Cedric Bassett Popkin (20 June 189026 January 1968) was an Australian soldier considered most likely to have killed "The Red Baron". Popkin was an

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-ba ...

(AA) machine gunner with the

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(AIF) during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Early life

Cedric Bassett Popkin was born in

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on 20 June 1890 and was a carpenter by trade. When he enlisted in the AIF, in

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on 6 May 1916, he was living in Palmwoods, Queensland.

First World War

Entry into service

Popkin left Australia on 20 October with the 7th Machine Gun Company on HMAT ''Port Lincoln''. By April 1918, Popkin – who had achieved the rank of

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– was a gunner in the 24th Machine Gun Company (an element of the 4th Machine Gun Battalion) stationed in the Somme Valley,

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Death of the Baron

At about 10:35 a.m. on 21 April, 1918, Richthofen, flying his red Fokker Dr.I, engaged

Sopwith Camel The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and became one of the b ...

s from 209 Squadron,

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

(RAF). He pursued a Camel piloted by a

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, Lieutenant Wilfrid May. In turn the Baron was chased by another Canadian pilot, Captain Roy Brown. The three planes flew over Morlancourt Ridge, in the 4th Division's sector, and Popkin – using a

Vickers machine gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a Water cooling, water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more me ...

– and other Australian machine gunners and riflemen also fired at Richthofen. The Baron was hit by a .303 calibre bullet which passed diagonally from right to left through his chest. He then made a hasty but controlled landing, in a field on a hill near the Bray-Corbie road, just north of Vaux-sur-Somme. One witness, Gunner George Ridgway, stated that when he and other Australian soldiers reached the plane, Richthofen was still alive but died moments later. Another eyewitness, Sergeant Ted Smout, reported that Richthofen's last word was "''kaputt''" ("finished") immediately before he died. The RAF credited the "kill" to Brown, although it is now considered all but certain by historians, doctors, and ballistics experts that Richthofen was actually killed by an AA machine gunner firing from the ground. The identity of the person who shot the Baron remains uncertain; .303 ammunition was the standard ammunition for all machine guns and rifles used by

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forces during World War I. Many experts believe that the shot probably came from Popkin, though some believe that William John "Snowy" Evans may have been responsible. '' Unsolved History: Death of the Red Baron'', 2002,

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Autopsies revealed that the wound which killed the Baron was caused by a bullet moving in an upward motion. It was reported that a spent .303 bullet was found inside Richthofen's clothing. These facts, and the angle at which the bullet passed through Richthofen's body, suggest that he was killed by a long distance, low velocity shot from a ground-based weapon. Many Australian riflemen were also shooting at the Baron at the time, so one of them may have fired the fatal shot. However, Popkin was an experienced AA gunner, the volume of fire from the Vickers was far greater (at least 450 rounds per minute) than the bolt-action

Lee–Enfield The Lee–Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the standard service rifle of th ...

rifles (up to 30 rounds per minute) used by the infantry, and Popkin was the only machine gunner known to have fired at Richthofen from the right, and from a long distance, immediately before he landed.

Wounded in action

On 19 June 1918, Popkin received a shrapnel wound to his right leg, which was later amputated. He was invalided back to Australia on 5 January 1919, arriving on 7 March.

Later life

After being discharged from the army, Popkin worked once more as a carpenter. He spent most of the remainder of his life in

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and the Northern Rivers region of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. In 1964, he told the '' Brisbane Courier-Mail'': "I am fairly certain it was my fire which caused the Baron to crash, but it would be impossible to say definitely that I was responsible ... As to pinpointing without doubt the man who fired the fatal shot, the controversy will never actually be resolved." He died in Tweed Heads on 26 January 1968 at the age of 77. He is buried in the Mt. Thompson Memorial Gardens at Brisbane, Australia.

Planned memorials

A memorial to Popkin is being planned for the hinterland town of Palmwoods by the local

Returned and Services League The Returned and Services League of Australia, also known as RSL, RSL Australia and the RSLA, is an independent support organisation for people who have served or are serving in the Australian Defence Force. History The League was formed in ...

(RSL) sub-branch. Another one is being planned by residents of the village of Tyalgum, where he served as

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