Manfred von Richthofen was a legendary figure from Bruno’s past life. He was among the first aviators in world history and had scored a resounding number of kills, making him also among humanity’s greatest fighter aces.
Due to his heritage as a minor nobleman and the awards he had been granted in his life for his service to Kaiser and Fatherland, there were some romantics among historians who fondly referred to the man as the “Last Knight of the Sky.”
But it would be many a year before Manfred gained such a prestigious reputation. The Great War was still at most three years away, and it would take even longer before Germany’s rivals could properly field fighter pilots and planes.
Instead, Manfred was just nineteen years old at the moment. He was barely an adult by modern standards, and by the standards of the era, he had yet to even qualify for that, as the age of majority within the German Reich was 21 years.
Even so, he was already an active-duty serviceman within the German Army and a full-fledged officer in the Kaiser’s service as a fighter pilot. Yet when Bruno approached him, the atmosphere could only be described as “weird.”
Both men had a similar reaction. Bruno himself was gazing upon a legendary figure from his past life, one he had never had the opportunity to meet, as he was born decades after Manfred’s death. The Red Baron was a figure who invoked a sense of respect on levels that almost bordered on reverence.
Yet Manfred had done nothing to earn this degree of respect from Bruno. Thus, he had to force his naturally anxious heart to remain as calm as a tranquil forest. And though Bruno didn’t realize it, Manfred felt a similar level of admiration for Bruno.
Bruno was already quite the legendary and iconic figure in the German Reich. He was the youngest Generaloberst in history. Born from a family of Junkers, he rose to become a prominent figure not just in Germany but on the global stage. His image was carved into the minds of young men who wished to prove themselves in war.
Barely into his thirties, Bruno held the third-highest rank a man could obtain in the German Army. In addition to this, he was a veteran of three wars, performing admirably in each of them, so much so that the Tsar had awarded him the noble title of Prince within the Russian Empire.
His military achievements were only outmatched by his pursuits in business, amassing a substantial fortune that would put the royal treasuries of several minor kingdoms to shame, and in only the span of a decade, no less. Bruno was considered a philanthropist, a patron of the arts, and a large supporter of the Church.
To a young man like Manfred, who was just starting his military career, it was an equally daunting task to stand before Bruno, whom he held in such regard as a role model. Bruno decided to break the awkward silence as he saluted the man and tried his best to instill a sense of calmness within himself as he met one of the men he had admired since the childhood of his past life.
“Lieutenant Manfred von Richthofen, I have been watching your performance. You seem to fly exceptionally well. I have to ask, what do you think of the He-51? How does she fare in the sky?”
To say that Manfred was surprised that Bruno knew his identity was most certainly an understatement, but as he looked over at the smirk on the face of the General in charge of the Luftstreitkräfte, he couldn’t help but surmise that the man had informed Bruno of his identity.
It took the young fighter pilot a moment to fully understand Bruno’s question before he spoke of the aircraft.
“I’m not going to lie, sir, the plane handles exceptionally well, and the controls are very intuitive. I have seen photos of what we will be contending with should we go to war with Italy, and I must say that our planes are of significantly superior quality compared to our rivals on the global stage…”
There was no doubt about this, as Bruno had been responsible for introducing the He-51 into the world far earlier than it should have been. The enemy would be flying wood and canvas planes that Bruno would accurately refer to as “death traps.”
His pilots, however, would be flying interwar planes built from aluminum. They were much sturdier, safer, and faster than their counterparts. In addition to this, the enemy would have to wait several years before machine guns were integrated into the fuselage, instead relying on a dedicated gunner to attack the enemy.
While Bruno’s planes made use of machine guns with incendiary rounds, which the pilot could fire via a direct line of sight, Germany’s rivals would first have their gunners use semi-automatic rifles that were incapable of being used in the trenches due to reliability issues before shifting to heavy machine guns mounted on top of the gunner’s seat.
It was only at the end of the war that planes began to use integrated machine guns capable of being fired by pilots, and by that time, whatever air force they had managed to muster under emergency circumstances would have long since been blown out of the sky.
With all of this in mind, Bruno couldn’t help but agree with Manfred’s assessment as he made a friendly gesture that was unusual for him. Bruno placed his hand on the young man’s shoulder and nodded with a confident smile on his face, assuring Manfred that he expected great things to come from his career.
“Indeed, but even without such advantages, a man of your expertise is destined to achieve greatness when the war to come finally arrives. I look forward to closely following your military career, Lieutenant. Do not disappoint me…”
That is all Bruno said before swiftly departing from the airfield. He did not realize it, but he had given Manfred a very large boost in confidence. Bruno would, of course, begin to keep an eye on several major names from history as the war ever closer approached.
After all, Manfred von Richthofen was not the only legend that would be forged in this war. And many others who would make a name for themselves during the upcoming Great War would be destined for a level of infamy only associated with history’s greatest villains.
That is, of course, if Bruno failed in his goals of preventing such a future from occurring in the first place. Who knows, with his interference in the timeline, it was possible that these names would instead be heralded as Germany’s greatest heroes. Nobody knew what the future really held for the world and its people.
Not even Bruno, even if he himself had come from a future era in a different timeline. The butterfly effect had only just begun to shape the world in subtle ways, and its lasting impact on the timeline would be far greater than Bruno ever realized.
