Customer Reviews

The Red Baron.

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first read this book when I was in high school. After I finished it and returned it to the library I then promptly checked it out again. After that I came on Amazon to try and find it and found the first American printing of it in hardback (the same edition that the school had) and bought it. As many times as I've read it now I always laugh at some points and enjoy the book the same as I did when I first read it. If you want a good non-fiction book on World War 1 then get this.

This is an excellent title, the best I've read on WWI aviation. Not for the quality of the writing but because the author is Manfred von Richtofen himself. It also includes chapters by his younger brother Lothar, another German ace, and Capt. Roy Brown, who is credited with shooting the Red Baron down. A great book! Hope you can find a copy. (Can't have mine :-)) Patrick Williams

An autobiography of the Red Baron... need I say more? The writing makes you feel as if you were actually in the war. Lothar does a great job of describing von Richthofen's funeral. There is also a good description by Captain Browne (Brown?) of how he was shot down. A definite must-have.

This book is great! An insight into the thoughts of the grandfather of air combat tactics. Manfred's descripton of Boelke and the early air tactics of fighter aircraft is well worth the read. Humorous, and serious, this is also a book for anyone that wants to excel in the business world, Manfred delivers sage advice regarding life and skills needed to become the best.

An autobiography on the Red Baron up until he was killed in action, First chapter in the book dispells any myths about "he only shot down lesser performing aircraft - reality only 36 kills out of 80" etc, Manfred gives details of his and his family background his initial military career as a calvary officer and the opening stages of the war which then follows onto his aviation career until he was killed.

I saw a biography about the Red Baron on tv and thought that he had an exciting life so I wanted to read his book that way I could read about it straight from the person that lived these events. The book is fairly short and you could easily read through it very fast without any trouble. He writes about his childhood,entering the cavalry and the war, then how he became a piolet and the rest of the book talks about his many victories as the best fighter piolet. There are a bunch of black and white pictures of the Baron, other German aces and a few planes. There is also a list of all his victims including the plane type, date, times and piolets and there is also a list of the planes he flew and which victims he shot down in which plane.

I liked the book because it's an easy read, it has some funny parts and exciting moments and in a way you get a feel for the man himself. However there are some things I didn't like such as he doesn't go into much detail through the book it's like he just breezes through some of his fights in a few sentences or so which kind of makes it anti climatic. One example is how his brother just shows up out of nowhere and is fighting along side him and not much is said about him. I'm also sure that there was some propaganda thrown in since this book was released during the war. I bet he would have wrote a far better book after the war had he lived but as we all know he was shot down.

This isn't the book to read if you want to know everything about the Red Baron but if you want to read what he experienced first hand then get this autobiography because it's a good read and it's coming straight from the horses mouth that.

I really did not enjoy this book. It was wrote more like a study guide to Von Richthofen's autobiography then a solid end to end story that drew me into the history of the Red Baron himself. Kinda reminded me how I used to write papers in college with a few linking paragraphs then a huge quote from the source. Personally, I believe I got more out of the Wikipedia page then this book.

This paperback edition looks like it was scanned from another document and printed without editing. It does not include some of the features that are advertised on Amazon as part of the hardcover edition. And, it is 3 times the price of a very well done paperback of just Righthofen's autobiography titled "The Red Fighter Pilot"(which I also ordered from Amazon). That is the version that I would recommend instead of this one.

This is a great , personal account of a famous person who has long since vanished into history. One of the better books of WWI aerial struggles

This is a fantastic autobiography, because Von Richthofen was an amazing person. Very real (he devotes as much attention to his cousin and him climbing the spire of the local church, as he does to some of his aerial battles), full of good-natured humor and a zest for life. I particularly loved how the early fighter pilots were known as "Knights of the Sky", and kept to the chivalric code, including following downed pilots to ensure that they were all right.