The Wunderkammer of the Mild Colonial Boy, Esq., a Reactionary Tory Gentleman, who armed only with a Steampowered Babbage Engine and Pure Intentions, wanders the Time Streams and Aetheric Plane gathering an Eccentric Hodgepodge of Curiousities, Frivolities, Whimsicalities and Nonsense.
Q. Why is your Tumblelog called "My Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck by Lightning"?
A. Because "My Grandmother's Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck by Lightning" wouldn't fit in the available space.
The image of the ‘Red Baron’ was created when Richthofen had his Albatros D.III painted almost entirely red. Even the iron cross national insignia was given a red ‘wash’ which had to be enhanced in this photograph.
‘For whatever reasons, one fine day I hit upon the idea of having my crate painted glaring red. The result was that absolutely everyone knew of my red bird. Also, my opponents seemed to be not completely unaware’
When Richthofen posed for this photograph in Cologne on 1 May 1917, his days as a neophyte student observer were two years behind him. But it must have given him personal satisfaction to stand before an Albatros trainer similar to the one in which he had made his first flights. The 52-victory ace and Pour Ie Merite recipient was on his way to meet Kaiser Wilhelm II the following day. Richthofen’s luncheon appointment with the Supreme Warlord also fell on his own 25th (and last) birthday, after which he went home to Schweidnitz to work on his memoirs.
Manfred von Richthofen’s first Albatros D.III was passed down to Lothar, seen here receiving advice from Carl Allmenroder. Some sources indicate that the aircraft was mahogany coloured with a red band, barely visible here, between the cockpit and national marking. Lothar regarded the aeroplane and a pair of Manfred’s old flying-gloves as talismanic, keeping him from harm and aiding his early success.
‘As luck would have it, I shot down my first ten Englishmen armed with these gloves and this machine,’
