Rittmeister (Captain) Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron

Postcards of German aviators like this one of Rittmeister (Captain) Manfred von Richthofen—the Red Baron—promoted a romanticized image of heroic aviators. The Red Baron is credited with shooting down 80 aircraft, the most of any World War I pilot. The glamour of aerial combat was shadowed by aviators’ brutal deaths. Von Richthofen was shot down, likely by ground fire, on April 21, 1918.