IT was 100 years ago today that the greatest fighter ace of the First World War, the Red Baron of Germany, was shot down and killed in a dogfight over the trenches on the Western Front near the Somme river. A living legend in his native country, and the most feared opponent of the Allies in the air battle, Rittmeister Manfred Albrecht Freiherr (baron) von Richthofen had shot down 80 planes – more than any other pilot in the war – before April 21, 1918, when he took to the air for the last time.

WHAT HAPPENED?
AFTER saying goodbye to his dog Moritz, 25-year-old Rittmeister (Captain) von Richthofen climbed into his bright-red Fokker Dr. 1 triplane and led his eponymous “flying circus” towards the British lines.

Disobeying orders, an eager young Canadian pilot, Lieutenant Wilfrid ‘Wop’ May of 209 Squadron of the Royal Air Force – which had just replaced the Royal Flying Corps – attacked the German fighters and fired on a Fokker that was being flown by Richthofen’s cousin Wolfram von Richthofen.

The Red Baron raced to chase May down to ground level and in doing so made a fatal mistake. He stayed too long on his opponent’s tail and that allowed Captain Arthur ‘Roy’ Brown, also a Canadian, to bring his Sopwith Camel into a steep dive and fire on the red triplane.

WHO SHOT HIM DOWN?
THAT’S the issue that is still being debated 100 years later, as a quick glance at this week’s Canadian and Australian press would tell you.

For although Brown definitely hit the Baron’s plane, the very act of avoiding the Canadian took von Richthofen directly over an Australian machine gun company and they let fly from the ground. A .303 bullet entered the Baron’s left side near his heart, yet he was reportedly still alive when his Fokker crashed near the Australian lines.

The events of the day and the witnesses on both sides were examined in great thoroughness for years afterwards, and the testimony of several Australians was very convincing, as was the fact that had the Baron been shot by Brown, he would not have flown on over the Australians as long as he did.

Brown was officially credited with the “kill” and still is by the RAF. After the dogfight, the Canadian went to a nearby aircraft hangar to see Richthofen’s body.

He wrote: “His face, particularly peaceful, had an expression of gentleness and goodness, of refinement. Suddenly I felt miserable, desperately unhappy, as if I had committed an injustice. With a feeling of shame, a kind of anger against myself ... I could no longer look him in the face. I went away. I did not feel like a victor ... If he had been my dearest friend, I could not have felt greater sorrow.”

WAS HE REALLY THE BEST ‘ACE’?
YES, as his 80 “kills” was the most in the war, beating the Frenchman René Fonck and the Canadian Billy Bishop who had 75 and 72 respectively.

In an era of single combat in the air, von Richthofen was supreme, but he is not the greatest “ace” of all time – that accolade goes to his fellow German Erich Hartmann who shot down 352 Allied aircraft in World War II.

WHAT WAS HE LIKE PERSONALLY?
BORN into a Prussian aristocratic family, he joined a cavalry unit at age 11 and was a reconnaissance officer before joining the German air force in May 1915, becoming a pilot in October that year. He was not a natural flyer, but was a cool, calculating strategist who by January 1917 had won Germany’s highest honour, the Blue Max. In April that year he shot down 22 aircraft, including four in a single day.

His reputation for gallantry came from the fact that he placed a head stone on the grave of the first opponent that he downed. At first he revelled in his fame, but came to regret it.

In July 1917, he suffered a near-fatal head wound in aerial combat with the Royal Flying Corps. He was hospitalised for months and until his death suffered severe headaches and fits of depression.

He was asked to stop flying and become a public relations operative for the German authorities, but he refused, not least because he did not like the adulation he was getting after his memoirs were published.

He wrote in his war diary: “When I read my own book, I see myself grinning back rude and brash. Now I don’t feel brash at all. After each air battle I feel miserable and when I touch the ground, I hide in my own four walls and I don’t want to talk or hear anything.

“The people back home think of the war as being battle cries and hurrahs, but it is not like this at all. Much more grim and serious.”