"To our friend and enemy, Manfred von Richthofen"

I don't know but somehow it's better that he died in 1918 than later; let me elaborate. He died as a bold new pioneer of aviation before the Luftwaffe was banned, before Germany lost the war, and before nazism and Hitler... In some ways it was better for him to die young gloriously than live to old age chained to a bed while slowly rotting from some random disease and watching the world change around you change with you having no influence at all and generally being out of touch. Many people would rather chose to die with glory and be remembered than old and forgotten. And who knows maybe Richthofen thought about this himself on his last day before retirement, the day that he died by making an uncharacteristic mistake for him.

War is a terrible thing,and that's putting it mildly,in comparison to the brutal reality of it. Is it or has it ever been justifiable? I think so,in some cases when righteous people have been forced to fight for their lives by barbarian invaders,but there is no justification for the hostile barbarian invasion, the barbarians aren't rational,and cannot,will not,be reasoned with,so must be utterly defeated and eradicated.Those who are unable or unwilling to accept this universal truth, have been all through history,and still are today, always the first to be the defenseless,slaughtered victims of the savages.

Manfred von Richtofen was a child of the lesser nobility, with the typical Junkers social attitudes. He found it a 'game' at first, but became a deadly serious hunter once a friend or two were shot down, and he realized he could be killed. He utilized Boelcke's Dicta very well, at a time when Germany had technical superiority. In the end, he was a casualty of 'combat exposure,' where a pilot is burned out to begin with and has spent too many hours in combat. At some point the odds run out. All that is in Heaven Is Too Far Away, a WW I memoir and historical satire.

Voss was the most competent flyer and tinkered with his machines to improve performance even going as far, at one point, as to use a captured French engine from a plane he forced down, but he was young and reckless. Richthofen was a stealthy hunter and opportunist in the air. Its interesting to note the the Baron, who was of the German nobility was a close friend of Voss who was a young Jewish kid who loved motorcycles and flying.

As much as I read of him Manfred was a cold psychopathic killer lacking emotions and from the start a surprisingly bad pilot. From the childhood he enjoyed hunting and killing, his wet dreams coming when he was strafing Russian soldiers in the east (who had almost no chance to inflict damage on his aircraft), but got frustrated with lack of air to air action and being unable to down an enemy aircraft.

Under Oswald Boelcke he got a Fokker and began scoring victories. He said that killing an animal satisfy's him for hours, killing a man for half a day if I remember right. Allegedly once a novice pilot ran to him that a flight of enemy aircraft is closing. He rudely said 'Get into your aircraft and kill some or get killed'. Youngster eagerly run away and was dead soon after.