THE DAY THE RED BARON DIED

What World War I aviation buff hasn't asked himself the question: Who really shot down Germany's famed "Red Baron" on April 21, 1918, and how did he do it? But this question has no easy answer. It has persisted ever since that fateful day when Manfred von Richthofen fell from the sky with 80 aerial victories to his credit. Early accounts credited Canadian Captain A. R. "Roy" Brown with the kill, and he was even awarded a bar to his Distinguished Service Cross for that action, but his claim has always been disputed. After all, hundreds of Australian soldiers and machine-gunners on the ground were also shooting at the baron, and any one of them might have brought the baron down. What then really happened? In this book, the author attempts to answer the question once and for all. To do so, he contacted virtually everyone still living who was there on the ground, or in the air, on that April day seeking to learn from them: 1) where they were, 2) what they, themselves, were doing, 3) where others in their organization were located and what they were doing, and finally 4) what part of the action they saw and how they saw it. He also attempted to obtain and review the available documentation on the events leading up to that day, on that day, and on the days following Richthofen's death. With all this information in hand, he then proceeds to recreate the sequence of events by means of which the baron came to his fateful end. So after all these years we finally know that Germany's famed Red Baron was shot down by . . . (But that would be telling) Suffice it to say that this is an extremely well researched book which seems to take into account all the existing information available to the writer. If it doesn't provide the definitive answer to the perplexing question of Richthofen's death, then we must conclude that no answer will ever be forthcoming. For all the participants are now deceased and it is highly unlikely that any additional authoritative documentation will ever be forthcoming.

As carefully as a detective studying a contemporary killing, Mr. Titler pores over first-hand accounts, interviews surviving eyewitnesses, studies archived documents and revisits the scene of the death of Germany's infamous Red Baron. Long before anyone dared suggest such a notion in front of a wide audience, Titler challenged the accepted account that the Baron was downed by Canadian flyer Roy Brown, and proves beyond a reasonable doubt, that a single bullet, a mere "lucky shot" from an Australian ground gunner, fatally injured the Red Baron in April 1918, and brought down his tri-plane. An interesting read for any WWI buff, and an engrossing one for anyone seeking to ferret out truth from fiction in the vastness of historical reporting.