Richthofen: A True History of the Red Baron - Hardcover

Burrows, William E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0246639911 ISBN 13: 9780246639912

Publisher: HarperCollins Distribution Services, 1970

Synopsis

There has never been a hero in German history quite like Manfred von Richthofen, the legendary Red Baron. In World War One he accounted for more enemy planes than any other pilot and in both World Wars he was envisaged as a hero of Wagnerian stature, the embodiment of German courage and tradition. But Richthofen was a complex character. His thirst for fame, his compulsion for hunting, his apparent indifference to women, his relationship with his mother and adherence to the Prussian military tradition - all these were factors that contributed to the Red Baron's personality, that made him the greatest air ace in the history of air warfare. Behind Richthofen also lay the shadowy but persuasive propaganda machine, an official apparatus designed to inflate Germany's heroes in an attempt to keep a war-weary population from thinking about the very real threat of the Communists to the Kaiser's weakening regime. The Berlin propagandists gave Richthofen the fame he sought. Yet in the end he was as useful to the Fatherland dead as he had been alive. Book contains endpaper maps and 26 photographic illustrations.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Distribution Services
• Publication date: 1970
• ISBN 10: 0246639911
• ISBN 13: 9780246639912
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256