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Red Baron Centennial ~ Sunday, April 22, 2018
Yesterday was the centennial of the last mission of Freiherr Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. the Red Baron.
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He had a reputation for sportsmanship, supposedly turning down chances to shoot down enemies right off the bat, instead waiting to engage in a fair fight.
Who knows how much of this is true, but in any case when he was shot down over allied lines, the British and French buried him with full military honors out of respect. And for many years, credit for downing his plane was given to a chasing allied airman, instead of ground-based anti-aircraft gunners who the evidence seems to show pretty conclusively deserve it, because this was somehow considered a more honourable end for such an illustrious flyer.