History Returns, World War I-Style

Saw in the paper that a Polish historian has found the Red Baron's death certificate.

It was in the Polish city of Ostrow Wielkopolski, in the western part of the country. The city was once in German hands.

The historian, Maciej Kowalczyk, said that he was surprised that it was such an ordinary statement.

"It is a small document, just like for any other ordinary soldier," Kowalczyk said.

Perhaps, since the Allies gave Manfred von Richthofen, otherwise known as The Red Baron, a full-scale miliary funeral after he had been shot down in 1918--no one exactly knows who did it; perhaps either a French pilot or Australian artillery--with a 21-gun salute, Kowalczyk would have reason to ask that.

Von Richthofen shot down 80 Allied planes, far more than anyone else in the war. His daring and skills were legendary. But the accumulative odds of him surviving the war--since the average lifespan of a pilot was around 30 days--caught up with him

On the other hand: Once he was dead--like for the rest of us--what did it matter?

Someone will now be able to add that to a later biography of the famous pilot, perhaps, as an ironic postscript; not to mention that it was unearthed more than 90 years after the event, all the way into the next century.

History returns. Always has. Always will.