Who Killed the Red Baron?

The book gives an excellent background as to who actually shot down Baron Manfred Von Richthofen. It examines all of the possibilities including a description of the autopsy findings which in the end militates strongly against the notion that Captain Roy Brown was the one who shot him down. Ironically, the NOVA forensics program shown a few years ago strongly supports the findings of this book. I read the book in only two sittings as I found it extremely interesting. If you are a Red Baron fan and enthusiast as I am, you must read this book.

P.J. Carisella and James W. Ryan attempt, as the title so hints, to solve one of the most controversial mysteries of World War I. The death of Manfred von Richthofen, the so-called 'Red Baron,' is a tale that still is shrowded in mystery and uncertainty. Carisella and Ryan's efforts (more so the former than the latter) are commendable and certainly laudable for their exhaustive research and correspondence with eyewitnesses to the event (mainly Australian ground gunners), but the arguments to be found within the book's contents are, despite the work surrounding the endeavour, still questionable.The events of the morning of April 21, 1918, are the central theme to the book, although Carisella devotes a lengthy chapter to the life of Richthofen prior to the fateful day in which the flyer (who shot down 80 confirmed victories, thus establishing himself as the leading ace of World War I) met his end. While pursuing a novice flyer in a Sopwith Camel, Richthofen broke his own cardinal rules of flying by pursuing the novice low to the ground and well behind enemy lines. Captain A.R. Brown, a Canadian from Carleton Place, Ontario, managed to get behind Richthofen's distinguishable all-red Fokker Dr.I (triplane) and fire a number of bursts into the plane. Richthofen's closeness to the ground made his crate susceptible to anti-aircraft fire from Australian infantry, of which a substantial number of Aussies managed a few pot-shots at Richthofen. When the Baron finally did crash, having sustained a single bullet that passed through his chest that drowned his lungs from mass internal bleeding, a major controversy erupted over who was to bear the title of victor. The newly-formed R.A.F. pointed the finger towards Captain Brown, while the Australians pointed it towards their own comrades. Carisella recounts the events of that day meticulously and with painstaking detail that merit the meaning of history and research. His conclusion, however, bears question. His final argument, is that the credit to shooting down the Baron is to go to Sgt. C.B. Popkin and Gunner R.F. Weston, two Australian groundsmen. It is here in that the reviewer disagrees. The evidence provided by Carisella must be examined in light of more recent material unearthed by aviation historians and buffs alike (Carisella's book first appeared in 1969). Upon reading the substantial accounts of Australians that witnessed the event, faults begin to creep up. The accounts wildly contradict each other, and a number of "witnesses" even went so far as to claim that there were only two planes involved in the incident, when in fact there were three! Accounts of post-mortem examinations of Richthofen's shattered body also conflict. Some claim that evidence points toward Brown, seeming that the point of entry was almost in line with the point of exit. Others contradict this, claiming that the point of entry was below the exit wound (pointing to the Aussies). It is useless