Richthofen, only on his own terms?

[Stephan]

Saw this little ditttie, & couldn't help but wonder, where "is" his own admittance on this?!

"(Also by his own admittance, and practice, would only engage combat on his own terms)"

& how exactly can this be done? Aireal battles are confused constantly changing affairs, how can one possibly only engage "only on one's own terms?" Is the enemy going to oblidge the Baron & follow procedure so he can shoot them down? or does the enemy perhaps have some of his own terms for the Baron to deal with & encounter?

Richthofen was once surrounded by 4 e/a & his brother came to help & the enemy scattered. His guns were empty. Manfred said when they landed, whew! I thought that was gonna be it!

Would this be an example of him only engaging on his own terms?

[RAGIII]

Originally Posted by Stephan

Saw this little ditttie, & couldn't help but wonder, where "is" his own admittance on this?!

"(Also by his own admittance, and practice, would only engage combat on his own terms)"

& how exactly can this be done? Aireal battles are confused constantly changing affairs, how can one possibly only engage "only on one's own terms?" Is the enemy going to oblidge the Baron & follow procedure so he can shoot them down? or does the enemy perhaps have some of his own terms for the Baron to deal with & encounter?

Richthofen was once surrounded by 4 ae/a & his brother came to help & the enemy scattered. His guns were empty. Manfred said when they landed, whew! I thought that was goanna be it!

Would this be an example of him only engaging on his own terms?

My take on this, although it is difficult to judge by an "extract" from an obviously larger text, is that MvR would not "Initiate" combat unless the conditions were favorable for his, and his Staffels' success! This is not an indication of cowardice, but rather sound Dicta taught by his mentor! This policy was followed by any good Staffel, Jadgeschwader, or Flight leader (RAF,AEF,French)etc. were the best occasionally surprised as in the incident you mention, of course! JMHO,
RAGIII

[Stephan]

Fair , but I find it hard to believe that if he were ordered to attack, that he would disobey this order because he didn't find conditions favorable. Grounds for courtmarshall. He often attacked when outnumbered, so I find this concept silly. One cannot find conditions favorable on a consistent basis, just isn't real.

[EdStevens]

You can also find sources saying that Richthofen avoided combat with scouts, preferring to go after slow two-seaters, or that he would hang back and then swoop down to finish off a lame duck only after it had been damaged by the rest of his kette first. Nonsense from Allied writers who could only discount his remarkable score by discounting his abilities.

He was a very smart hunter, and no coward. Just look at the number of scouts in his score and it's obvious that he did not avoid fights or fighters.

[Stephan]

Yep. In fact when he encountered Hawker he was alone, there were 3 e/a & they had an altitude advantage. Hardly what one would consider "his own terms"

Hawker then dove down & the rest we know.

[Roadhog]

Gentlemen, Avoiding a scrap with enemy scouts who were running interference for observation planes made good sense tactically. As a leader MvR had to realize that it was the data collected by the observers on film that could do the German cause the most damage. Knocking them down made a real difference while flaming scout aircraft on any given day didn't really matter in the big scheme of unfolding battles.

Fighting with limited resources, the Germans had to make them count and it was better to throw the German aircraft into battle where they could really do some damage and make a difference. Blinding the enemy for even a short period of time during the opening moves of a battle or even local attack could effect its ultimate outcome. Just my thoughts. VR, Roadhog, "Memento mori."

[PeterL]

The fighter pilot's job is to deny airspace to the enemy. Target priority is given to enemy resources most capable of inflicting damage on your own side, in this scenario bombing and observation types. Fighter v fighter combat is usually only productive if it offers the opportunity to engage those enemy assets which pose a real threat. MvR's tally clearly shows he understood this well.

Most of Richthofen's kills are really two seaters and I think that it's good proof that MvR was great leader. Many of pilots were just great leaders but not so good fighters and many of them were poor leaders but great aces ( Bishop, Voss...). MvR is on of those pilots to be excellent in both ways. it seems to me he was really great copy of Boelcke in the air.
Honza.

[FliegerJG1]

Forumites:

The link below will take you to an interview with Norman Franks who offers some interesting thoughts on MvR's tactics and the development of the air war. I rather enjoyed reading it and I recommend it to you here.

Channel 4 Interview

Richthofen fought with intelligence and skill. He kept his emotions in check as so often those pilots that didn't would die. I believe he was an excellent pilot doing the very best with what he had.

VBR...FliegerJG1

[Stephan]

No doubt 2 seaters were more important. Boelcke & most of the German aces except Udet had more 2 seats than single seats. Same for Mccudden.

The point is, that many aviation writers, R.L.T. Bickers being one have said manfred went after stragglers & novices, which is poppycock. Exactly how does one know which pilot is the novice? Manfred have psychic abilities?

2 seaters were not always the easy targets either. Many top German aces were knocked down by 2 seaters. Lothar & Bohme but 2.

& if one looks at Manfreds record, I believe 15 of his last 20 were single seat. It's been ages since I checked that over. Will have another look.