Browse the timeline by historical event classification.
March 18, 1916
"Josef Holzapfel in an interview in the 'Kölner Zeitung' of 22 April 1938: 'The officers slept in railroad cars and the rest of us slept in tents near the airplanes. We h...
March 26, 1918
"Baron von Richthofen no longer liked it in Awoingt. ‘Go!’ he said. He is too impatient to wait for the observations of others; he finds it easier to see for himsel...
March 21, 1918
"The German infantry assault is scheduled to begin at 9:45. Three quarters of an hour before that, Richthofen plans to take off with his personal squadron, 11. He has...
December 3, 1917
"The adjutant sets out on short trips to secure provisions and perhaps find something special somewhere. There is hardly anything to be had in the surrounding area, neith...
March 16, 1916
"The month of March brought release. He was appointed to Fighter Squadron No. 2 as a pilot. This was the second squadron of the Carrier Pigeons; its headquarters were at...
August 2, 1903
‘Captain Freiherr von Richthofen has not returned.’ So reports the army bulletin, succinctly and bluntly. So it has happened after all! What no one dared to think about h...
April 29, 1917
"A description by the Berlin correspondent of the Allgemeines Handelsblad The reporter observed the flirtatious manoeuvres of an English pilot who, enveloped by the bu...
April 13, 1917
"Lothar writes: The squadron was divided into two groups, which meant that half the squadron always flew together. My brother flew as squadron leader, sometimes with one...
May 18, 1917
'Lothar writes: When Manfred achieved his fiftieth aerial victory, he was summoned to the Grand Headquarters. He quickly shot down his fifty-first and fifty-second target...
June 16, 1917
"Manfred was also extremely attached to his famous red bird. He shot down nineteen to fifty-two enemies with this machine. One day, Schäfer also wanted to fly the red bir...
April 23, 1917
‘Lothar recounts: “After the tenth kill, we received a picture of my brother with his signature at the squadron. I had earned and received this just three days earlier.”’
April 15, 1917
"Over time, you end up on many fronts. What I am about to tell you took place at Cambrai. In beautiful weather, my brother and I flew alone to the front. Explosions can b...
September 11, 1917
"Another secret he confided to his mother was that he had for a long time corresponded with a girl whom he wished to marry, but 'not as long as I am liable to die any day...
September 1, 1916
""Are you no longer interested, my young friend, in being a fighter pilot?", Bölcke asked the incredulous Baron. "Yes, of course, sir" Manfred blurted out. Quickly recove...
June 14, 1916
"His Staffel leader, Victor Carganico, recalled: "At the time he came to my Staffel as a two-seater pilot, he was already urging that I send him for two or three days to...
April 2, 1918
"While the celebrations of these victories were being held in the Staffel messrooms that night, the ace spent the evening in his own hut reading. Manfred had a nerve cont...
April 2, 1918
"Newton, the observer, was highly praised, not by name, but by reference, on the afternoon of his death, when Richthofen sat over a late lunch at the squadron's advance q...
August 21, 1914
"It was on August 21st, in the little Belgian village of Etalle, twenty miles from the frontier, that Richthofen received orders to make a mounted reconnaissance toward t...
May 2, 1900
"An easily terrified mother is a great obstacle to the physical development of children,' Mrs von Richthofen said. 'When Manfred was a little boy, I believe many of my fr...
March 15, 1918
"One of the many squadrons that were ordered to support the great offensive was Lieutenant Ernst Udet's Jasta 37. On March 15, Udet was told to move his group to Le Catea...
March 20, 1917
"Richthofen rarely saw his victims' bodies. Orderlies were sent to the crash sites to get information necessary for reports and to collect souvenirs. Several days after h...
February 13, 1917
"The army might be on the defensive, and the Air Service, too, but not Richthofen. He spent the first two weeks of February going over tactics with his squadron and meeti...
May 2, 1905
"He didn't underestimate the danger, but it didn't play a role in his life. That was the case from an early age. The girls claimed that the manor house was haunted. A ser...
May 2, 1904
"Manfred was extremely truthful. Even today, my mother cannot praise the extent to which my parents could always rely on him. He gave precise and clear answers to every q...