SABATON - The Red Baron (Animated Story Video)

It’s January 1917

and in an airfield a young pilot is directing men to paint his Albatross fighter.

Other pilots look on in awe.

This young pilot with 16 victories to his name is the new commander of Jasta 11.

It contains many elite and legendary pilots,

but none can compare to this young man stood bolt upright.

He knows he is better than anyone else out there.

The work is done.

The plane stands in all it’s scarlett Teutonic Glory.

The Pilot is Manfred von Richthofen and on this day,

the day he chose to paint his plane bright red it is the birth of a new name.

A legendary name that will never die.

The Red Baron.

Success after success came to Jasta 11 under the Red Baron’s tutelage.

Richthofen had been a student of a genius aviation tactician named Oswald Boelcke.

Boelke’s dictates were the essential rules for successful air combat.

Richtofen embraced them,

taught them

and enhanced them.

“How can I be like you?”

“Aim for the man and don’t miss him”

He urged his men to fight on and fly on to the last drop of blood and the last drop of fuel,

to the last beat of the heart.

Richthofen and his Jasta 11 would become the nemesis of the Royal Flying Corps.

The Jasta 11 in the heavens would seem like gods or demons to those on the ground.

Stuck in the mud and the trenches.

Seeing the red whirling beast spitting fire overhead.

The Germans whispered his name in awe.

“Der rote Kampfflieger”.

The Allies whispered it in equal fear and awe.

The Red Baron.

But there was one thing that all sides agreed upon…

He was the King of the Sky.

Man and machine and nothing there in between

The flying circus and a man from Prussia

The sky and a plane, this man commands his domain

The western front and all the way to Russia

Death from above, you're under fire

Stained red as blood, he's roaming higher

Born a soldier from the horseback to the skies

That's where the legend will arise

And he's flying

Higher, the king of the sky

He's flying too fast and he's flying too high

Higher, an eye for an eye

The legend will never die

First to the scene, he is a lethal machine

It's bloody April and the tide is turning

Fire at will, it is the thrill of the kill

Four in a day shot down with engines burning

Embrace the fame, red squadron leader

Call out his name: "Rote Kampfflieger"

In the game to win, a gambler rolls the dice

Eighty allies paid the price

And he's flying

Higher, the king of the sky

He's flying too fast and he's flying too high

Higher, an eye for an eye

The legend will never die

Higher

Higher, the king of the sky

He's flying too fast and he's flying too high

Higher, an eye for an eye

The legend will never die

Higher

Born a soldier from the horseback to the skies

And the legend never dies

And he's flying

And he's flying

And he's flying

Higher, the king of the sky

He's flying too fast and he's flying too high

Higher, an eye for an eye

The legend will never die

Higher, the king of the sky

He's flying too fast and he's flying too high

Higher, an eye for an eye

The legend will never die

His injuries caused him repeated issues with headaches and nausea.

He also suffered a change in mood and temperament, which became darker.

The thrill of combat lessened.

He wrote

"I am in wretched spirits after every aerial combat.

I believe that the war is not as the people at home imagine it,

with a hurrah and a roar;

it is very serious,

very grim”.

On April the 21st, 1918.

The Red Baron got into his famous Fokker tri-plane and took off into the morning sky.

It was the flight that would bring his life to an end.

He spotted a Sopwith camel and gave chase.

This time it seems he may have not realized he was behind enemy lines while chasing the Sopwith

at a very low altitude.

At the time due to wind conditions and the moving of the front lines

he uncharacteristically continued the chase too far.

In the last moments of his life, he managed to make a rough landing in a field north of the village of Vaux-sur-Somme.

Several Australian servicemen rushed up to the downed triplane to hear the Red Baron’s last words…

“Kaputt”.

The King of the Sky was dead, but his legend would never die.

The Red Baron was treated with great respect and was interred with full military honors by the personnel

of No. 3 Squadron Australian Flying Corps.

Allied squadrons stationed nearby came to pay their respects.

Memorial wreaths were laid... one of which was inscribed with the words,

"To Our Gallant and Worthy Foe".