The Red Baron

The Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, a World War I ace German pilot is such an iconic figure that even IMDb has a brief biography:

Born in 1892 in Breslau, Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) Richthofen was the son of a hereditary baron. A daredevil for life, he was an avid hunter and mountain climber. With Germany’s entrance into WW1 in 1914, Richthofen mobilized in a Silesian cavalry unit, and survived the first battle of Verdun in 1915. Soon after, he transferred to the Luftwaffe (Imperial German Air Force) as a bombardier. By 1916, however, he was tapped for training in the then-new art of fighter combat, flying an Albatros D.2 in March, 1916. By the end of 1916, Richthofen was a certified ace, having downed over 20 aircraft, including the number one British ace up to that time, Maj. Lanoe Hawker. Due to his tally, Richthofen earned the medal “Pour le Merite” in December 1916. Throughout the rest of the war, the legend of the Red Baron continued to grow, as did his kill tally, officially reaching 80 kills in April 1918. On April 21 of that year, Richthofen led a routine strafing mission against the British trenches in the Somme region and was killed with a single .303 bullet to the chest, most likely fired from the ground.

About the Red Baron’s last flight, Wikipedia says:

Richthofen was fatally wounded just after 11 a.m. on 21 April 1918, while flying over Morlancourt Ridge, near the Somme River.

At the time, the Baron had been pursuing (at very low altitude) a Sopwith Camel piloted by a novice Canadian pilot, Lieutenant Wilfrid “Wop” May of No. 209 Squadron, Royal Air Force. In turn, the Baron was spotted and briefly attacked by a Camel piloted by a school friend (and flight Commander) of May’s, Canadian Captain Arthur “Roy” Brown, who had to dive steeply at very high speed to intervene, and then had to climb steeply to avoid hitting the ground. Richthofen turned to avoid this attack, and then resumed his pursuit of May.

It was almost certainly during this final stage in his pursuit of May that Richthofen was hit by a single .303 bullet, which caused such severe damage to his heart and lungs that it must have produced a very speedy death. In the last seconds of his life, he managed to make a hasty but controlled landing in a field on a hill near the Bray-Corbie road, just north of the village of Vaux-sur-Somme, in a sector controlled by the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). One witness, Gunner George Ridgway, stated that when he and other Australian soldiers reached the aircraft, Richthofen was still alive but died moments later. Another eye witness, Sgt Ted Smout of the Australian Medical Corps, reported that Richthofen’s last word was “kaputt”.

His Fokker Dr.I, 425/17, was not badly damaged by the landing, but it was soon taken apart by souvenir hunters.

The net is full of quotes which may be due to the Red Baron. Here is one from BrainyQuotes which shows his mastery of Lagrangian dynamics:

I never was good at learning things. I did just enough work to pass. In my opinion it would have been wrong to do more than was just sufficient, so I worked as little as possible.