When Manfred von
Richthofen died on 21 April 1918, 3 Squadron AFC gave him a full military
funeral and the 5th Australian Division sent a wreath ‘to our worthy and gallant
foe’. What’s the connection between the ‘Red Baron’ and Clive Caldwell?
As a
youth, Caldwell read about about the air aces on both sides of the Great
War—Ball, McCudden, Bishop, Collishaw, King Cowper, Udet, Immelman and
Richthofen. But they all did at the time, so that is rather tenuous. There was
another connection.
Caldwell was a natural
athlete and spent much of his leisure time on the athletic track, running for
the East Sydney Amateur Athletics Club. He went to Melbourne for the 1929–30
Australian Championships in January 1930 where he participated in the high jump
and javelin throw but was unplaced in both events. Third place-getter in the
javelin throw was Anthony ‘Nick’ Winter, the 1924 Olympic Triple Jump champion.
Caldwell and Winter kept in contact and in 1943 Winter presented Caldwell with
a unique dress ring made from a souvenired piece of steel from Richthofen’s
shot-down aircraft (Nick had enlisted
in the Australian Imperial Force on 31 July 1915. He embarked for Egypt with
reinforcements for the 7th Light Horse Regiment in October and was posted to
the Australian Army Service Corps as a driver in January 1916. He arrived in
France in June 1916 and was employed mainly in depot duties.)
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