Did The Red Baron Shoot Down a UFO?

World War 1, like many other wars, was renowned for its harsh conditions. Extremely brutal, soldiers on the front would spend years fighting trench warfare to possibly only gain a few hundred yards of ground. The conditions were especially dangerous as these trenches were filled with rats, corpses and disease. Despite all this, military propaganda needed heroes and individuals that would keep spirits up during the war. In Germany, one such figure was Baron Manfred von Richtofen, or perhaps better known today as “the Red Baron”. 

The Red Baron was one of the most skilled and dangerous fighter pilots of WW1 and possibly all time. Loved by his country and respected by his enemies, the Red Baron would shoot down at least 80 planes during his military career. In April 1918, he would be fatally wounded in a mission, around 6 months before the end of war. His death is somewhat controversial as some say Canadian pilot, Arthur Roy Brown shot the plane down while others say it was anti machine gun fire. Despite this, many legends surround the Red Baron and his war heroics. One legend though concerns something unique though.  

According to German Air Force ace Peter Waitzrik, he says watched the Red Baron shoot down a UFO with orange lights over Belgium in 1917. Waitzrik claims that on an early morning mission in Western Belgium , a strange craft appeared in the clear blue sky. He and the Red Baron were terrified because they had never seen anything like it. The Ace pilot then opened fire and directly hit the UFO. 

Waitzrik claims that after being hit the UFO crashed in the nearby woods and two baldheaded aliens jumped out of the craft and disappeared into the woods. 

After Waitzrik and the Baron returned to base, they reported the incident but were told to keep quiet and never mention it again. 

It’s been stated by Alien Hunter Scott Waring that the Baron most likely hit the antenna, and that fatally damaged the craft. 

(Did this UFO stop for repairs?)

Throughout history, war has produced more sophisticated and deadly technology. The American Civil war saw the beginning of land mines, WW1 introduced machine guns and airplanes among other things, WW2 saw the beginning of radar and nuclear weapons. 

In the spring of 1917, when the craft was allegedly shot down, the United States had recently entered the war. Both the Baron and Waitrick were aware that the enemy might have new craft. As such, to this day no one uses circular aircraft with no visible propulsion systems.  

After this story came out from Waitrick, skeptics immediately pointed out the story must be fraudulent. Waitrick waited until 1997 to tell the story publicly and before then only told his daughter and wife. 

Also, some skeptics point out that with advanced Alien technology, there’s simply no way a plane from back then could surprise a craft and that a machine gun could damage it. 

Still, many say that this story has some legitimate aspects to it. For one, why did this 105-year-old man decide to come out and tell his story. There doesn’t appear to be any sort of thing he gained by telling his story. It seems more likely this was the case of someone wanting to get something off their chest before they passed away. 

(UFO Crash witnessed by thousands of people -read here)

Also, it’s seems plausible as well that he kept this secret for years as he would have been the only one to confirm the story since the Baron was dead. Also, there was quite a negative stigma on people claiming to see these flying saucers back then. We can imagine that Waitrick wanted to protect his family and might not have wanted to put them at risk. 

Finally, as for the argument that machine guns couldn’t hurt a UFO, it’s probable that this craft was caught off guard. We also know that UFOs do crash as we’ve seen this with quite a few cases. 

(The 2006 Chicago Airport UFO Sighting)

While we will probably never know if this crash actually occurred, perhaps somewhere in Germany there is a file cabinet with a record of this report. Perhaps one day, Germany and other countries, will release cases like this.