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Australia's Role in WW 1

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FAMOUS AUSTRALIANS Cedric Basset Popkin Shot down the Red Baron (as reported in The Sunday Times 23 November & The Australian 24 Nov. 1997) The soldier who should have been credited with ending the Red Baron's notorious killing spree was not Canadian pilot, Roy Brown 1893~1943, but a humble ground-based Australian sergeant called Cedric Basset Popkin, who lived and died in anonymity, new research shows. The baron's Fokker triplane went down near Vaux sur Somme, a severe blow to the morale of the Kaiser's tattered armies in the last year of World War I. For the past 80 years Britain's Royal Air Force has officially maintained it was an allied pilot, the Canadian Roy Brown, who downed Baron Manfred von Richthofen in a classic dogfight over the fields of France on April 21st 1918. However, British historians have uncovered witness statements that add up to the most detailed account yet of the incident. It indicates the only man who was in the right position to have shot down the Baron was Popkin. Manfred, Freiherr von Richthofen, known as the Red Baron because of his blood-coloured plane, was the most feared aviator in World War I. When he died at the age of 26, he had already been responsible for shooting down 80 allied aircraft. The aristocrat's last flight took place on a clear morning in April 1918. The brightly coloured troupe of German triplanes captained by the Red Baron, nicknamed the Flying Circus because of their bright colours, set off towards the allied lines on a routine reconnaissance mission. Once over British territory, von Richthofen chased a novice British pilot, who retreated deeper into allied territory. It was then that Captain Roy Brown dived in to save the novice. He got on to the Baron's tail, fired a burst of shots and then swooped away, his distraction complete. Moments later he saw the Baron's plane was diving towards the ground. Most historians state that von Richthofen died as a result of a shot by Brown; but the testimonies of several witnesses show this cannot be true because he was still alive more than a minute later, despite receiving a wound that would have killed him in seconds. Written testimony contradicts the official RAF version that von Richtofen was dead when he landed. One witness, Ernest Twycross, a British gunner, wrote in a letter that he had run up to the fallen plane and found the German ace covered in blood."The pilot gurgled and gasped 'War es kaput' and died," he recounted. Another letter of testimony states that von Richthofen's Folker was flying steadily back to the German lines after it had escaped Brown's attentions when it jerked vertically and started to rise, consistent with a pilot who had been shot through his right side and had jerked the control column. The angle of the hit came from under the right side of the plane; the only soldier who was firing at the moment from the necessary angle and distance was Popkin, who was 60ft from the swooping Fokker. The soldier, from Cloncurry west of Townsville, was little known even to his relatives, who could not recall his age or when he died, but remembered him as a kindly and quiet man. Like Brown, he did not appear to have talked about the incident in later life. Gail Popkin, a 49-year-old former RAAF officer, knew from her own military history that her relative had been involved in shooting down the Red Baron."I always knew the truth would come out and it would make Sergeant Popkin famous. I'm so pleased and proud of him." The testimonies were assembled by British enthusiast John Coltman between 1937 and 1939. He may have been planning to publish a book based on the statements after the war but was killed in action over Germany. Thanks goes to Neil Goodwin for sending this report to The Canadian Great War Homepage

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These pages were researched and written by Brian Lee Massey & are Copyright © 1997 - 2007. This site may be freely linked to but not duplicated in any fashion without my consent.	Poppy graphic and poppybar graphic designed by Brian L. Massey and may not be used on other sites The Poppy is a ™Trademark of Dominion Command, Royal Canadian Legion, and is used on The Canadian Great War Homepage with their permission
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