Hi Dave,
The section from "Der rote Kampfflieger" which you posted on #228 entitled "Die rote Farbe" was written by Lothar and not Manfred, and has been translated into English more than once. I have quoted sections from this little article in a couple of my books. I'm fairly sure Lothar was writing this post-war, as an addendum to Manfred' original manuscript. He was never a careful writer, and was remembering things from at least a year prior to writing it. He was describing the original red Albatros D.III flown by Manfred and the other red Albatrosse eventually flown by Jasta 11. He was writing in very general terms only, for the casual general reader. Here's how Peter Kilduff translated it in his 1969 edition of "The Red Baron".:
"It became known all over that the English had put a price on my brother's head. Every flier over there knew him, for at the time he alone flew a red airplane. For that reason we wanted to paint every airplane in our squadron, and we pleaded with my brother not to be so conspicuous. The request was granted, for through our many victories we had shown ourselves worthy of the color. The color red signified a certain arrogance. Everyone knew that. It attracted attention. Hence, one had to accomplish something. We looked with pride on our red birds. My brother's crate was glaring red. The rest of us each had his own special mark painted in other colors. In the air one cannot see another flier's face, so we chose these colors as recognition insignia. For example, Schäfer had the elevator, rudder and rear part of the fuselage in black, Allmenröder had the same in white, Wolff had green, and I had yellow. As a yellow dragooneer, that was the appointed color for me. Each had a different mark. In the air the entire machine appeared red to those on the ground as well as to the enemy fliers, for only a small part of the machine was painted a second color. Those who took part in the defensive battle of Arras saw much of the red birds and their work.
"Why did Rittmeister von Richthofen paint his crate red? The French labeled this as a childish affectation in one newspaper article. The real reason lies elsewhere. When Manfred began to gain his first successes with Jagdstaffel Boelcke, he was annoyed because he felt he was much too visible to his enemies in aerial combat and that they saw him much too early. He tried using a variety of colors to make himself invisible. At first he emphasized the earth colors. From above one would not detect those colors if there was no movement, which of course is impossible in a plane. To his sorrow, Manfred found that no one color was useful in the air. There is no camouflage for the flier with which he can make himself invisible. Then, in order to at least be recognized as the leader by his comrades in the air, he chose the color bright red. Later the red machine also became known to the English as 'Le petit rouge' and the other names that accompanied it. At one time it was maintained that a 'Joan of Arc' or a woman of similar stature, sat in it. But soon both friend and enemy knew who sat in the red machine. An unaccountable enthusiasm was kindled in our troops at the Front, that was not shared by the enemy. It was similar to waving a red cloth before a bull to rashly provoke him. But with 'Le petit rouge' that parallel ceases, for as soon as the English saw the red machine they made themselves scarce. Thus, in the battle of Arras the red machine had only to approach the Fron in order to send the English fleeing to their own lines."
Now, much of that should be taken with a grain of salt, especially the part about MvR trying to camouflage the plane he flew in
Jasta Boelcke - it would already have borne the factory camouflage. You are correct in stating that when most German airmen described a 'red' or even 'all-red' aircraft, in most cases this applied to the fuselage, tail, and undercarriage only. As far as we know, MvR's Albatros D.III flown in the Battle of Arras had the wings in their original factory camouflage (which included a reddish-brown color). I believe that one of the later Albatros D.V's that MvR flew was indeed painted all-red, i.e. all of the wing surfaces, etc. and that this was D.V D.1177/17.
The sections you posted from Udet's "Mein Fliegerleben" have also been translated into English in the two different English editions of Udet's book. I believe that his casual description of Richthofen's "red Triplane" should not be taken as too much of a careful or complete description.
Greg VanWyngarden