I thought you were talking about “Christmas Bells.”
In fact, I seem to remember (yeah, yeah) that Schulz said at one point he chose to put Snoopy in a Sopwith Camel because one of his sons had just built a model of that plane… plus he liked the name.
I still have a copy of “Flying Aces of World War I” Flying Aces of World War I - Gene Gurney - Google Books
somewhere, which I enjoyed very much as a kid.
I remember seeing an interview with Schulz where he said his son Monte came into his studio to show him the model Sopwith Camel plane he had just finished. They were talking when Charles got the inspiration to put Snoopy in goggles and helmet on his doghouse.
Achtung! Jetzt wir singen zusammen die Geschichte über den Schweinköpfigen Hund und den lieben Red Baron!
I also got this boardgame for Christmas, probably in 1965. I spent HOURS playing it:
http://www.odinartcollectables.com/images/dogfight1.jpg
I had the Sopwith Camel model, too:
http://www.ipmsusa3.org/gallery/d/287282-1/Sopwith_Camel_Revell_4419_28th.JPG
The last time I was at the Ontario Science Centre, the IMAX movie was Flight, and they had a full-scale Sopwith hanging from the ceiling. It was a beautiful, beautiful airplane!
During WWI, the Camel was the ne plus ultra if you were an Allied fighter pilot; there were some more compact versions, the Snipe and the Pup, but the Camel… The rotary engine gave it so much torque that an experienced pilot could make it dance in a dogfight (just like the Red Baron’s Fokker Triplane*). It made sense that Snoopy would fly a Camel, rather than a Neiuport or a Spad. It just wouldn’t have been the same.
Apparently, Canadian pilot Roy Brown was flying a Camel the day he shot von Richthofen down, too.
*As an aside, Tom Clancy refers to it as a “Fokker Trimotor” in one of his novels. An unforgivable error bordering on sacrilege!
Well,it said it right there in the tech manual he was copying, goddammit.
Hey everybody, this is a separate question but we can address it here: why was this particular plane called a “Sopwith Camel” anyhow? Was Mr. Sopwith the designer of it? Did it not need to use much water?
It was called the Camel because the machine guns were mounted in a “hump” between the pilot and the engine.
And it was built by the Sopwith Aviation Company, which was founded by Thomas Sopwith. The Camel’s designer was Herbert Smith, who was chief engineer for the company.
I’ve mentioned this here before, I’m sure, but every time I watch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (every Halloween, like clockwork) I’m struck by the fact that it represents a last vestigial pop-cultural memory of World War I. Of course, that special debuted, in the year of our Lord and of my birth 1966, when World War I veterans were scarcely above retirement age.
You know, there just might be a bit of Fridge Brilliance in here.
The pilot that some believe to have shot Baron Manfred von Richthofen down in the final battle was surnamed Brown.
Well, isn’t that technically Snoopy’s last name? 
Hey, my decades old German is still sufficient to translate that
“Attention! Now we will sing together the story of the pig-headed dog and our beloved Red Baron!”
Yeah, I noticed that as a kid.
That is an interesting point. Somewhere I read “Old people today are defective - when I was a boy, old people talked about World War One and the Great Depression, but now all old people talk about is Vietnam and Woodstock.”
My understanding is WWI is still a part of UK pop culture (which makes sense - it was a much bigger deal for the UK than for the States).
And, as a child of the 60’s, I remember an episode of Jonny Quest had Race Bannon dogfighting with an old German ace in old WWI airplanes.
Starts here at 25:19.*
*Why do all German, uhm, war veterans retire to South America? :dubious:
**Did the von Richthofen family resent the Snoopy cartoons?
Did they ask for them to be discontinued?**