Skorpio #99 (1984), story page 3 by Arias

La Última Misión del Barón Rojo" ("The Last Mission of the Red Baron"). Cover date March 1984.

The Red Baron, whose real name was Baron Manfred von Richthofen, was Germany's top aviator and leading ace in World War I. He was credited with shooting down 80 aircraft, more than any other pilot from either side during the war.

Members of a prosperous family, Richthofen and his younger brother Lothar followed their father into military careers. In 1912 Richthofen became a lieutenant in a Prussian Army calvary regiment. As a member of this regiment, he fought in Russia after the outbreak of World War I and then participated in the invasion of Belgium and France. When trench warfare settled in and the cavalry became sidelined, Richthofen joined the infantry. In 1915 he transferred to the Imperial Air Service and in September 1916 entered combat as a fighter pilot.

He became commander of a fighter wing, which, because of its frequent moves by rail and its fancifully decorated planes, came to be known as “Richthofen’s Flying Circus.” He flew the Albatros series fighters until August 1917 when he began to switch to the Fokker Dr.I triplane with which he is most commonly associated. He was killed in his red Fokker triplane near Amiens on the Somme River on April 21, 1918. Although the RAF credited a Canadian pilot with shooting him down, historians, doctors, and ballistics experts concluded that he was most likely killed by ground fire from an Australian machine gun. His eventual successor as commander of the fighter group was Hermann Göring.

Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia