The First World War

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Originally Posted by Mal Hombre

At the end of the day it doesn't matter Who killed Him,The main point was that He was dead and that was a blow to German morale and a boost to that of Allied pilots.

It only mattered (at the time) to the extent that by giving the the credit to Brown, it could be claimed that von Richthofen had been "bettered" by a pilot of the newly formed RAF. For propaganda purposes, that would be more appealing than saying he'd been killed by what could be seen as a "lucky" shot from the ground. I also can't help but wonder if those in charge of official statements preferred to give the credit to a Captain, than to a humble Gunner!

Having looked at the photos of the remains of von Richtofen's crashed Dr.1 after it had been stripped by souvenir hunters, it makes me think that there must be a hell of a lot of bits of red triplane scattered throughout Australia! Does anyone know what happened to them? Are there authenticated bits in museums anywhere?

(According to some accounts, even Richtofen's clothes were taken!)