Captain Roy Brown is officially credited with downing Richtofen.
Forensic investigation has pretty well proven otherwise. Brown was a very sick man, flying combat with an ulcer being 'treated' with milk and whiskey.His own report states he 'fired a short burst on a red triplane at distance." The triplane continued on it's pursuit of May for some time. Richtofen passed directly in front of several australian gunners before making a very ubrupt crash landing. Richtofen was pulled from the wreckage with facial injuries and a single .303 wound that entered his right side and tumbled in a mortal path( .303 rounds were made with hollow noses under the copper jacket to induce tumbling, much like the later 5.56/.223) A man with such a wound would have mere seconds to live, which was the case, Manfred muttering what some think was 'kaput.'
The tides of war were going badly for the british RFC, so Brown was quickly credited as much for morale and propaganda.The lesson again, it is the man. You look at these three pilot's careers, all had periods of great competency and periods when they did not: May was a few seconds from becoming # 81, Richtofen was killed through a combination of physical disability and becoming locked on one goal deep in enemy territory and Brown managed to survive the war apparently knowing when to 'back off' and not wind up ramming a slower plane with decreased reflexes (one reason he broke off his attack.)
This is the stuff books on performance and technology seldom look at, which our pilot does.