Manfred von Richthofen

[paulgranger]

On the date of his death, a thought for him, and all those who fell victim to his guns

[mancpal]

Not sure my great uncle would agree, after all Manfreds brother Lothar did shoot him down!

[David Filsell]

Fascinating, Did he survive or leave any account of the action?

[mancpal]

David

My great uncle was Lt William Lewis Thomas (RFC/RAF). The first time he was shot down took place on 11/3/18. He was flying a Bristol F2b (A7227) when his Squadron (48 sqn) became involved in a scrap with Jasta 11 (LvR's Squadron) near St Quentin. Neither he nor his observer (Cpl Bowles) were injured. There is however a small quandary, the RFC said the incident occured around noon whereas Von Richthofens claim states the time as 1.10 pm. and he claimed another F2b (A7114) who's observer was wounded before 1pm. On the list of LvR's claims that I have A7114 does not appear whereas Bills plane does. It has been suggested that the hour discrepancy could have been because nobody at the airfield changed the clock. This seems perfectly reasonable to me as changing the clocks had only begun the previous year and whilst everyone of us has grown up with this system, it was a new system at the time. We are all bombarded by the media telling us when to change clocks whereas in those days it wouldn't have occurred. I find it unlikely LvR would have stated time and serial number if he wasn't responsible.

Bill was back in the air in another Bristol on 23/4/18 when he was wounded by rifle fire through the leg. The weather reports for this day suggested the cloud was low forcing pilots to fly low making them susceptible to ground fire.

It has also been suggested that Cpl J Bowles may in fact have been Francis Bowles, later to become an ace with 5 victories.

Until last year I thought Bill had only served with the RFC/RAF. It transpires that he joined the 6th Manchesters (territorials) in 1908, his first overseas service began on 27/9/14 followed by Gallipoli attached to the 1/1st E.Lancs RE (signals) and arrived home from there via hospital ship suffering from dysentery. His recuperation took place at the 2nd Western General Hospital (Manchester) before setting off for France. Whilst in Europe his time expired (1916) so on return to the UK he joined the RFC. He finished the war back in military hospital this time with jaundice. None of the above appears to have had much of an impact on him as he lived until he was 97!

His brother Bert was with the 21st Mcrs (6th Pals) when captured at Bullecourt in 1917 and his 3 nephews were in the RAF during WW2 (1 Lancaster/Wellington pilot and 2 ground crew).

Regards

Simon

[David Filsell]

Simon,

1.10 is no problem it fits well - German time was I think still an hour ahead. No accounts of his action left?

Thanks for the reply

David

[mancpal]

David

The only other thing I have came from Trevor Henshaw (The Sky Their Battlefield) who told me that 48 Squadron were "on an offensive patrol" when the action occured. Im at varying stages with researching 6 other family members who served and also 2 from my wife's family and I do tend to flit from one to another. I believe when he was wounded he was flying solo in an F2b on an observation flight though can't for the life of me find the reference to it.

Regards

Simon

[David Filsell]

Simon,

Thanks. Good luck.

David