Knights Without Parachutes — red baron

Today is the 100th anniversary of the Red Baron's first victory. In commemoration, here are the highlights from the description in his autobiography The Red Baron: The Story of the Fabled Ace in His Own Words (email subscribers received the entire description today): The Englishman near me was a big, dark-colored barge. I did not ponder long and took aim at him. He shot and I shot, but we both missed. The fight then began. I tried to get behind him because I could only shoot in the direction I was flying. This was not necessary for him, as his observer's rotating machine...

The Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, was an enemy (assuming you're associated with the Allied side if you're reading this in English...) who died in a war that happened a hundred years ago, a war which many people automatically refer to as "meaningless". So why is the Red Baron almost the universal symbol for World War 1? What fascinates us about him? Why do we remember him? A friend recently wrote me that WWI was his favorite war "if one is allowed to have such a thing." (Sure you are. All wars aren't equally awful.) What he liked was that "WWI has a sort of steampunk aesthetic....

1. Manfred von Richthofen was really a baron, from the von Richthofen Prussian baronial family. 2. An uncle of his was an early developer in Denver and built Richthofen Castle there. 3. Richthofen’s squadron, known as the Flying Circus, was painted mostly red, to symbolize blood and death to the enemy, but only Richthofen’s aircraft was completely red, acknowledging his leadership. 4. He was a cavalryman on the Russian front first, and was afraid there might not be any fighting. 5. He scored 80 confirmed air victories, but probably would have had many more if he had counted by the standards...