Manfred Albrecht von Richthofen (The Red Baron)

May 2, 1892-April 21, 1918
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The flamboyant Manfred von Richthofen (aka "The Red Baron") lives in infinity as one of THE greatest World War I ace fighter pilots. After only 24 hours of flight instruction, he took to the skies in his first solo flight, which was prelude to his successfully shooting down 80 allied planes in combat, availing a certain macabre fame for such.

His tomato-red Fokker DR-1 Dridecker earned him the monikers: "Der Rote Kampfflieger" & "Le Petit Rouge" by the Germans & French, respectively. However, Richthofen is "The Red Baron" a name given to him by the Brits.

It is notable that the former cavalryman was admired even by his enemies. 

​His love for "Moritz" -the Great Dane who became his sidekick, valet, co-pilot & best bud is the great charm of The Red Baron. The fotos in my slideshow, reveal the relationship between the two quite charmingly. Richthofen captures the nature of Moritiz in the description below, he writes:

“The most beautiful creature ever created is my elm-colored Great Dane, my ‘little lap dog’—Moritz.” He slept in bed with me and was very well trained…. I even took him up with me once…. He behaved very sensibly and eyed the world with interest from above.”

Moritz was known to accompany his person as co-pilot during many of Richthofen's significant victories...(can you see where Charles Schultz was going....?)

“Moritz is more than a year old and he is still as child-like as if he were still in his teens. He is very fond of playing billiards. In doing this he has destroyed many billiard balls and particularly many a billiard cloth. He has a great passion for the chase. My mechanics are highly satisfied with his sporting inclinations for he has caught for them many a nice hare. I do not much approve of his hunting proclivities. Consequently he gets a whacking if I catch him at it.
“He has a silly peculiarity. He likes to accompany the flying machines at the start. Frequently the normal death of a flying-man’s dog is death from the propeller. One day he rushed in front of a flying-machine which had been started. The aeroplane caught him up and a beautiful propeller was smashed to bits. Moritz howled terribly and a measure which I had hitherto omitted was taken. I had always refused to have his ears cut. One of his ears was cut off by the propeller. A long ear and a short ear do not go well together. 

“Moritz has taken a very sensible view of the world-war and of our enemies. When in the summer of 1916 he saw for the first time Russian natives—the train had stopped and Moritz was being taken for a walk—he chased the Russian crowd with loud barking. He has no great opinion of Frenchmen although he is, after all, a Belgian. Once, when I had settled in new quarters, I ordered the people to clean the house. When I came back in the evening nothing had been done. I got angry and asked the Frenchman to come and see me. When he opened the door Moritz greeted him rather brusquely. Immediately I understood why no cleaning had been done.”

In the book “The Red Baron’s Last Flight” (Norma Franks and Alan Bennet) it is suggested that after the Richthofen's death, Moritz was adopted by Lieutenant Alfred Gerstenberg, a former pilot in Jasta 11, it was with him that Moritz died of old age.