Capt. Brown saw the Fokker DR1 Triplane It
was at very low level and in close pursuit of the Canadian,
Lt. Wilford May’s plane. Brown dove in to intercept,
firing his Lewis gun. The Fokker DR1 Triplane suddenly pitch to the
earth, landing flat with little damage. It was the aircraft
of the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, on the ground
near Sailly-le-Sac, France, an area of the Western Front
occupied by Australian infantry.
 Captain Brown never claimed the kill but some Australian
gunners did, and their claim now seems borne up by later
investigations.
The British Flying Core held a funeral for their late
enemy. The casket bedecked in flowers, his body lay in
state all day. Hundreds of British soldiers view the Red
Baron. On the following day six RAF officers acted as pallbearers;
there was a fourteen gun salute and thee services were
conducted by the chaplain in full religious robes. The bugler
played "The Last Post."
 Photographs were taken of the funeral and British planes
dropped them over Richthofen’s squadron at Cappy
accompanied by the message:
“TO THE GERMAN FLYING CORPS:
Rittmeister Baron Manfred von Richthofen was killed in
aerial combat on April 21st, 1918. He was buried with full
military honours.”
Richthofen's was put to his rest in a village churchyard
at Bertangles, France.
But “Rest In Peace” would
not come for many decades.
As with many wars, following
the cessation of hostilities, War Graves Commissions are
established, transferring many casualties to nation specific
military cemeteries. So it was that the remains of Baron
v. Richthofen were transferred to a German War Graves cemetery.
Then, On Nov 20, 1925, during the Weimar Republic, at the
wish of the German government as well as a number of veterans'
organizations, the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin, the Prussian
equivalent of the US Arlington National Cemetery, was to
become the Barons new resting place.
 The
German Chancellor and the whole German cabinet were among
the dignitaries attending Von Richthofen's reburial. The
ceremony was to be seen as a symbol of homecoming to Germans
everywhere buried in foreign soil and missing in action.
It would seem that interned so prestigiously, the Baron
would finally be at peace.
It wasn’t to be.
The Berlin wall went up in 1961 putting the famed Invalidenfriedhof
within the demarcation zone in the Russian sector. It could
now only be visited by special permission of the East Germans.
von Richthofen's brother, Bolko sought to move his brothers
remains yet again. Perhaps in consideration of Baron v.Richthofen’s
great fame among Germans, the East German government responded
to his request to rebury the remains in the family burial
plot in Wiesbaden. A reburial occurred four years later
in 1975.
Perhaps the Red Knight of Germany has indeed found
his final rest.
But his fame certainly has not. Dozens
of books have been written and continue to be published
chronicling his exploits, written by none fewer than the
Baron himself as well as his own mother.
The Barons autobiography
was written in 1917.
"Der Rote Kampfflieger" The
German title Der Rote Kampfflieger has also been
variously translated as "Red Fighter Pilot" and "Red
Battle Pilot." Where in Von Richthofen speaks from
his own perspective of the fame and death that pervaded
the lives of the “Knights of the Air.”
Baroness
v.Richthofen’s tome did not appear until 1937.
Mein
Kriegstagebuch - die Erinnerungen der Mutter des roten
Kampffliegers (My War Diary - Memories of the Mother of
the Red Fighter Pilot), by Kunigunde Freifrau von Richthofen,
the Red Baron’s mother.
The narrative has been written
by his mother who must have known the Baron better than
anyone The photographic content of this book is spectacular
in that it contains more than 40 pictures of the von Richthofen
family…. Speaking of the family, few knew that the
Barons uncle and godfather had lived many years in the
United States. Baron Walter von Richthofen built the Richthofen
Castle outside Denver Colorado in Montclair." Begun
in 1883, it was not finished until 1887 and was modeled
after the original Richthofen Castle in Germany.
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