Red Baron's Prior Head Injury Led to Being Shot Down

From Medical News Today:

Since he was shot down and killed in 1917, much speculation has been made of who shot down the German World War I flying ace dubbed the Red Baron. A team of researchers, including a University of Missouri-Columbia neuropsychologist, found that Baron Manfred von Richthofen never would have put himself in the position to be killed that day had he not suffered a severe head injury nine months earlier. The results will be published this fall in the international journal Human Factors and Aerospace Safety.

By comparing accounts of von Richthofen’s injury and medical records, MU Health Psychology Clinical Associate Professor Daniel Orme and retired neuropsychologist Thomas L. Hyatt of Cincinnati have concluded the Baron exhibited classic signs of traumatic brain injury, including personality and cognitive changes, leading to errors in judgment that made him a sitting target in what amounted to a shooting gallery behind British lines.

After suffering the head wound on July 6, 1917, Orme says von Richthofen was disinhibited, a common consequence of a head injury, and did things he never would have before. Among those, he laid his head on a dining table in a restaurant, displaying the open wound in his scalp. The Baron also exhibited “target fixation” the day he was shot down, locking a fleeing British pilot in his sights and pursuing him into British territory at tree line level, making himself an easy target to his enemy. Research has found frontal lobe injuries affect a person’s ability to adapt behavior to changing situations. Orme also said research indicates the Baron was more moody after suffering the head injury, another classic symptom of a traumatic brain injury.

Sounds pretty plausible to me. I'm always impressed when somebody discovers something that was hidden in plain sight for many years.

Comments

[Peoria PUndit]

Oh, bull. Von Richthofen's exploits can't be explained as simple courage and skill, they have to be rationalized as some sort of *brain damage?*

A load of revisionist nonsense, that's what this is.

And it's an insult to brave pilots everywhere.

[Tom McMahon]

No, I don't think that this is what they're saying at all. In my view, von Richtofen showed a lot of courage just to fly in the war -- no parachutes in those days, you know. And as for the skill, I think the 80 kill number speaks for itself.

Still, I think it's plausible that his judgment was impaired after a head injury, from what we read here. But that wouldn't take away from his courage and skill at all.

I imagine we'll be seeing a book on this in a year or two. If it's a good one, it could be really interesting.

[Kevin Murphy]

I wonder if Dan Rather is suffering from a head injury - he seems to be suffering from "target fixation."