March and April of 1917 saw a thrust of German air power near Arras against Allied forces that outnumbered the Germans by an average of 3 to 1. Jasta 11 was in the thick of it, and those two months saw Richthofen bring down another 31 aircraft, surpassing Boelcke’s old record. Under his tutelage, the pilots of Jasta 11 were fast improving, and competition between them and the fliers of Jasta Boelcke was friendly but fierce. Allied fliers began referring to Richthofen’s squadron as the ‘Flying Circus’ because of its brightly colored planes, highlighted in red to match their leader’s.

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During this period, Richthofen had two close calls. The first occurred shortly after his 25th victory, when enemy fire ruptured his fuel tanks and forced him to shut off his engine, lest it explode, and land near Henin Lietard. April 2 saw another near miss when (according to Richthofen) he was fired upon and hit from the ground by the observer of a Sopwith 1Y2 Strutter two-seater he had just brought down near Givenchy. In his first report, Richthofen claims to have returned fire and killed the observer, although later he said he held back and did not shoot again despite the dying observer’s attack.

The surviving British pilot, however, insisted that his observer was in no condition to fire after their plane hit the ground. Werner Voss, Richthofen’s friend and competitor from Jasta Boelcke, saw the incident and was cited as a witness to Richthofen’s restraint from shooting. The uncertainty of this exchange re-mains the only blemish on Richthofen’s record for chivalry in combat.

By the time Richthofen went on welldeserved leave in May, he had led Jasta I I to more than 100 victories. Lothar von Richthofen, since joining the air service in his brother Manfred’s footsteps, had also done well. Within a month of j ining up with his brother’s squadron, he, too, had made a name for himself with 20 victories, He was left in charge of Jasta 11 while Manfred toured Germany, meeting with the kaiser and other dignitaries, as well as hunting animals and visiting his mother at home in Schweidnitz.

Richthofen returned to the front on June 14 with new orders to organize four Jagdstaffeln into a single wing. Jastas 4, 6, 10 and 11 became Jagdgeschwader I (JG.I). As Richthofen assumed command as Rittmeister of JG.I in the Courtrai region, he passed on his command of Jasta 11 to Leutnant Kurt Wolff.

While leading Jasta 11 as its JG.I commander on July 6, Richthofen became involved in an epic dogfight with the British that quickly escalated until there were as many as 40 aircraft involved. A chance shot from an F.E.2d, 1,200 feet away, cleaved a 2-inch-long groove in Richthofen’s skull. He was temporarily paralyzed and blinded, and his Albatros fell out of control. Finally regaining the use of his limbs a few thousand feet above the ground, he cut the engine, tore his goggles off, and looked directly at the sun in an effort to clear his vision.

Realizing he was behind the German lines, once he regained his sight, Richthofen restarted his engine at 150 feet and searched for a suitable place to set down. Losing his strength and blacking out, he was finally forced to make an emergency landing. The airplane tore down some telephone wires before it came to a rest, and Richthofen tumbled out of his cockpit. He was still conscious when aid came and transported him to St. Nicholas’ Hospital in Courtrai.

Despite his nearly fatal wound, Richthofen put himself back on duty at JG.I less than three weeks later, against doc-tors’ recommendations. He was plagued by headaches from the bone fragments still lodged under his scalp and by nausea during flight. But he fought on, all the while insisting that Lothar, also wounded in battle, should not return until fully recovered.

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