to make suspicious signs of burning. We call that ‘he stinks.’ As it turned out, it was indeed time, because the device began to burn in bright flames just above the ground. I felt a human sympathy for my opponent and decided not to bring him down, but only to force him to land, especially as I had the feeling that the enemy was already wounded, because he couldn’t get a shot off. At an altitude of about five hundred metres, a defect in my machine forced me to land in normal gliding flight without being able to make a turn. Now something very strange happened. My enemy landed smoothly with his burning aircraft, while I, as the winner, rolled over in the wire obstacles of the trenches of one of our reserve positions right next to it. This was followed by a sporting greeting from the two Englishmen with me, who were not a little surprised at my break, since, as already mentioned, they had not fired a shot at me and could not even imagine the reason for my emergency landing. These were the first Englishmen I had brought down alive. That’s why I particularly enjoyed chatting to them. Among other things, I asked them if they had ever seen my aircraft in the air. ‘Oh yes,’ said one of them, “I know it very well. We call it “le petit rouge”.” Now comes a real English – in my eyes – vulgarity. He asked me why I had behaved so carelessly before landing. The reason was that I couldn’t help it. Then the rogue said he had tried to shoot at me in the last three hundred metres, but had jammed. I gave him the benefit of the doubt – he accepted it and then repaid me with a sneaky ambush. Since then, I haven’t been able to speak to any of my opponents again, for one obvious reason.”

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