The Red Baron - Buried Four Times!

[Music] he is the most famous fighter ace in the history of aviation the subject of countless books tv programs and feature films manfred freyja von richthofen the daring world war one flying ace who shot down 80 allied aircraft in combat was known internationally during his own lifetime as the red baron due to his aristocratic title and the garish colour of his several different aircraft most famously the aircraft he died in the waka dr-1 triplane awarded every honor imperial germany could bestow including the highest of them all the poor emerit or blue max the red baron died at the age of only 25 on the 21st of april 1918 during a dogfight over the western front [Music] great debate still surrounds his demise which it is not the intention of this video to address suffice it to say von richthofen was mortally wounded as he pursued a sopwith camel fighter being flown by novice canadian pilot wilfred may richthofen pursued may across the somme river at very low level another canadian the experienced captain roy brown dived to try and rescue may but richtofen avoided the attack and continued after the rookie pilot shortly after the red baron's tri-plane veered away and made a rough landing in a field just north of the french village of those on australian infantry who had been firing machine guns at von richthofen's aircraft as it passed low overhead rushed over to the machine to discover the german pilot dying muttering a few words in german the only word that stood out to the australians who couldn't understand the language was kaput then the red baron died word soon spread that the most famous air ace of the war had crash-landed and within three minutes over 100 australian soldiers swarmed over the red triplane hunting for souvenirs von richthofen was lifted from the plane and taken to a hangar the base of number three squadron australian flying corps whose commanding officer major david blake would take charge of the famous corpse what follows is the macabre story of how the red baron could not find peace in death of how his body became a sort of national trophy resulting in him being buried not once but four times used as a propaganda tool by two german governments very nearly lost in not only world war ii but also during the cold war the red baron's life had been full of adventure and danger in death his mortal remains went on further adventures across europe until finally finding peace in the care of his family on the 21st of april 1918 the red baron's body was stripped and washed before four allied medical officers examined him to establish a cause of death using a piece of fencing wire the doctors traced the path made by a single 303 caliber bullet that had struck von richthofen in the right side passing through the right lung and heart exiting through the left chest an entry hole on the right side of the triplane's cockpit matched the fatal wound and it appeared that the red baron had been killed by machine gun fire from australian troops on the ground living just long enough to land his plane close by the corpse was photographed re-dressed in the uniform when he had died captain the first ulan cavalry regiment meanwhile the souvenir hunters almost completely demolished von richthofen's fokker triplane many parts still exist today the seat that the red baron was sitting on in the aircraft was kept by roy brown and later donated to the royal canadian military institute in toronto in 1920 where it resides today as well as a side panel from the german aircraft signed by brown's fellow pilots the engine and the twin machine guns are on display at the imperial war museum in london in the aircraft's control column at the australian war memorial in canberra preparations were made to bury the red baron the responsibility lay with major blake and number three squadron base aero mechanics made a wooden coffin with a zinc plate nailed to the top with an inscription in english and german that gave details of the occupant on the afternoon of the 22nd of april 1918 the squadron conducted a full military funeral bon richthofen's coffin was covered with flowers and penance in the german national colours and born to the grave by six australian pilots acting as poll bearers [Music] [Music] [Music] at the end of the service australian other ranks fired a rifle salute over the open grave in the village cemetery at burt angle near amion photographs were taken of the funeral and together with the photos taken of a dead von richthofen copies were dropped over the german lines by british aircraft to prove that the red baron was indeed dead and that the allies had behaved properly in affording him an elaborate funeral which also served allied propaganda purpose as well the death of the red baron being filmed and shown in cinemas as a great morale booster for allied populations the first intimation that found richtofen would not be left in peace occurred that very evening when some local french civilians vandalized his grave the flowers were torn apart and a cross made by number three squadron stolen australian general sir john monash complained bitterly to the local mayor about such uncivilized behavior number three squadron personnel made another cross out of an aircraft propeller and restored the grave the red baron only lay in peace for a few years until the early 1920s when the french decided to gather up all the german bodies from local cemeteries and inter them into a huge graveyard at free corps so from remains were dug up and transferred however he was not to remain at freecore for long the richtofen family wanted the red baron to be reburied in germany the family's estate in lower silesia next to his father and his brother lota himself a world war one ace and blue max holder who had been killed in a flying accident in 1922. through connections inside the german government the family managed to obtain permission from the french authorities to disinter the red baron but the german government decided that von richthofen's remains should go instead to berlin reluctantly the richtofen family agreed that the weimar republic could hold a state funeral for the red baron re-bearing his remains in the invaliden friedhoff cemetery created by king frederick the great the invalid friedhoff held the remains of many german military heroes including the tomb of gerhard von scharnhorst a military hero of the napoleonic wars taken by train to berlin a grand state funeral was held and the weimar republic's army the reichs here in the presence of world war one military leader and now president of germany field marshal paul von hindenburg laid the red baron to rest in a large marble top grave as befitting a hero of the nation [Music] [Music] but for some the grave was not grand enough in the mid-1930s the nazi government decided to highlight richtofen once again to the german public not long after the formation of the luftwaffe the new independent german air force a large memorial service was held at richthofen's grave a massive stone marker was set up behind the grave inscribed with one word richt orphan here man guring richthofen's old squadron comrade and now head of the luftwaffe gave his speech and many former world war one flyers gathered at the graveside the red baron was now recast as a german hero for the national socialist state the invalid friedhoff became a burial place for top nazis as world war ii progressed including heinrich himmler's second in command ss obergruppenfuhrer reinhard heidrich following his assassination in prague in 1942 but as world war ii entered its final stages the invalid friedhoff suffered along with the rest of berlin damaged in allied air raids and by the street fighting between german and red army troops in the final days before surrender in the years after the war the cemetery found itself in the soviet occupation zone of berlin seriously neglected many of its grave markers damaged or overgrown the red barons resting place among them but in may 1951 the east berlin authorities closed the cemetery and undertook some repairs to its many monuments but then in 1961 as relations rapidly deteriorated between east and west the berlin wall was built running right past the invaliden friedhoff indeed part of the wall's death zone a special cleared area used by guards to spot and shoot down escapers ran through the cemetery the large third reich era stone marker above the red baron's grave was hit several times by bullets fired by border guards a people fleeing to west berlin by the 1970s it looked as though the east german authorities would remove what remained of the invalid friedhof but what stopped them was scharnhorst's large tomb the old german hero having become adopted as one of the heroes of the new east german army the richthofen family requested that the red baron's remains be moved once again this time to the family grave plot after world war ii the richtofen family had lost their ancestral castle in lower silesia as the region was occupied by the soviets and then given to poland the family had re-established itself in west germany in 1975 the east german government agreed to the request the red baron was dug up and moved for the fourth time since 1918 to the zutfridhof in wiesbaden but the now empty grave remained in berlin today the bullet scarred grave marker remains along with a stone plaque explaining who once lay there so ends the story of the red barons movements after death a macabre story of a young hero who became a political football for different post-world war one german governments who suffered the indignity of being exhumed and re-buried four times in 57 years though now at peace in wiesbaden the red baron's fame remains undiminished 102 years after his death and will long outlive his mortal remains happy halloween [Music] you

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 499,586

Rating: 4.9698563 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, The Red Baron, WW1, Manfred von Richthofen

Id: icnG7ozhTLU

Length: 14min 27sec (867 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 30 2020