War - Ww1 - The Death Of Baron Manfred Von Richthofen Poem by Paul Warren

He was the best fight pilot of the Great War
With 80 victories in the air and was looking for more
On the 21 April 1918 during the last German offensive
He chased a British Sopwith Camel down so pensive
Until he flew over these Australian Trench Lines
The 11th Battalion Lewis gunners took a shot so close so fine

The Canadian pilot Roy Brown had also followed him down
And he took a shot at the Red Baron von Richthofen around
The Australians saw pieces of the Baron's cockpit fall
With his plane hitting the ground in his final death call
There were bullet wounds found on the Baron's chest
When they found him dead in the red triplane at its rest

When surgeon's examined his body they decided
The angle of the wounds on his body had so provided
That he had died by a shot from an Australian gun
And that the Baron died by anti- aircraft fire that was done
But a conjecture started on how he had died that day
With the Canadians insisting Brown had shot him down that way

The Baron's triplane was hacked apart for souvenirs of the war
With even his flying boots finding their way to the Australians and more
So the Legend grew of a warrior for Germany who lost his life
Against an enemy who won the Great War for all its strife.

© Paul Warren Poetry