Olham

Hauksbee, "History Channel" has it right; the St. Colette brickworks, or better that field beyond, was his crash-landing site. The brickworks are just a kilometer northwest of Vaux-sur-Somme. Here is a link to GoogleMaps - the photos below show the brickworks, and one shows "the Red Baron's last stand". When you click on "Back to the map" you should be able to get it all together. https://www.google.de/maps/@49.932674,2.539108,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1s37106637!2e1!3e10!6s%2F%2Fstorage.googleapis.com%2Fstatic.panoramio.com%2Fphotos%2Fsmall%2F37106637.jpg!7i1600!8i1200 When you are in map or satelite view, you can move your cursor over the photos at the bottom, and a thin line will appear, pointing to the spot in the map. Here is the photo "Red Baron's last stand" (funny: it was taken in October 2008 - the month when I came to discover OFF). Seems they have installed an info board about von Richthofen's last landing.

Ah, good you answered this - you know the facts and details a lot better, Jim. Is there a horizon in sight, when your book might be finished for release?

Yes, I bet it is - he looks real cute, Jim! Have a good time together!

Mmuahahahahaaa!!! Yeah, you have seen so much already, and you learned to know different times and a different society. I guess it can even get hard to face where everything has come to these days? But that's life. I have only seen the film "Battle of Britain" and find it was a long time ago - but you have lived, when it really happened! My mum had been in the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) and enjoyed it, before she was later getting shocked, when the whole truth about that regime came up. I often think: how many changes she has already seen and gone through...

Ah, you got it done, great! Interesting to see a photo from that period, which is now history.

Hauksbee, I guess that it is most obvious that Popkin fired the lethal shot - we'll see if Jim has more on that. For Brown it must have been a terrible feeling for the rest of his life, when everybody clapped on his shoulder for shooting down the "Red Baron" - while he himself knew he didn't - but couldn't tell. JFM's book is a lot about investigating all the rumours, half-baked truths, and misinterpreted info about the reasons why MvR was flying into enemy terrain, and extremely low. Most historians keep claiming he was a different man after his headwound; that he was kind of depressed, that he made mistakes, and wasn't in the right condition for air combat anymore. Jim shed many new, bright lights on all this, and his neat line of evidence will show a new picture alltogether, so much I can assure you. I will get everyone informed when the book is released - I bet it's worth getting.

Hmm... No idea what programs you have; and i may not know them anyway; I use Photoshop. I guess with GIMP or PAINT it could be loaded, then the size changed, and saved again. Anyone here, who knows a basic proggy that comes with WINDOWS?

No, I really can't - I read a different bit. I'm not even sure if it could be cleared up doubt-free. Must ask Jim.

You mean, to upload a photo, Hood? Well, you need the image as a Jpeg, on your computer. Best you move it to "Desktop". Next, you click under the last post on "Reply", and then on "More Reply Options", right below the answering frame, in the right corner. An additional bit will open. There you click on the "Search" button (right under "Attach Files"). You must now click your way through to where the image is - for example to "Desktop", if it is 'parked' there. Then you click on "Attach This File". When it appears, you can click on "Add to post" to make it appear in the post. That's about it. Good luck!

I even find it - sexy!

German High Command tried that several times, but Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen declined to be sent to a desk job. He said, he could serve the overall morale better, when he kept fighting. Among WW1 aviation historians it is not disputed much since a long time, that the lethal round must have came from the ground. The entrance- and exit wounds alone would make it VERY unlikely, that he was shot by Brown, or any other fighter pilot; even if he should have been flying hard-banked. But back in those days, the commanders simply decided it would look much better, and raise the morale for the RFC, if MvR would have been shot by a fighter pilot. So, Roy Brown (who actually HAD a short attack on MvR, before he broke it off - but that was quite a bit earlier on in that famous chase) just came handy for them. I bet Brown even told them that it was very unlikely, that it should have been one of his rounds. I bet they convinced him, that they talked him into this version - just for the sake of the whole Flying Corps. Some time soon, our forum member JFM (James F. Miller) will come out with a new, fresh look at all the evidence and details, and after reading a bit of the unfinished work, I can only say, many historians will have to change their views even more. His evidence is very forceful and neatly collected.

