July 6, 1917

Excerpt of Prof. Busch's Notations

Testimonial English

Event Narrative

"...There had been a hot time in Ghent. According to his comrades, Richthofen had been in higher spirits than ever before. Everybody, the Richthofen Staffel and the neighbouring Staffeln, took off at 11:00 a.m. (a magnificent sight at an airfield where everyone roars off in short intervals). I can still see Richthofen (barely recognizable in his flight suit) climbing in and quickly roaring off in his still (despite the ban) predominantly red-painted aircraft. We had arranged to get together in the afternoon, but once again that did not happen. While I was starting to draw Lt. Krefft in his room, the telephone rang. I only heard the words 'Richthofen', 'emergency landing', 'wounded', but saw the unsettled look on Lt. Krefft's face and knew what was going on. Our session was abruptly terminated. Krefft immediately drove to Wervik where the emergency landing had taken place. In the meantime, the others returned and stood at the airfield. They had all seen Richthofen make an emergency landing but did not know how he was doing. Lt. Wolff had shot an observer to death. The apparatus 'stunk'. Everyone went (somewhat subdued) to lunch, each one silently hoping that there would be good news about Richthofen. That news was already on its way. A telephone call from the hospital reported that it was only a minor shot to the head. Meanwhile, Lt. Krefft also returned and had seen the apparatus at the landing site that Richthofen had set down safely except for its undercarriage, and had switched off before exiting it and then fainting. Krefft went after Richthofen, who had been transported away in a hospital van, met him en route and was able to confirm that it was only a minor head wound. Shortly afterwards, the Oberarzt and the aviation Leutnant who had accompanied Richthofen to the hospital joined us for coffee and gave us more details. The shot had pierced the fuselage from below and ricocheted to the left rear side of the head and torn away a 5-square-cm piece of skin without seriously injuring the bone. Richthofen landed while cursing heavily at the English, then collapsed. - There were a lot of telephoned inquiries over the course of the day. The father, Major von Richthofen, went from us by car to visit his son. ... ...Father Richthofen (an old Major who is hard of hearing) came back from Kortryk for dinner and was happy that everything had turned out the way it did. After the meal, the Major went along to the airfield. He inspected everything...."

Sources

View full network

Käte and The Red Baron
kaete-and-the-red-baron