Title:- Careful now! Even Aces Make Mistakes
2 Peter 3:16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
The end of the war was only months off by this time and the German Air Command faced both ever-improving British airplanes and their own dwindling numbers. The German forces now held fewer aces in thier hand. Manfred von Richthofen, alias the ‘Red Baron,’ was shot down today in 1918.The thrill of the hunt was all but gone for Baron von Richthofen, as most of his peers had already been killed and his own wounds agonized him. Though the German air doctrine he himself wrote stated that, “one should never obstinately stay with an opponent which, through bad shooting or skilful turning, he has been unable to shoot down while the battle lasts until it is far on the other side,” he nonetheless chased his British quarry far deeper into enemy territory and far lower to the ground, than his own common sense should have permitted. British ‘Pilot Officer May’ later said that it was only his erratic and untrained piloting which saved him. Richthofen followed the erratic path of this novice pilot until a single bullet, shot from behind him, passed diagonally through his chest. He crashed and burned.
After an astonishing 80 kills himself, he was dispatched by a single bullet, either from a gunner on the ground or a chasing Canadian pilot coming to the British pilot’s aid. A single bullet and the brightly coloured red tri-plane of the Red Baron disappeared forever.
Not following his own doctrine led ultimately to his own destruction. Remember that.
(As a side note, you might be interested to know that the new commander of Richthofen's squadron chose to paint his plane completely white. A good colour you would think to replace the flamboyant and flaunting red of the dead Fighter Ace? The new commander’s name was Hermann Göring. A most infamous Nazi who would rise to be head of the Luftwaffe. At the Nuremburg trials, he poisoned himself the night before his execution for crimes against humanity.)Listen:- You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; 2 Peter 3:17
Pray: - Lord, help me to hold fast my confession without wavering. The day is long, and I am tired. Come to my aid O Lord my God, Amen.
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