The Red Baron Manfred Von Richthofen more commonly known as the Red Baron, was a fighter pilot for the German army during World War 1. His father was the first in the family to join the military and wanted his son to follow his footsteps. Major Albrecht got out of the military early, when he tried to save some fallen soldiers and became deaf. His father Major Albrecht Richtofen, was proud that his first son joined the military, Manfred also had two other brothers and an older sister born before him. Manfred joined Wahlstatt Academy at just the age of eleven years old, he disliked the school however he was able to tough it out and finish. He then graduated to the senior cadet academy, then went through the Berlin War Academy and joined the cavalry. He was stationed in Militsch as a lieutenant, and in the summer of 1914 the war, and the Barons legacy were about to begin. When the war began Manfred was just 22 years old, he started as a reconnaissance patroller, but shortly after the war began they realized they did not need a soldier on horseback in the war. They then transferred him to the Signal Corps, and his job changed to laying telephone wires and delivering messages. The time he was doing this he would look up into the skies at the planes and became fascinated by them. He sent a request to be part of the flying program to learn how to navigate, he had to know how to read maps, know where to drop bombs, and how to locate the enemies. In September 1915 he went into his first air battle in the backseat of the plane and missed the enemy several times. A few days later he went back up into the air with another pilot, this time using a machine gun. He shot down his first enemy that day, however it did not count because he shot them on enemy lines.
One day Manfred was taking a trip to Metz when he was able to meet the famous fighter pilot Lieutenant Oswald Boelcke. He asked him about how he was such a successful pilot He then realized that he needed to be a pilot of his own and his best bet to be able to shoot down an enemy would be in the Fokker fighter plane. Richthofen then asked his friend Zeumer to teach him how to fly, after many lessons he was able to learn how to fly. He then was able to pass all three of the fighter pilot examinations that were mandatory to be a pilot, and on December 25, 1915 he finally was able to get his pilots license. After spending only a few weeks in his first squadron, he was invited to join the fighter group Jasta 2, and was taught everything that the lead pilot knew. In his first fight with Jasta 2 he was able to be credited for his first aerial victory, after this his tradition of getting a 2 inch high silver trophy with information about his enemy on it began. Later to add to his tradition he would get a trophy twice as large as the others for every 10th victory he was able to achieve. This later however was stopped after his 60th victory because there was a scarcity of metals, and he decided he did not want the trophy unless it was silver. He also would land near his fallen enemies and take a souvenir from his enemies, mostly he would get the fabric serial numbers off of their aircrafts.
There was a bad airplane wreck in the war when two of Germans top pilots collided together, wrecked their planes, and were killed on impact. Manfred decided that he wanted to make his plane noticeable, so he painted it the bright red he is associated with. Everyone thought that he was crazy for this because he was the only one daring enough to paint his plane so bright. The red at first made the British feel like he would be an easy target, but after shooting many enemies down with it, the bright red airplane began to be a symbol of respect and fear. This is when he was given the nickname the Red Baron, they also gave him many other names such as the Red Devil, but to his own people he was known as The Red Battle Flier. After the Barons 16th kill, he was