I'm going to stir up a hornet's nest, but here it goes.
I have been reading about WW1 aviation since I was a child, and several on the bloody baron himself. It became quite clear early on that MVR was only an average pilot at best, and by his own admittance, would single out fledgling enemy flyers to shoot down. Also by his own admittance, and practice, would only engage combat on his own terms. Upon further research I found that the majority of his victims were lumbering two seaters. I realize that some of these types of observation a/c were formidable when manned by experienced crew,but they must have been easy prey when flown by an eighteen or nineteen year old kid with less than twenty hours flight time!!
Killing kids is easy. I venture to say that dear old Manfred met his match with
lanoe Hawker and, by all rights should have been killed that day. He just got lucky!!
What do you think?
C.Grube