ILLUSTRATION: DAWN COOPER
RED BARON’S RUDE REQUEST
Manfred von Richthofen – the World War I German flying ace better known as the Red Baron (see page 76 – might never have taken to the skies, but for a show of impudence that bordered on insubordination.Marooned in a minor position in the German army supply branch, he cheekily requested a move to the air corps. “I have not gone to war in order to collect cheese and eggs,” he brazenly wrote in his transfer application, “but for another purpose.”