Richthofen a Cold blooded Killer??

[Yeoman]

Looks like the Aerodromes MVR obsession shows no signs of waining yet then..

[reservepilot]

My comment made no distinction between any nationality. Any good fighter pilot has to be cold blooded in the cockpit.

George

[Ginger.]

Originally Posted by VtwinVince

What, Ginger hasn't jumped all over this one yet? This is more of the usual allied nonsensical stereotyping. The allied aces were all jovial, good-natured gentlemen whilst the Germans were rabid, cold-blooded, raping-and-pillaging murderers. And of course history is always completely black and white

[ww1 ace]

I do not think MvR was a cold blooded killer, which he did not kill someone who was completely defenseless, unlike a young cold blooded personality like Goering or any other person that had other ideas of war.

Was Richthofen a cold-blooded killer in war? Sure. Everybody was, who lived. Does that mean he wasn't a normal person back in Germany? Not really. Nobody survives that is merciful or 'dignified'. Clean and orderly war is something that politicians made up. It's even more ugly to prosecute war in that way. If countries treated it as the worst conflict on earth, maybe they'd be less inclined to start wars. (And, no, I am NOT talking about the U.S. here.)

OF COURSE NOT!
He was a greatly talented pilot who singed up for the calvery and later the air force to help his country. He was a human.

Seriously stop asking dumb questions like this people.

[Ginger.]

Originally Posted by mah bah sah

OF COURSE NOT!
He was a greatly talented pilot who singed up for the calvery and later the air force to help his country. He was a human.

Seriously stop asking dumb questions like this people.

They reckon there's no such thing as a dumb question, only a dumb answer ....
the case for the prosecution rests.

[rainbase]

I don't think you can single Von Richthofen out as being a particularly cold blooded killer. He was, after all, simply doing a job that a couple thousand other guys were trying to do. Of course he was pretty damn good at it, but that's neither here nor there.

I'd wager to guess that there weren't too many airmen who were remorseful after scoring a kill. It's well known that most flyers wouldn't dwell over mourning comrades who's "gone west". This was surely a survival mechanism that would allow them to go out and perform their job day after day. Feeling bad about killing the enemy would have even been a lesser occurance.

Of course there will always be notable exceptions to this phenomina, but for the most part all of the successful pilots would have been "cold blooded" to some degree. It would be hard to function otherwise.

[stephen]

Originally Posted by FliegerJG1

Those who knew Richthofen personally record his charming friendly disposition. His family remembers him as full of life and energy.

FWIW... Carl-August von Schönebeck flew with MvR in the summer and autumn of 1917 and knew him well. Schonebeck lived until the late '80's and we exchanged letters with me, of course, asking The Question.

Mr. Schonebeck replied that Manfred was energetic, very outgoing and friendly, popular with the Jasta pilots and had a great sense of humor. It was exactly the opposite response of what I expected. And remember, Mr. Schonebeck knew Manfred during the time that he was recovering from his head wound in July.

Dunno 'bout you guys, but I still tend to believe the people who were there as opposed to latter day authors and second-guessers. Do with that what you will.

[Taz]

As someone who was a trained killer and earned the taxpayer's dollars during the first great unpleasantness in the Gulf, I might add that the fighter jock's prayer is "Dear God, please do not let me screw this up." MvR had, I had, and everyone who flew in wartime, had a job to do. That was to destroy the enemy in as humane a fashion as possible, kill as few innocents as possible, survive to do your job another day, and train and protect those who worked for you. If that makes you cold blooded, then MvR and I are cut from the same bolt of cloth. Do not try and and assign your 21st Century morals to people who were just trying to do the best job they could for country, family, unit, and compatriots and yet still live to talk about it.

Taz
Terry Phillips