APG85 wrote:
I always thought that the book Who killed The Red Baron by P.J. Carisella was a fascinating and thoroughly researched book on the subject and he came to the conclusion that Australian ground gunners got him...
The book was written in 1969 and there has been new evidence since then.
Here is a modern review of the book.
"Carisella recounts the events of that day meticulously and with painstaking detail that merit the meaning of history and research. His conclusion, however, bears question. His final argument, is that the credit to shooting down the Baron is to go to Sgt. C.B. Popkin and Gunner R.F. Weston, two Australian groundsmen. It is here in that the reviewer disagrees. The evidence provided by Carisella must be examined in light of more recent material unearthed by aviation historians and buffs alike (Carisella's book first appeared in 1969). Upon reading the substantial accounts of Australians that witnessed the event, faults begin to creep up. The accounts wildly contradict each other, and a number of "witnesses" even went so far as to claim that there were only two planes involved in the incident, when in fact there were three!
Accounts of post-mortem examinations of Richthofen's shattered body also conflict. Some claim that evidence points toward Brown, seeming that the point of entry was almost in line with the point of exit. Others contradict this, claiming that the point of entry was below the exit wound (pointing to the Aussies).
It is useless (and because of space limitations) to point out all the conflicting explanations. In is in this reviewer's opinion (who himself recently completed extensive research for a term paper on the topic) that the fateful shot was fired by the Canadian, Capt. Brown, although the theory of Australian ground gunners should not be ruled out entirely.
Carisella and Ryan's book offers tremendous perspective into the controversy, among others, but sadly, it is currently out-of-print. These two historians deserve the credit for ambitiously and ruthlessly pursuing such a controversial subject that inevitably contributed to the ever-growing legend of Manfred von Richthofen and his exploits. Who precisely killed him is for the reader to decide for themselves. Most probably Brown, but until the unlikely event in which physical evidence will somehow be acquired (unlikely in that Richthofen's Fokker was literally taken apart by souvenir hunters and the skeletal remains tossed into a shell-crater where it was inevitably left to disintegrate), only then will the dusts of controversy finally settle over the death of the greatest fighter pilot of that war.
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