The Red Baron himself, Manfred Von Richthofen.
On the 21st of April 1918, Manfred Von Richthofen, in his Bright red Fokker DR.1 triplane, was engaged in a large aerial dogfight. Meanwhile, a Sopwith Camel piloted by a Canadian named Wilfred May was circling above said dogfight. He had been given instructions to stay out of it as much as possible because he was new.
However, he saw a German plane circling as well, and so attacked. The German plane fled into the middle of the dogfight. Unfortunately for May, the identity of the German pilot he had just attacked was Wolfram Von Richthofen, the cousin of Manfred. Manfred saw his cousin under attack and flew to defend him, forcing May to break off the pursuit and almost certainly saving Wolfram’s life.
May dove for the ground to try and get away, and ended up at very low altitude with the premier fighter ace of the entire war on his tail.
One of the other Camels, piloted by one of May’s schoolfriends, a man named Roy Brown, dove to intercept but was forced to pull up to avoid hitting the ground.
Then Manfred was hit by a .303 calibre bullet in the chest, probably fired from the ground. He managed to land the plane without crashing, but only just lived long enough to be surrounded by Australian soldiers. According to them, the last thing he said was:
“Kaputt.”
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