Who was the Red Baron?

0:00 Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira! And I'm Finn. Before we start, a massive shout out to Liam and Isla in the Northwest Territories. Liam is eight and asked all about the Red Baron, and Isla is seven. Great question, you two. This one is for you both. And a big hello to Dougie, who is eight, and five-year-old Rhett, listening in Nova Scotia, who also wanted to know all about the Red Baron.

0:28 Plus, a huge shout out to seven-year-old Ethan and five-year-old Ellie in California, who love listening to histories not boring. If you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode. So, Mira, who exactly is this Red Baron that everyone wants to know about? Imagine flying 10,000 feet in the air in an airplane made of basically just thin wood and fabric with freezing winds blasting your face.

0:57 Uh, no thanks. That sounds completely terrifying. Now imagine doing that while trying to outfly enemy planes swirling all around you. Back in the First World War, there was one pilot who was better at this than anyone else in the whole world. Was he the Red Baron? Exactly. He flew a bright blood-red airplane, and his enemies were so terrified of him that they gave him that legendary nickname.

1:24 He won a staggering 80 aerial battles in just a year and a half. 80 battles? That's insane! How did he do it? To understand the Red Baron, we have to travel back to the year 1914, at the very beginning of the First World War. That's over a hundred years ago. Did they even have aeroplanes back then? Just barely.

1:47 The Wright brothers had invented the first airplane in 1903, which was only 11 years before the war started. Wow, so planes were basically brand new. Exactly. Early airplanes were incredibly fragile. They were built with thin wooden frames and covered in stretched canvas. They weighed only about 1,000 pounds.

2:09 That's lighter than a dairy cow, and had top speeds of just 100 miles per hour. That's slower than a fast train today. Right. And at first, they didn't even have weapons on them. Pilots would just fly over the enemy to spy on them and sometimes wave at the enemy pilots as they passed by. Wait, they just waved at each other?

2:32 In the middle of a war? Yep. But soon they started bringing pistols. And then they figured out how to attach heavy machine guns to the planes. That's when aerial dogfighting was born. Dog fighting? Like dogs in the sky. It's the term for close-range aerial combat, because the planes would chase each other's tails in tight circles, like dogs playing or fighting.

2:57 And this is where our main character enters the story. Manfred von Richtofen. Was he German? Yes, he was born in 1892, in a part of the German Empire. His family were aristocrats, meaning they were wealthy nobles. In fact, he had the official title of Freiherr, which translates to Baron in English. Oh, so that's where the Baron part comes from.

3:22 Did he always want to fly? Actually, no. He started the war riding a horse in a cavalry unit. But the First World War was fought in muddy trenches that stretched for 400 miles across Europe, full of barbed wire. That made horses completely useless. I bet he was pretty bored just sitting around in the mud.

3:45 He was. Manfred wrote a letter to his commanding officer saying, I have not gone to war to collect cheese and eggs, but for another purpose. He transferred to the Air Service in 1915. Did he jump into a red plane and instantly become a hero? Not at all. He started out as a backseat observer, just taking notes and aiming a machine gun for another pilot.

4:11 When did he learn to fly his own plane? Later in 1915. And you know what happened on his very first solo flight? He completely crashed his plane upon landing. No way! The greatest pilot ever crashed on his first try. He sure did, but he kept practicing. In 1916, he teamed up with a legendary German flying ace named Oswald Bolker, who became his mentor.

4:40 What's a flying ace? An ace is an official title given to a pilot who shoots down at least five enemy aircraft. Oswald Bolker taught Manfred all his secret rules for fighting in the sky. Like always attacking with the sun behind you, so the enemy is blinded by the glare. That is super smart! Did Manfred get good at it?

5:03 Oh, he got incredibly good. By September 1916, he scored his first official victory. After that, he just kept winning. So when does the plane get painted red? In January 1917, after he had scored 16 victories, Manfred was given command of his own fighter squadron. He decided to paint his albatross airplane bright, shocking red.

5:29 Why red? Doesn't that just make him a massive, easy target in the sky? That's exactly the point. He wanted his enemies to know exactly who was coming for them, to strike fear into their hearts. Plus, it helped his own ground troops recognise him so they wouldn't accidentally shoot him down. That's bold.

5:49 Did it work? It worked perfectly. The French pilots started calling him Le Diablo Rouge, meaning the Red Devil, and the British called him the Red Baron. He was practically unstoppable. I can just imagine this bright red plane diving out of the clouds. It sounds terrifying. It was, and soon the rest of his squadron wanted in on the action.

