WORLD : Log of ‘Red Baron’ Downing Sold
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LONDON — A British fighter pilot’s log book recording the shooting down of “Red Baron” Manfred von Richthoven in World War I was sold today for $5,700.
The auction house Christie’s said a businessman in the northern English city of Manchester bought the log book in a telephone bid at the sale of aviation art and literature held at the Commonwealth Institute. The buyer wanted to remain anonymous.
The log book belonged to a friend of the late Lt. Lionel Lomas, a member of the flight led by Capt. Roy Brown, a Canadian, who is credited with shooting down the famous German ace behind British lines over the Somme battlefield on April 21, 1918.
The log records that on that day, 14 British Camel fighters attacked 24 enemy planes, shooting down three, and that Brown brought down Richthofen.
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