Roy Brown ( RAF officer ) Captain Arthur Roy Brown , DSC and bar RNAS ( 23 December 1893 – 9 March 1944 ) was a Canadian World War I flying ace . The Royal Air Force officially credited Brown with shooting down Manfred von Richthofen , the " Red Baron " , although it is in fact unlikely that Brown fired the bullet that caused his death . What is less well known is that Brown never lost a pilot in his flight during combat , a rare distinction for an air unit commander of that war . This was due largely to his demands for a " breaking in " period in which new pilots flew over the fights just to see how they worked . Early years . Brown was born to upper - middle class parents in Carleton Place , 30 miles ( 50 km ) west of Ottawa . His family home still exists , located at 38 Mill Street , just down from the Town Hall . He was the middle of five children . He had two older sisters , Margaret and Bessie , and two younger brothers , Horace and Howard . His father had started business as a miller , but branched out into electrical generation when the first power grids were being set up around the start of the 20th century . He met many doctors when he was in electrical generation . His father eventually owned a power company in the town . Though Brown did well in high school , he transferred to a business school to study accounting in order to eventually take over the family business . Following this course , he wanted to continue to university to study business administration , but he needed his high school matriculation , which he technically did not have . He took a course at the Victoria High School in Edmonton from 1913 - 15 to get his high - school diploma . There he befriended Wilfrid R . " Wop " May . Flight training . Brown enlisted in 1915 as an Officer Cadet at the Army Officers ' Training . He joined the Royal Naval Air Service for pilot training in 1915 , graduating on 24 November . Wartime service . As a flight sub - lieutenant , Brown set sail for England on November 22 , 1915 and underwent further training at Chingford . On 2 May 1916 , Brown crashed his Avro 504 emerging apparently unscathed , though next morning he experienced severe back pain as he had broken a vertebra . He spent two months in hospital and in September 1916 was posted to Eastchurch Gunnery School . In January 1917 , he was sent to Cranwell to complete advanced training . In March 1917 , Brown was posted to No . 9 Naval Squadron , flying coastal patrols off the Belgian coast in Sopwith Pup s . In April , B Flight , which included Brown , was attached to the RFC to assist during the Battle of Arras . Brown fell ill at this time and missed " Bloody April " , a period when British casualties were very high . In June 1917 , Brown was posted to No . 11 Naval Squadron , and in July he was briefly posted to No . 4 Naval Squadron before returning to No . 11 Naval Squadron later that month . On 17 July , he achieved his first " kill " , an Albatros D . III , flying a Pup . He was promoted to flight lieutenant , and gathered another three unconfirmed kills . No . 11 was disbanded in mid - August 1917 , and Brown returned to No . 9 , equipped with the Sopwith Camel . On 6 October 1917 , Brown was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross ( DSC ) . Soon after , Brown was made flight commander , a role in which he excelled . No . 9 was posted to the Somme area in early 1918 , and was forced to retreat during the German spring offensive between 20 and 29 March . The tempo of operations increased , with the entire squadron typically flying two missions a day . Col . Raymond Collishaw noted on an April visit that Brown looked exhausted : he had lost , his hair was prematurely turning grey , and his eyes were bloodshot and sunken . Also contaminated rabbit had left him severely sickened with gastritis . Against Collishaw ' s suggestions , Brown refused to quit flying , and shot down another two aircraft on 11 and 12 April . On 1 April 1918 , the RFC and RNAS merged into the Royal Air Force . Brown ' s No . 9 Squadron RNAS became No . 209 RAF . Fighting the3 Red Baron . On the morning of 21 April , No . 209 was on patrol when they became engaged in combat with fighters of " Jagdstaffel 11 " , led by Manfred von Richthofen , the " Red Baron " . A newcomer to No . 209 , Brown ' s school friend , Lt . Wop May , had been instructed to stay clear of any fight and watch . May noticed an enemy pilot doing the same thing . That pilot was the Red Baron ' s cousin , Lt . Wolfram von Richthofen , who had been given the same instructions as May . May attacked Wolfram and soon found himself in the main fight , firing at several fleeting targets until his guns jammed . May dived out of the fight , and Manfred von Richthofen gave chase down to ground level . Brown saw May in trouble and dived steeply in an attempt to rescue his friend . His attack was necessarily of fairly short duration , as he was obliged to climb steeply to avoid crashing into the ground , losing sight of both Richthofen and May . What happened next remains controversial to this day , but it seems highly probable that Richthofen turned to avoid Brown ' s attack , and then , instead of climbing out of reach of ground fire and prudently heading for home , remained at low altitude and resumed his pursuit of May , who was still zig - zagging , as he had not noticed that Richthofen had been momentarily distracted . It should be noted that it would have been physically impossible for Richthofen to have done this had he already received the wound from which he died . May and Richthofen ' s route now took them at low level over some of the most heavily defended points of the Somme . Franks and Bennett have suggested that Richthofen had become lost , as the winds that day were blowing the " wrong way " , towards the west , and the fight had slowly drifted over to the Allied side . The front was also in a highly fluid state at the time , in contrast to the more common static trench lines earlier in the Great War , and landmarks can be confusing in very low level flight . Australian Army machine gun ners on the ground fired at Richthofen , who eventually crashed near the Australian trenches . Upon viewing Richthofen ' s body the following day , Brown wrote that " there was a lump in my throat . If he had been my dearest friend , I could not have felt greater sorrow " . His initial combat report was that the fight with Richthofen was " indecisive " - this was altered by his commanding officer to " decisive " . In any case , Brown was officially credited with the kill by the RAF , shortly after receiving a Bar to his DSC , at least partly in recognition of this feat . Memorials , tributes and relics . Captain Roy Brown , who was officially credited with shooting down Richthofen , donated the seat of the Fokker triplane in which the German flying ace made his final flight to Royal Canadian Military Institute in 1920 . A memorial plaque titled " Captain A . Roy Brown , D . S . C . 1893 - 1944 " , was erected at the Carleton Place Public Library by the Ontario Heritage Foundation , in memory of Brown . In November 2012 , the town of Carleton Place further paid tribute to Brown with a prominent mural on the town ' s main street . Town Councellor Rob Probert told those assembled for the official unveiling , that , as he beheld the mural , he knew , " this was a work of consequence and not just a piece of art dressing up a piece of the main street . " Brown in film and fiction . He was portrayed by Don Stroud in the 1971 film " Von Richthofen and Brown " . In the 2008 film " The Red Baron " , British actor Joseph Fiennes plays a character based on Captain Brown . The film has little if any connection with historical events - for example Brown is depicted as having been shot down by Richthofen in 1916 and subsequently escaping from a German Prisoner of War camp . There is also a later scene in which Brown and Richthofen crash in no man ' s land and share a friendly drink . Although the film states that it is unknown who killed Richthofen , it is implied that Brown was responsible . " Arrowdreams " , a Prix Aurora Award - winning anthology of alternate history short stories involving Canada , includes " Misfire " , a story by Shane Simmons in which Brown wounds rather than kills Richthofen . Richthofen survives World War I and eventually commands the Luftwaffe in World War II , displacing Hermann Göring , and leading them to an unqualified victory in the Battle of Britain .