Historical Accuracy
The film takes a number of liberties with factual accuracy. Richthofen himself is portrayed as a proto-pacificist and a gentleman, a man who instructs his men to aim for the machine, not the man flying it. In reality, the contrary was true. He circulated to his pilots the basic rule which he wanted them to fight by: "Aim for the man and don't miss him. If you are fighting a two-seater, get the observer first; until you have silenced the gun, don't bother about the pilot".
A major plot point involves Werner Voss installing a Bentley engine in his Fokker Dr.1 Triplane. Later Anthony Fokker complains about German pilots using Allied engines. In reality the Fokker Dr.1 was powered by the Oberursel Ur II 9-cylinder rotary engine, an unlicensed bolt-for-bolt copy of the Le Rhône 9J engine used by such Allied fighters as the Nieuport 17 and the Sopwith Camel, therefore Anthony Fokker had no grounds to complain about Allied engines powering his fighter. Historical truth is that the Bentley engine was an improved design, lighter in weight and giving more power than the Le Rhône original design, and even better compared to the marginally lower quality Oberursel copy. This allows one to understand why the real Werner Voss actually changed the engine of his Fokker triplane.
In addition, Captain Roy Brown is depicted as having been shot down by Richthofen in 1916 and subsequently escaping from a German POW camp. There is also a later scene in which Brown and Richthofen crash in no man's land and share a friendly drink. Neither of these events have any historical basis, for the two never met except in combat.
A Handley Page bomber shot down in one scene has a Royal Mail logo painted on the fuselage. The Royal Mail didn't exist at this time, it would have been the GPO. Richthofen also did not smoke.
When Richthofen fought Lanoe Hawker, Hawker was flying an Airco DH.2 'pusher' style fighter, not an SE5. Also the "Grim Reaper" painted on the side of his aircraft in the movie was in real life painted on the aircraft of the French Escadrille N.94, not Hawker's. The death of Vosss etc has no historical basis, he was killed while Richthofen was on leave, in one of the most famous dogfights of WW1 involving 6 SE5's led by James McCudden.
Read more about this topic: The Red Baron (film)
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