Can't answer the first question seriously (not enough historical knowledge there), but offhand I'd say: Because he was insane? The second question is easier; you give the answer yourself by naming them "treasures". Since the ancient Greeks and before them, the victors have plundered the treasures of the beaten. Simply because they wanted them - and they could take them.

True - when I started it, I didn't know there would be another. I'll see, if I can change the title...

Hood, do you have a photo from your army days back then? Jim, I also prefer a "sexy" look on a war plane. Like...

This one really struck me - a video about friendship, love... Made me cry, to be honest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5oznbdFqaQ

Wow, you are a real veteran among us here! Was your unit involved in combat in Africa, Europe, or in the war against China?

My pleasure, Hood! Do I get that right: you were 17 years old during the Battle of Britain? Jim, thanks for the details. I think the Harrier was the perfect fighter for the Falklands, and definitely hard to handle for opponents, who had absolutely no experience with an aircraft that can operate like the Harrier. The F35 is the "Raptor"? I only recently "discovered" it and thought is was only CGI.

Gee, you have been working on interesting aircraft. I bet,the Hawker Harrier was a very interesting design, technically!

That twin engine destroyer in the start image of YOUTUBE here is the "German Mosquito" - the Focke-Wulf Ta 154. The craft was built mostly of wood - even parts which were metal in the original DeHavilland "Mosquito" - and was said to have been fast enough to become a "Mosquito-hunter". It was also meant to be a bomber interceptor and a night fighter. But when the British unknowingly bombed the factory in Wuppertal, which produced the special resin to bind and stabilise the wooden construction, the Ta 154 project came to naught. Jim, you have been working on interesting aircraft! Which ones did you serve on?

Thanks, Widowmaker!

Ooops! On my latest, narrow keyboard, the keys are lying too close to each other, and the 0 can easily become a 9, when I'm not watching it! Corrected that; thx Widow!

Great info, Jim; thx for sharing. The Bf109 did have a trim with which the whole tailplane could be altered, up and down, from the cockpit. Not sure if that did replace an elevator trim though. But with this "tailplane trim" the Messerschmidt could even be flown AND landed with the elevator completely shot away. Here is a very interesting video on the Bf109 technology - watch from 20:00 minutes on. There will be two different pilots explaining everything, and they cleared up several wrong infos for me. So for example it was often said by British pilots who tested the Bf109, that it must have been difficult to come free from the narrow cockpit, and that your parachute package might get stuck under the rear part of the canopy glass. But this pilot here explains: the WHOLE canopy, rear bit included, was ejected when they pulled the bail-out handle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rmmh2Jd9uM

Maybe Winder sent them, after your complaints that there was nothing going on? Mmuahahahahaaa!!!

"...a bullethole or two in it didn't really do anything other than ruin the decoration." Brilliant! Good one on the "workhorse" of the RAF, Hauksbee; thank you for sharing. I recommend to everyone to keep watching - the first 15 minutes are a lot of talking, but when the pilot explains the airplane, it is amazing to hear all those positive details about this fighter. After hearing this it seems, that the "Hurricane" has always been described from the view of Spitfire fans . like the ugly sister, a "Cinderella" so to say. Seems she was a lot better than that (or "Cinderella" even fits - she WAS the good girl after all). For the first time I realised how high the "Hurricane" pilot was actually sitting! What a great allround vision and overview he must have had, compared to the Spitfire or the Bf109, where the pilot sat lower. And the wide nose cowling of the Spitfire was actually hiding a lot from the pilot's forward vision. (The Bf109 had a hanging V-engine; this allowed to keep the nose a lot narrower.) The Hawker "Hurricane" was the uglier sister - but maybe I would have prefered her over the Spit.

Found these two docus today about an aircraft you can only idolise and adore. While the Messerschmidt Bf109 has to me the "sexyness of a dynamic, dangerous shark", the Supermarine Spitfire has the true beauty of a most brilliant aeroplane, with all those curves that make the designer in me - and the male - quite dizzy ! ... VICKERS SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ABt8Ga_YfM SPITFIRE SQUADRON - Documentary of British Fighter Aircraft https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh2B0q523ng