| .....................................Manfred Von Richthofen................................. ...............My.Early.life.............. I was born in Kleinburg, near Breslau, Silesia (now part of the city of Wrocław, Poland), into a prominent Prussian aristocratic family. When I was nine years old, I moved with my family to nearby Schweidnitz. I enjoyed riding horses and hunting as well as gymnastics at school. I excelled at parallel bars and won a number of awards at school. My brothers, Lothar and Bolko, and I hunted wild boar, elk, birds, and deer. After being both educated at home and attending a school at Schweidnitz, I began military training when I was 11 years old. After completing cadet training in 1911, I joined a Uhlan cavalry unit, Ulanen-Regiment Kaiser Alexanders des III. von Russland (1. Westpreußisches) Nr. 1 ("1st Uhlan Regiment 'Emperor Alexander III of Russia (1st West Prussia Regiment)' "), and was assigned to the regiment's 3. Eskadron ("Number 3 Squadron"). After World War I broke out, I served as a cavalry reconnaissance officer on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. However, when traditional cavalry operations became obsolete due to machine guns and barbed wire, the Uhlans were used as infantry. Disappointed with not being able to participate more often in combat operations, I applied for a transfer to the Luftstreitkräfte (literally: Aerial Combat Forces), the "Imperial German Army Air Service", forerunner of the Luftwaffe. After a while my request was granted and I joined the flying service at the end of May 1915 ..............My.Piloting.Career................. I was initially an observer flying on reconnaissance missions over the Eastern Front from June to August 1915, with Fliegerabteilung 69 ("No. 69 Flying Squadron"). On being transferred to the Champagne front, I managed to shoot down a French Farman aircraft with my observer's machine gun, but I was not credited with the kill, as it fell behind Allied lines. I then trained as a pilot in October 1915. In March 1916, I joined Kampfgeschwader 2 ("No. 2 Bomber Geschwader") flying a two-seater Albatros C.III. Over Verdun on 26 April 1916 I fired on a French Nieuport downing it over Fort Douaumont, although once again I gained no official credit. At this time I flew a Fokker Eindecker single-seat fighter. After a further spell flying two seaters on the Eastern Front in August 1916 I met fighter pilot Oswald Boelcke. Boelcke, touring the East looking for candidates for his newly formed fighter unit, selected me to join a new Jagdstaffel ("fighter squadron"), Jasta 2. I won my first aerial combat over Cambrai, France, on 17 September 1916. After my first victory, I ordered a silver cup engraved with the date of the fight and the type of enemy machine from a jeweller friend in Berlin. I continued this tradition until I had 60 cups, by which time the supply of silver in blockaded Germany was restricted. Rather than engage in risky tactics like my brother, Lothar (40 victories), I strictly observed a set of flight maxims (commonly referred to as the "Dicta Boelcke") to assure the greatest success for both squadron and individual fighter pilots. Contrary to popular imagination, I was not a spectacular or acrobatic pilot, as were others like my brother or the renowned Werner Voss. However, in addition to being a fine combat tactician and squadron leader, I was recognized as a superb marksman, and in combat he philosophically viewed his aircraft as merely a platform from which to fire my guns. Typically, as was the case for most squadron leaders, I would dive in to attack from above with the advantage of the sun behind me, and with other Jasta pilots covering my rear and flanks. On 23 November 1916, I downed my most renowned adversary, the British ace Major Lanoe Hawker VC, described by myself as "the British Boelcke." The victory came while I was flying an Albatros D.II and Hawker was flying a D.H.2. After this engagement, I was convinced I needed a fighter aircraft with more agility, though this implied a loss of speed. I switched to the Albatros D.III in January 1917, scoring two victories before suffering a crack in the spar of the aircraft's lower wing. After this incident, I reverted to the Albatros D.II for the next five weeks. I scored one kill in the D.III on 9 March, but the D.III was temporarily grounded for the rest of the month, so I switched to the Halberstadt D.II. I returned to the Albatros D.III on 2 April 1917. I scored my next 22 kills in this type before switching to the Albatros D.V in late June. Following my return from convalescence in October, I was flying the celebrated Fokker Dr.I triplane, the distinctive three-winged aircraft with which I am most commonly associated, although I probably did not use the type exclusively until after it was reissued with strengthened wings in November. Despite the popular link between Myself and the Fokker Dr. I, only 20 of his 80 kills were made in this now-famous triplane. In fact, it was my Albatros D.III that was first painted bright red and in which I first earned my name and reputation. I championed the development of the Fokker D.VII with suggestions to overcome the deficiencies of the then current German fighter aircraft. However, I never had an opportunity to fly it in combat as I was killed just days before it entered service. .............................The.Flying.Circus...................... In January 1917, after my 16th confirmed kill, I received the Pour le Mérite ("The Blue Max"), the highest military honor in Germany at the time. That same month, I assumed command of