6:15 They started painting their planes bright colours too. Yellows, blues, and stripes. Wait, if they all had brightly coloured planes, didn't that look completely ridiculous? The enemy troops actually nicknamed Manfred's squadron the Flying Circus. Because when they packed up their tents and aeroplanes to move to a new airfield, they looked just like a travelling circus.

6:39 That's hilarious. A deadly flying circus. The Flying Circus became legendary. In just one month, April 1917, the Red Baron shot down 21 enemy planes. They called it Bloody April. By this time, he was a massive celebrity in Germany. Did he fly that red albatross plane the whole time? Actually, his most famous plane came later.

7:06 It was the Fokker Dr. One triplane. It was nearly 19 feet long, with a wingspan of 23 feet. And triplane means it had three sets of wings stacked on top of each other. Three wings? Why did it need so many? The three wings gave the plane incredible lift and made it super manoeuvrable. It could turn on a dime, which was perfect for those twisting, turning dog fights.

7:32 Wow, so how did the Red Baron's story end? Did he survive the war? Sadly, no. On April 21, 1918, when he was just 25 years old, the Red Baron was flying over the Somme River in France. He got into a dogfight and started chasing a young Canadian pilot who was flying very low to the ground. Oh no, was it a trap?

7:56 Not exactly, but flying low was dangerous. The Red Baron was so focused on the plane in front of him that he flew right over enemy lines. Australian soldiers on the ground opened fire with their machine guns. Did they hit him? Yes. A single bullet, most likely fired by an Australian soldier named Sergeant Cedric Popkin, hit the Red Baron.

8:21 He managed to land his plane in a field, but he died right after. Wow, that's really sad. But I guess that's what happens in a war. It was a huge shock to the whole world. Even though he was their enemy, the Allied soldiers respected him so much that they gave him a full military funeral with honours.

8:41 They even dropped a note over the German airfield to let them know he had died like a brave soldier. So he ended up with 80 victories. Did anyone else get that many? In the First World War, nobody even came close. The top French pilot had 75, and the top British pilot had 72. The Red Baron's 80 victories made him the ultimate ace of aces.

9:07 That really is amazing. He completely changed how people thought about flying. He really did. He proved that flying in organized squads was much better than flying alone. His tactics are still studied by military pilots today. Okay, Mira, it's time. Hit me with some weird or crazy facts about the Red Baron.

9:27 Alright! Did you know that for his first 60 victories, he ordered a special two-inch-tall silver cup from a jeweller in Berlin? Haha, 60 silver cups? He must have had a giant trophy cabinet. He did, but he stopped at 60 because Germany's economy got so bad during the war that there wasn't any silver left to make them.

9:48 Whoa, ran out of silver. What else? Here's a crazy one about aeroplanes back then. None of the pilots, not even the Red Baron, wore parachutes. What? Why not? Were they too heavy? Partially, the cockpits were tiny, but the main reason is that military generals actually banned parachutes. They thought if a pilot had a parachute, they might just jump out of their plane at the first sign of danger, instead of fighting to save their incredibly expensive aircraft.

10:18 Are you kidding me? They cared more about the plane than the pilot. That's ridiculous. Haha, it was a different time, Finn. One more fun fact. Manfred loved his pet dog, a great Dane named Moritz. Morritz was huge and would often run out onto the airfield to greet Manfred when he landed. A giant dog and a bright red triplane.

10:40 The Red Baron was definitely one of a kind. Alright, Finn, time for the quiz! Let's see how much he learned about the Red Baron. Bring it on! I'm ready to fly through these questions. First question. How many confirmed aerial victories did the Red Baron have? Next one. What colour did he famously paint his aeroplane?

11:08 Question three. What was the nickname given to his colourful flying squadron? Here's number four. How many wings did his famous Fokker Doctor One aeroplane have? Last question. Why didn't first World War pilots wear parachutes? Great job! Let's see how you did. The first answer is he had 80 confirmed victories.

11:43 For question two, he painted his aeroplane bright red, which is how he got his nickname. The answer is, his squadron was known as the Flying Circus. Question four. His famous Fokker aeroplane was a triplane, meaning it had three wings. And the final answer is Generals banned parachutes because they were worried pilots would abandon their expensive planes.

12:10 I still can't get over the fact that they flew into battle in wooden planes with no parachutes. That takes so much courage. It really does. History is full of brave people, pushing the limits of what was possible, even when it was incredibly dangerous. If you thought the Flying Circus was as cool as we did, scroll down and tap the five stars to leave us a review.

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12:59 See you next time on History's Not Boring. Bye.