THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



575 



"However, Manfred von Richthofen 

 is dead. He was a brave man and a clean 

 fighter. May he rest in peace." 



Who can now say the day of chivalry 

 is past ? Our great enemy ace was buried 

 with full military honors, in French soil, 

 on April 22, and his personal effects were 

 sent home to his family. 



A MEAN AND BITTER EPILOGUE 



It would be pleasanter to leave the 

 story of von Richthofen's gallant death 

 and funeral thus ; but an interesting, 

 though contemptible, epilogue is thrust 

 upon our attention from the land of the 

 fallen hero. It is penned by the notori- 

 ous Count Reventlow, and appears in the 

 May 1 issue of the Deutsche Tagezeitung 

 to poison the mind of the Boche and in- 

 flame it into greater hatred against the 

 foe. It says : 



"These honors are nothing but the 

 manifestation of British self-advertise- 

 ment of their 'chivalry.' We once heard 

 much of the chivalrous treatment ac- 

 corded by the English to Captain von 

 Muller, of the Bmden, but as soon as he 

 was able to speak we found that instead 

 of chivalrous treatment he had received 

 nothing but deliberate vileness, contempt, 

 and torture from his captors. 



"For our part we cannot consider the 

 honors given to the remains of von 

 Richthofen as sincere. The English 

 press is full of them, and with character- 

 istic blatancy blares about British mag- 

 nanimity. But they say nothing about the 

 huge prizes in money that were offered 

 to the pilot who could kill Richthofen. 

 In fact, these must have amounted to an 

 enormous sum. And this explains the 

 bitter and 'noble' controversy which 

 raged around the corpse of the fallen 

 pilot, for there was cash waiting for the 

 one who inflicted the fatal wound and 

 brought the German machine to earth. 

 The officials themselves who buried our 

 hero were all fortunate money-makers. 

 Thus this spectacle takes on a thoroughly 

 disgusting aspect." 



To which Marc Antony might well 

 have said: "Oh Judgment! Thou hast 

 fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost 

 their reason !" 



In truth, the official reports have indi- 

 cated that it is in doubt as to whether 



von Richthofen fell from a shot from the 

 air or from the ground. Many aero- 

 planes were engaged in a "dog fight" at 

 very low levels at the time and machine- 

 guns from the British lines took part in 

 the fray. Suddenly Richthofen's gaudily 

 painted triplane darted into the ground 

 and smashed. Investigation disclosed a 

 bullet through his heart, but from whence 

 it came could not be ascertained. 



Subsequently the Toronto Globe an- 

 nounced that von Richthofen's conqueror 

 was Capt. Roy Brown, of Carleton Place, 

 Ontario, who was one of the fighting 

 pilots participating in the combat. 



THE ROLL OE ACES OE ALL BELLIGERENTS 



Having described their methods and 

 peculiarities and studied their character- 

 istics, which account for their proved su- 

 periority both over their enemies and in 

 comparison with their comrades, let us 

 look at the complete score of the aces of 

 aviation of all the belligerent countries. 



This score I have been tabulating since 

 the war in the air began, and it is of- 

 ficially correct up to the date of June 15, 

 1918, with the exception of the list of 

 British aces, whose records are not made 

 public until His Majesty is graciously 

 pleased to confer upon them the Victoria 

 Cross or the Distinguished Service Order 

 for some extraordinary and brilliant per- 

 formance of duty. Many British aces 

 must, therefore, be omitted from the fol- 

 lowing table. 



THE SCORE OE THE LIVING ACES OE ERANCE 



Fifty-five French aces, living, have 

 brought down 547 enemy aeroplanes, as 

 follows : 



Lieut. Rene Fonck 45 



Lieut. Charles Nungesser 36 



Lieut. George Madon 34 



Capt. Albert Heurteaux -i 



Adjt. Guerin - T 



Lieut. Deullin 1 Q 



Capt. Armand Pinsard 1 3 



Lieut. Maurice Boyau 1 S 



Lieut, de Meuldre x 3 



Lieut. Marcel Hughes 12 



Adjt. Jailler 12 



Lieut. Sardier !1 



Lieut. Tarascon 1 l 



Lieut. Ortoli " 



Adjt. Andre Herbelin 10 



Lieut. Garaud 1 ° 



Lieut, de Turrenne 10 



Adjt. Chainat 9 



Adjt. Casale Q 



Adjt. Dauchy 



Lieut. Viallet 8 



Capt. Derode 7 



Lieut, de Sevin 7 