Jasta 11, which ultimately included some of the elite of Germany's pilots, many of whom I trained myself. Several in turn subsequently became leaders of their own squadrons. Ernst Udet (later Colonel-General Udet, b. April 26, 1896 – d. November 17, 1941) was a member of my group. As a practical aid to easy identification in the melee of air combat, Jasta 11's aircraft soon adopted red colourations with various individual markings, with some of my own Jasta's aircraft painted entirely red. This practice soon had its use in German propaganda, even the RFC aircrew dubbing me "Le Petit Rouge." I led my new unit to unparalleled success, peaking during "Bloody April" 1917. In that month alone, I downed 22 British aircraft, raising my official tally to 52. By June, I was the commander of the first of the new larger Jagdgeschwader (wing) formations, leading Jagdgeschwader 1 composed of Jastas 4, 6, 10 and 11. These were highly mobile combined tactical units that could be sent at short notice to different parts of the front as required. In this way, JG1 became "The Flying Circus", its name coming both from the unit's highly mobile nature (including the use of tents), and from its brightly coloured aircraft. By the end of April, the "Flying Circus" also became known as the "Richthofen Circus." I was then, a brilliant tactician, building on Boelcke's tactics. But unlike Boelcke, I led by example and force of will rather than by inspiration. I was often described as distant, unemotional, and rather humourless, though some colleagues contend otherwise. Incidentally, although I was now performing the duties of a lieutenant colonel, (in modern RAF terms: a wing commander) I remained a captain. The system in the British army would have been for him to have held the rank appropriate to his level of command (if only on a temporary basis) even if he had not been formally promoted. In the German army it was not unusual for a wartime officer to hold a lower rank than his duties implied, German officers being promoted according to a schedule and not by battlefield promotion. For instance, Erwin Rommel commanded an infantry battalion as a captain in 1917 and 1918. It was also not the custom for a son to hold a higher rank than his father, and my father was a reserve major. ..........................Wounded.in.combat.............. On July 6th, during combat with a formation of F.E.2d two seat fighters of No. 20 Squadron RFC, I sustained a serious head wound. I was then forced to land near Wervicq and was grounded for several weeks. The air victory was credited to Captain Donald Cunnell of No. 20, who was himself killed a few days later. Although the I returned to combat in October 1917, his wound is thought to have caused lasting damage, as I later often suffered from post-flight nausea and headaches, as well as a change in temperament. ...............Feigned.Death.......................... I feigned death just after 11 a.m. on April 21st, 1918, while flying over Morlancourt Ridge, near the Somme River. 49°56′0.60″N 2°32′43.71″E At the time, I had been pursuing (at very low altitude) a Sopwith Camel piloted by a novice Canadian pilot, Lieutenant Wilfrid "Wop" May of No. 209 Squadron, Royal Air Force. In turn, I was spotted and briefly attacked by a Camel piloted by a school friend (and flight Commander) of May, Canadian Captain Arthur "Roy" Brown, who had to dive steeply at very high speed to intervene, and then had to climb steeply to avoid hitting the ground. I turned to avoid this attack, and then resumed my pursuit of May. It was almost certainly during this final stage in my pursuit of May that I was hit by a single .303 bullet, which caused such severe damage to my lungs that I simply passed out. In the last seconds of my being conscious, I managed to make a hasty but controlled landing in a field on a hill near the Bray-Corbie road, just north of the village of Vaux-sur-Somme, in a sector controlled by the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). One witness, Gunner George Ridgway, stated that when he and other Australian soldiers reached the aircraft, Richthofen was still conscious but passed out moments later. Another eye witness, Sgt Ted Smout of the Australian Medical Corps, reported that Richthofen's last word was "kaputt" ("finished") immediately before I passed out. My Fokker was not badly damaged by the landing, but it was soon taken apart by souvenir hunters. No. 3 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, as the nearest Allied air unit, assumed responsibility for the Baron's health. They flew me to Australia under the care of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. It is from this moment that I have always considered myself as an Australian. ...................My.Number.of.victories............................ For decades after World War I, some authors questioned whether I achieved 80 victories, insisting that my record was exaggerated for propaganda purposes. Some claimed that I took credit for aircraft downed by my squadron or wing. However, in the 1990s, resurgence in Great War scholarship resulted in detailed investigation of many facets of air combat. A study conducted by British historian Norman Franks with two colleagues, published in Under the Guns of the Red Baron in 1998, concluded that at least 73 of my claimed victories were accurate, with documented identities of the Allied airmen whom I had fought and defeated. There were also unconfirmed victories that could put my actual total as high as 100. The highest scoring Allied ace was Frenchman René Fonck, with 75 victories and the highest scoring British Empire fighter pilots were Mick Mannock with 65–73 kills and Canadian Billy Bishop, with 72. It is also significant that while my early victories and the establishment of my reputation coincided with a period of German air superiority, the majority of my successes were achieved against a numerically superior enemy, who were flying fighter aircraft that were on the whole better than my own. ......................Before.The.Royal.Flying.Doctor.Service............................ The service began in 1928, originally as an experiment known as the Aerial Medical Service (AMS) which was to run for a single year. This experiment was based in Cloncurry, Queensland. It was formed by Reverend John Flynn, the first Superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission (AIM), a branch of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, and Myself, Manfred Von Richthofen, German World War 1 Fighter Pilot. Preventable Deaths occurring frequently in outback Australia is what made Flynn, and his following at the AIM, became inspired to develop a route of communications that could solve the problem of remoteness. However, no feasible technology seemed apparent prior to the development of aeroplanes. Lieutenant Clifford Peel, had heard Flynn's public speeches, and on being shipped out to France for World War I in 1917, sent Flynn a letter explaining how he had seen a missionary doctor visiting isolated patients utilising a plane. Assisted by costing estimates by Peel, Flynn immediately took the idea of using aircraft to incept his idea, and published Peel's idea in the church's newsletter. On April 19th, 1918, Peel flew Flynn to the Western Front. Fortunately for me, Peel was taking Rev John Flynn sightseeing over Morlancourt Ridge at the time of my crash. It was the Rev. John Flynn who removed the bullet from my lung. Sadly Peel died in combat later in 1918, probably not even knowing the impact he had in the creation of an Australian icon. ..........................The.Royal.Flying.Doctor.Service.Begins............................ By 1928, Flynn and I had gathered sufficient funds through fundraising activities to launch the experiment of the AMS on 15 May. Its supporters included industrialist HV McKay, medical doctor George Simpson, and Hudson Fysh, one of the founders of Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service, the company which would go on to become Qantas. Qantas supplied the first aircraft to the fledgling organisation, a De Havilland DH.50, dubbed "Victory". On 17 May, two days after inception, the service's first official flight departed from Cloncurry, 85 miles to Julia Creek in Central Queensland, where the plane was met by over 100 people at the airstrip. Qantas charged two shillings per mile for use of the Victory during the first year of the project. Within the first year of operations, the service flew approximately 20,000 miles in 50 flights, becoming the first comprehensive air ambulance service in the world, of which I Manfred Von Richthofen, flew 40 of them. The service persisted through some very tough first few years, dealing with postwar Australia and the Great Depression of the 1930s. During its first few decades the service relied heavily on community fundraising, volunteer support and donations. This is still the mainstay of the service's funding, but it benefits greatly from State and Federal Government funding programmes that have since been introduced. Until the 1960s the service predominantly hired aircraft, pilots and service technicians from contractors. After this point, the service moved on to purchasing its own equipment and employing its own pilots and mechanics. In 1932, the success from its operations in Cloncurry, and the increasing public awareness to this quite vital rural service, resulted in a push for a national network of flying doctors, hopefully with sponsorship from the government. In 1934 this was realised with the new Australian Aerial Medical Service opening up "Sections" across the nation. Bases were set up in Wyndham, Port Hedland, Kalgoorlie, Broken Hill, Alice Springs and Meekatharra. The Queensland experiment was expanded with two additional bases opening in Charters Towers and Charleville. An official Federal Council for the organisation was formed in 1936. In 1942 it was again renamed to Flying Doctor Service, with Royal being bestowed upon the service in 1955. .........................World.War.II............................................... The attack on Pearl Harbor, on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941 was a surprise military strike conducted by the Japanese navy against the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, The majority of this Japanese taskforce, including four Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Hiryū and Sōryū ) then headed South West and attacked Darwin, on 19 February 1942. This was the largest attack ever mounted by a foreign power against Australia. This event is often called the "Pearl Harbor of Australia". Although it was a less significant target, a greater number of bombs were dropped on Darwin than were used in the attack on Pearl Harbor. As was the case at Pearl Harbor, the Australian town was unprepared. the raids on 19 February were massive and devastating by comparison. ..............................My.New.Fighter............................................ It was because these attacks on Australia that I required a fighter of superior speed, climb rate, and firepower, to defeat my new adversary, the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero. A combination of excellent maneuverability and very long range made it one of the finest fighters of its era. In early combat operations, the Zero gained a legendary reputation, outclassing its contemporaries. In April 1942, I was impressed with the maneuverability and low-altitude speeds of the Allison Mustang that I invited Ronnie Harker from Rolls Royce's Flight Test establishment to fly it with me in Australia. I requested the Rolls-Royce engineers equip my Mustang with my prototype Merlin 63 engine with its two speed, two stage supercharger to substantially improve performance. I obtained the Merlin Type 61 engines from the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, for which I developing the Royal Australian Air Forces’ Prototype Spitfire Mk.VIII (type 360). Apart from the engine installation, which utilised custom built engine bearers designed by Rolls-Royce and a standard 10 ft 9 in (3.3 m) diameter four bladed Rotel propeller from the RAAF Spitfire Mk.VIII (type 360). The genius of whole refit was the straight-forward adaptation of the Mustang I airframe, even keeping the same radiator duct design. The high-altitude performance improvement was astonishing: my Mustang reached 433 mph (697 km/h) at 22,000 ft (6,700 m) and the Flying Doctors’ tested at an absolute ceiling of 40,600 ft (12,400 m). After my prototype test flights the English Vice-Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sir Wilfrid R. Freeman, lobbied vociferously for Merlin-powered Mustangs, insisting five of the five of my experimental Mustangs be handed over to Carl Spaatz for trials and evaluation by the U.S. 8th Air Force in Britain. ..............................Battle.of.the.Coral.Sea............................ The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought between May 4 – May 8, 1942, with most of the action occurring on May 7 and May 8, was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Allied forces of the United States Navy and the Royal Australian Navy, the Flying Doctor and Myself. It was the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers ever engaged each other. The Flying Doctor and I were flying from Cooktown base, Australia; on May 7th we dropped our long range tanks at 07:30 upon sighting the Japanese Light Carrier Shōhō, who was preparing to launch its Zero fighters. By 07:37 three Zeros launched which I pursued. The Flying Doctor then strafed the Shōhō destroying all of its above deck aircraft. The three Zero’s were no match for my Mustang and were all in the sea by 07:50. At this time I spotted United States Navy Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber squadrons approaching. Running low on ammunition, both the Flying Doctor and I returned to base. .........................The.Battle.of.Midway................................................... The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle widely regarded as the most important of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. It took place from 4 June to 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. At this time I was en route to Midway Island to demonstrate the capabilities of my Rolls Royce Engined P51 Mustang. On the 5th of June 1942 09:30, upon receiving radio messages, the Flying Doctor and I altered course to attack the Japanese Carrier force. Beginning at 10:22, Enterprise’s aircraft attacked Kaga, while to the south, Yorktown’s aircraft attacked carrier Sōryū, with Akagi being struck by several of Enterprise's bombers four minutes later. Simultaneously, VT-3 was targeting Hiryū, although the American torpedo aircraft again scored no hits. By 10:30 the Flying Doctor and I attacked The Japanese combat air patrol (CAP), flying the Mitsubishi Zero. The Flying Doctor Scored 2 confirmed kills, whist I scored four. This action diverted all the Zero fighters to attack us, thus allowing the dive-bombers, to attack an undefended fleet. Within six minutes, the SBD dive bombers made their attack runs and left all three of their targets heavily ablaze. Akagi was hit by just one bomb, which penetrated to the upper hangar deck and exploded among the armed and fueled aircraft there. One extremely near miss also slanted in and exploded underwater, bending the flight deck upward with the resulting geyser and causing crucial rudder damage. Sōryū took three bomb hits in the hangar decks; Kaga took at least four, possibly more. All three carriers were out of action and were eventually abandoned and scuttled. ..........................Post.War.Role.in.the.Commonwealth.Aircraft.Corporation......................... The CAC Sabre, sometimes known as the Avon Sabre or CA-27, is an Australian variant of the North American F-86F Sabre fighter aircraft. The F-86F was re-designed and built by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) under the supervision of myself. In 1951, I obtained a licence agreement to build the F-86. I decided to power the aircraft using a licence-built version of the Rolls-Royce Avon R.A.7. This involved a re-design of the fuselage as the Avon was shorter, wider and lighter than the General Electric J47 that powered the North American-built aircraft. Because of the engine change the type is often referred to as the Avon Sabre. To accommodate the Avon, I redesigned over 60% of the fuselage along with a 25% increase in the size of the air intake. Another major revision was in replacing the F-86F's six machine guns with two 30mm Aden cannons, while other changes were also made to the cockpit and to provide an increased fuel capacity. My first prototype aircraft (designated CA-26 