HOW THE RED KNIGHT OF GERMANY DIED

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 152, 29 June 1935, Page 25

HOW THE RED KNIGHT OF GERMANY DIED

The controversy about the exact manner of the death of Baron yon Richthofen, the famous German ■ air ace, has been" revived by the publication in a German newspaper of an alleged, "eye-witness account" of his descent in the British lines, says the "Daily Telegraph." The Essen "National Zeitung," which is closely connected with General Goering, the German Air Minister, and the last commander of the "Riehthofen Circus," quotes a certain Herr Bink, late of the 3rd ■ Grenadier Regiment. Alter describing an air duel between the Baron and a British airman, Herr Bink says: "Richthofen flew quite low. He was so engrossed that he did not notice that he was just above the enemy trenches. From these trenches he was greeted with a rain of bullets. "Then he suddenly glided down quite smoothly, and landed behind the enemy trenches. . .- We saw him climb living from his aeroplane. A number of brown figures leapt upon him arid butchered him. He was treacherously assassinated by bestial non-Europeans." Previously a German newspaper published extracts from the diary of j Lieutenant Schoenemann, a German artillery observer, who described how Baron yon Richthofen "tame down at an angle of 45deg, striking the ground so violently that his machine broke in two. "It was impossible for any man to have survived such a crash," he concluded. Light from another angle is thrown upon Baron yon Richthofen's last fight by an issue of the "British Legion i Journal." I

"The man responsible for the. 'Red Knight's' end," writes Mr. Patrick Clifford, "was Gunner Robert Buie, formerly of the 53rd "Battery, Australian Field Artillery." . A stair officer's war-time report, be adds, was discovered by a Brisbane solicitor; it gave a vivid description of an aerial battle, and identified the pilot who had been shot down as Baron yon Richthofen. The report appeared in a Sydney newspaper, and as a result of correspondence which ensued, it was revealed that General (afterwards Lord) Rawlinson, the Army Commander, sent a telegram of congratulation to the sth Australian Division, to be passed on to .the 53rd Battery, Australian Field Artillery. It read, as follows:— -*~-- "To sth Australian Division. Following from General Rawlinson; Begins, A.A.A. Please convey to the 53rd Battery, sth Division, my best thanks and congratulations oh having brought down the celebrated German aviator Richthofen. Message ends." "It cannot be doubted," says the writer, "that in a matter of such moment the Army Commander' would hesitate to send such a message unless he was absolutely convinced ..of the accuracy of its contents." A correspondent of the "Daily Mail points out that the British official opinion will be found on pages 389-93 of "The War in the Air," Volume IV.

After sifting all the available evidence, including the reports of four medical officers who examined the body, the official, decision is that the German air ace was killed by a bullet fired from another aeroplane, i.e., that flown by Captain A. R. Brown, a Canadian. ' , '