April 21st marks 105 years since the death of the First World War German ace, Baron Manfred von Richthofen. The matter of who shot the Red Barron is a controversy that remains unresolved to this day. Research suggests Australian anti-aircraft gunners were responsible but perhaps everyone who fired a shot at the distinctive red Fokker Dr1 triplane during the aerial dogfight over Allied lines has a claim the kill.
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First published in The Age, September 20, 1969.
Who killed the Red Baron? Maybe he did — with a .303
Baron Manfred von Richthofen (centre), the Commander of Jasta 11, surrounded by his fellow pilots.Credit: Imperial War Museum, Q42284
It wasn’t really a lovely war for trooper William S. Howell, 2521 Corps Troops, C Squad, 13th Light Horse. The possibility that he destroyed the Red Baron doesn’t make him feel any better.
Mr. Howell, 71, and very retired in Melbourne, doesn’t understand what all the fuss over Baron von Richthofen is about.
It has been resurrected — again — by a new book from America called strangely enough, Who Killed The Red Baron?
World War I veteran William S. Howell was one of the Australians who fired on Baron von Richthofen when he flew over Allied lines on April 21, 1918.Credit: The Age Archives
What’s more, Mr. Howell doesn’t care. He wants to leave the whole World War I mess buried under the stinking mud and slaughter which was his memory of France in 1918.
Like so many 19-year-old boys at the time the war blew his mind.
“All that terrible killing. It was so senseless. We just shot at each other and killed and obeyed orders and didn’t really know what was happening.
“It was slaughter and it was all the same.”
A possible “credit” to Mr. Howell for the Red Baron arose during research for the book by Mr. Eric Harding, of Brighton. Mr. Harding received many letters from readers of “The Age.”
Subsequently, Mr. Harding interviewed the reticent Mr. Howell.
Mr. Howell’s story has stayed pretty much the same. It must be remembered it happened 51 years ago and in hell.
He said yesterday: “We mounted men were on loan from our regiment in Egypt. We were detailed to carry despatches in France, we were attached to the 10th Brigade and were also doing reconnaissance for them.
German air ace, Baron Manfred von Richthofen.Credit: Australian War Memorial, A04803
“We were in the Somme sector near the Belgian border.
“Anyway I was carrying a despatch when my horse picked up a piece of barbed wire in its hoof.
“As I was taking it out one of our planes came over our lines with a German plane chasing him.
“I let fire with my .303. I suppose the German was up about three good gum trees high.
“I’m not a skite. I don’t say I’m a good shot but I just don’t miss anything. I used to shoot crows from the shoulder with a rifle in the Strathbogie Ranges where I grew up.
“Anyway the German plane crashed. We had no idea at the time who the dead pilot was. But much later some Australians worked out that it was the Baron.
“As for me I don’t know.”
Who does?
After talking with Mr. Howell Mr. Harding had commented:
Members of the Australian Flying Corps form a guard of honour at the funeral of von Richthofen at Bertangles Cemetery, France.Credit: Australian War Memorial, K00041
“According to official history, the low-flying red plane of Richthofen was machine-gunned from planes in the air and from Lewis guns alongside the artillery guns.
“But only one bullet found its mark and this entered at Richthofen’s arm-pit passed through his chest and out the opposite side killing him instantly.
“This seems to support a conclusion that the fatal shot came from a .303 rifle, and not from a machine gun neither from the air nor from the ground.”
Who Killed the Red Baron ? proclaims in favor of two Australian machine gunners.
But Mr. Howell doesn’t give a damn — about any of it.
“The man was dead before the plane crashed. I realised I had killed him and I felt awful. I felt sick.
“Anyway, the Red Baron was no hero. He wasn’t brave. If there was a dying duck he sat up high and then flew down and wiped it out. That’s how he got all his kills.
“It was all so much bloodiness. For all of us.”
Mr. Howell had never heard of Peanuts, or Snoopy.
When the comic strip was explained to him yesterday he looked sad and said it was terrible war was being made light stuff for children.
“They are all mixed up in war. No one wants peace.”
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