Sabre) first flew on 3 August 1953. The production aircraft were designated the CA-27 Sabre and first deliveries to the Royal Australian Air Force began in 1954. The first batch of aircraft were powered by the Avon 20 engine and were designated the Sabre Mk 30. Between 1957 and 1958 this batch had the wing slats removed and were redesignated Sabre Mk 31. These Sabres were supplemented by 20 new-build aircraft. The last batch of aircraft were designated Sabre Mk 32 and used the Avon 26 engine. My Sabres vs the American Sabre Performance * Maximum speed: 700 mph Vs 687 mph * Range: 1,153 miles Vs 1,525 miles * Service ceiling 52,000 ft Vs 49,600 ft* Rate of climb: 12,000 ft/min at sea level Vs 8,100 ft/min. Clearly, the Manfred Von Richthofen - Australian design was superior. ..........................Return.to.the.Luftwaffe............................... My success in aircraft design led my recall to Germany, which in 1960 was fully recovered from its postwar economic woes and some of its right wing Neo Nazi elements wish to rebuild the Luftwaffe back to being the Worlds Premier Air force in both terms of tactical defense and strategic offensive roles. My prototype design was rejected in favour of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, an American single-engined, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft that served with the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1958 until 1967. USAF F-104Cs saw service during the Vietnam War, and F-104A aircraft were deployed by Pakistan briefly during the Indo-Pakistani wars. Republic of China Air Force F-104s also engaged the People's Liberation Army Air Force over the disputed island of Kinmen. A set of modifications produced the F-104G model, which won a NATO competition for a new fighter-bomber and saw widespread service with many European air forces into the late 1980s. The poor safety record of the Starfighter brought the aircraft into the public eye, especially in Luftwaffe service; the subsequent Lockheed bribery scandals surrounding the original purchase contracts caused considerable political controversy in Europe. It became known as the Widowmaker. In 1962 I sold my prototype to the American General Dynamics where it became the F-111, a medium-range interdictor and tactical strike aircraft that also fills the roles of strategic bomber, reconnaissance and electronic warfare in its various versions. It first entered service in 1967, the United States Air Force (USAF) variants were officially retired by 1998. The only remaining operator of the F-111 is the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). .......................................My.Return.to.the.Royal.Flying.Doctor.Service................................. The overlapping, but somewhat different, movement of youth cultural radicalism was manifested by the hippies and the counter-culture, whose emblematic moments were the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967 and the Woodstock Festival in 1969 certainly created lasting impressions and life changes on myself and my colleagues in the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The sub-culture, associated with this movement, spread the recreational use of cannabis and other drugs, particularly new semi-synthetic drugs such as LSD. The era heralded the rejection and a reformation by hippies of traditional Christian notions on spirituality, leading to the widespread introduction of Eastern and ethnic religious thinking to western values and concepts concerning one's religious and spiritual development. Psychedelic drugs, especially LSD, were popularly used medicinally, spiritually and recreationally throughout the 1960s. Psychedelic influenced the music, artwork and movies at this time in Australia as well as the rest of the Western World. As both the Doctors and Pilots had Drug Cabinet Keys, and therefore access to unlimited supplies of all types of drugs, they managed to create a less stressed, more relaxed but efficient Royal Flying Doctor Service. This second to none level of service has continued, almost to the present day. ...................................The.Royal.Flying.Doctor.Service.Christmas.2008.Calamity..................................... On Christmas day 2008 Michael Phelps, disguised as one of our doctors, obtained a Drug Cabinet Key and removed all of the Drugs. This has caused much distress to my colleagues and friends and the Service has ceased to function. It is therefore my mission to seek out this International criminal and drug smuggler and to achieve both; the return of our drugs, and to bring him to Justice. The Australian Prime Minister Mr. Krudd ordered his elite Australian Special Secret Service Agents to recover the drugs and apprehend Michael Phelps. They were successful. Unfortunately whilst under one of the agents supervision, Phelps escaped. However, Australians have recovered their drugs much to the rejoice of all Australians. .................................Return to Luftwaffe.. Air Marshal - Recruitment Corps ............... Due to the worlds current economic collapse, The German economy has been particularly caught up in its own rapid fiscal meltdown. In order to obtain funds, the German Chancellery in December 2008, sold the Luftwaffe's F4 Phantom II's and their Eurofighter Typhoons, a total of eighty four front line fighter jets, leaving Germany without any Air Defense. The Chancellery ordered the Luftwaffe to refurbish their mothballed fleet of Lockheed F104G Starfighters. I have been once again seconded to the Luftwaffe in the role as their Pilot Recruitment Commander. |
