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What happened to the Red Baron's plane after he was shot down?

Question #147598. Asked by elvislennon.
Last updated Apr 22 2020.
Originally posted Apr 22 2020 6:20 PM.

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elburcher star
Answer has 9 votes
elburcher star
24 year member
1550 replies avatar

Answer has 9 votes.
"On April 21, 1918 Richthofen flew off with nine other planes from the airfield at Cappy, France. Soon the German fliers were in combat with a squadron of RAF Sopwith Camels led by the Canadian pilot Arthur Roy Brown. At some point during this battle Richthofen was pursuing a plane piloted by a novice Canadian pilot named Wilfrid May. When Richthofen flew across the British lines at low altitude, he was struck by a single bullet and fatally wounded. Before he died, he managed to land his red Fokker Dr.1 triplane just north of the village of Vaux-sur-Somme, in a sector controlled by Australian forces. Still intact, the Red Baron's bright red plane was soon dismantled by souvenir seekers."

link https://www.german-way.com/notable-people/featured-bios/manfred-von-richthofen/

Apr 22 2020, 6:46 PM
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gtho4 star
Answer has 14 votes
Currently Best Answer
gtho4 star
Moderator
25 year member
2405 replies avatar

Answer has 14 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
The whereabouts of the Red Baron's plane are unknown.
It was in a Fokker Dr.I that Manfred, Freiherr von Richthofen was killed on April 21st, 1918. The controversy of his death on his last flight and fight, has never been resolved. It is not known if he was killed by an [Australian] anti-aircraft gunner on the ground or by Canadian flyer Arthur "Roy" Brown. This has not been due to lack of witnesses, but of conflicting evidence given by witnesses on the ground and in the air. It has been reported that after WW I, Richthofen's airplane became part of Germany's aeronautical collection. This aircraft and others from the collection were evacuated before the serious air raids on Berlin took place in 1944. The aircraft were sent to Pomerania and other "safe" locations, now part of Poland. One inhabitant recalled as a small child seeing a red fuselage and wings in a dance hall. During a severe cold spell, he remembered sawing up the wings for firewood. According to Prof. Steinle of the Deutsches Technik Museum Berlin, there is every reason to believe that this is how Richthofen's Dr.I 425/17 airplane met an ignominious end.
link http://www.aviation-history.com/fokker/dr1.html

Four pieces of the plane are on display at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra (control column, red cross, plus two fabric pieces from the fuselage):
link https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C111414?image=2
link https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C117037
link https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C270770
link https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C110701

Apr 22 2020, 8:21 PM
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