Revenge of the Red Baron Page #4

That will be a fine thing, Father.

When this is over,

we'll have to put things to their rights.

We'll use the army to

clean out the socialist rabble.

Put things back to rights, Father?

Do you really think so?

Workers Party. Peasants presuming to

make policy this war will put an end to.

Things will be different when it's over.

That's a safe judgment, Father.

Last night, I was reading

the history of Frederick the Great

and his son, Manfred, the Teutonic knight.

A great hero.

Your name, my boy.

Do you suppose he enjoyed the sun?

One should.

In Italy, he fought against great odds.

He died. Was buried on the field.

To live forever.

To be disinterred by his enemies,

and his bones left to bleach

on the banks of a river.

The German people forget nothing.

Except the name of his favorite stallion

and the town where his mistress lived.

I wish you had married, or even...

There was no time.

- How long does it take a man to...

- Forget himself?

- Not so long as it takes to love.

- Certainly.

Still, I would like to see

what the future holds for us.

I believe

that's the last thing you want, Father.

After the war, we'll set things right again.

It'll be like it was before.

For God's sake, move those planes!

Get my plane started.

We'll show those bastards!

Come, let's get them!

Switches off.

- Where are you hit?

- I don't know.

Oh, God, look at my leg.

- I feel like I've got a damn...

- It's hell back there.

They wrecked every plane in the line.

Nobody got off the ground.

It's like the trenches.

They brought the trenches to us.

The whole, bloody, sweet, safe world,

going up in flames, it was.

It was lovely. It was. It was lovely.

Lieutenant, have you any count

on aircrafts destroyed?

Anywhere from 15 to 20.

Everything visible was hit.

- What about personnel?

- I beg your pardon?

He means, how many of the bastards

did we kill? We killed plenty.

They were still in the mess hall.

We thought if we hit them at supper time,

it would be rather like...

The last supper.

You destroyed the ammunition

and hit the officers' mess.

What about the barracks?

May, you hit the long brown building.

Yes, I hit that twice.

I bet that was the barracks.

No. No, that would be the hospital.

Am I to understand that my people

have bombed a hospital?

Did you see a Red Cross flag in front of

the building or painted on top of it?

There was so much smoke,

I couldn't see anything.

Then it wasn't a hospital, was it?

I beg your pardon, Major.

Does the placement of a flag

determine a hospital?

The Hague Convention makes clear

that the absence of such marking...

Would the presence of wounded men,

and doctors and nurses,

have anything to do

with your classification?

Essentially, no.

Colonel, I'm afraid

the cricket match is over.

You'll be receiving detailed orders soon

for strafing attacks,

ambushes of officer personnel,

destruction of all classes of supplies,

including medical.

Are there any limits left, Major?

We didn't initiate

this raising of the stakes,

but we have to match them, of course.

Really no choice.

Is there?

Herr Rittmeister, thank God you're back.

The British, they...

Everything's gone all to hell.

Lothar. Where's my brother?

They shot him. They strafed him

on the field while he was taking off.

- Where is he?

- He's alive. He got a bullet in the leg.

Do you want to see him?

Later.

We have an entire squadron

to put back together.

What do we have left?

You mean planes?

Hell, take a look around you.

It would take two days just to

find parts enough to put one together.

Call Werner.

Have him meet me over by the hangar.

What?

Voss. I want Voss. I need him. Now!

Herr Rittmeister,

Voss died the day you fell.

Of course.

That's right. I remember.

I want a status report

from all officers.

I don't want hysterical surmise.

I want to know

if there are any planes we can fly,

how soon we can get replacements,

and when we'll be able

to land on the field next.

I want each of you...

Who's in charge around here?

I'm von Richthofen.

What have you got there?

What do I have?

I have a baker's dozen of planes for you.

Fokker's planes.

All right.

Let's get them uncrated and assembled.

Everyone will have to

do the work of three men

if we want to attack the British

this afternoon.

We didn't lose a plane.

That's the beauty of it.

It's only the beginning.

And with the Americans here...

Oh, my God! We'll smash them to pieces.

You don't seem very happy about that.

Oh, I feel fine about it.

It's just that I thought we could

throw off the pretense. Get on with it.

You're right.

I wonder if that Hawker

didn't know something.

What? What could he have known?

That we have to pretend to go mad.

I think you've been at it too long.

After all, we're not talking

about philosophy.

War is a problem in applied physics.

Isn't it?

Yeah, a problem in physics.

Flag party, present arms.

You bastards!

My God!

My God!

I thought we had wiped them out.

No, we've made a mistake.

A miscalculation, like in physics.

Goering. Lieutenant Goering.

Sir?

You left formation

over the British aerodrome.

You were seen strafing medical personnel.

I did my duty, Herr Rittmeister.

- It was my judgment.

- You have no judgment.

And all your judgment does is win you

silver trophies while we lose the war.

God damn it!

What is the sense of playing with them?

Tomorrow there'll be at us again.

If I were in command, I'd bomb them,

strafe them, gas them!

Attention!

What the hell would you do

with a command?

You don't make war. You're not a soldier.

You're an assassin!

The soldiers are losing.

I make war to win.

It doesn't matter how.

It may come to that,

but it will not start in my squadron.

Get out of my sight.

And Goering.

Sir?

If you should make

another such judgment,

you needn't concern yourself

with the command,

because I'll go to the Emperor

to see you shot.

Lieutenant Brown, the readers

of The Toronto Star want to know

about Canada's newest ace.

What is there to know?

- I'm just a technician. I change things.

- Change things?

Put a plane in front of me with a man in it,

I change them into a wreck and a corpse.

Well, how do you like France?

Yeah, it's a nice country, isn't it?

Lots of my friends will be staying

after the war.

How do you like

the French girls, Lieutenant?

With both their arms and legs, I think.

The German planes,

are they dangerous?

The Germans, they're dangerous.

Planes, they're dangerous too.

They kill as many Germans as we do.

The same way ours do us.

But now that we outnumber the Germans,

we're winning, aren't we?

How in Christ's name do I know?

I go out in the morning

and try to stay alive till I run out of petrol.

One day I come back and

they tell me that I'm an ace.

But you've shot down

eight German planes.

Is it eight?

God almighty, I thought it was 100.

I keep shooting them down but he's

always up there again in the morning.

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