This message was posted before February 2018. Template Design Joomla Templates GavickPro. Search for yourself and well build your family tree together, Welsh and English (London): Anglicized form of, Do not sell or share my personal information. The three planes flew over Morlancourt Ridge, in the 4th Division's sector, and Popkin "using a Vickers machine gun" and other Australian machine gunners and riflemen also fired at Richthofen. C.B. Cedric and Nellie had two sons, Roland and Michael, and the family moved to Palmwoods in Queensland before the outbreak of WW1. The 24th Machine Gun Company War Diary for April 1918 includes a statement by Sgt Popkin: "I was the Sergeant in charge of a Machine Gun detachment at J 19 d. He had followed the fight and now swung his Vickers gun through 180 degrees in Other machine gunners and riflemen also fired at von Richthofens Fokker tri-plane. From the lower right back towards the front left chest. Provides a biography of All rights reserved. Lorna Wells, Another eye witness, Sergeant Ted Smout, reported that Richthofen's last word was "kaput" ("finished") immediately before he died. 20 Jun 1890 - St Leonards, New South Wales, Australia, Jan 1968 - Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Australia. There Lilian Popkin, Cedric's mother, died in 1902 when Cedric was 12 years old . I could no longer look him in the face. On the following day he was moved to the 47th Casualty Clearing Station at Roziere and then on the 24th moved again to the 3rd Australian General Hospital, Abbeville in the Somme area. NARRATOR: Perched on the slope was the Australian gunnery sergeant, Cedric Popkin. Home; About; Products; sucesos de las islas filipinas was written by So a low damage, low velocity hit tends to indicate a long-range shot. It is now considered all but certain by historians, doctors, and ballistics experts that von Richthofen was killed by an AA machine gunner firing from the ground, for a number of reasons. Cedric's company was based at Camiers in France, the base depot for the Machine Gun Corps where he attended training school. Despite treatment and rest Cedric had to be evacuated to England, so on 5th July 1918 he was transported on the H.S. Richthofens machine seemed to move unsteadily for a moment, but still continued in pursuit of the British plane8. He was attached to the Machine Gun Company 7, Reinforcement 6 and embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A17 Port Lincoln on 20 October 19164. There Lilian Popkin, Cedric's mother, died in 1902 when Cedric was 12 years old . The couple moved to South Murwillumbah where Cedric found work as a tobacconist and had two sons, Roland and Michael. 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 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 crashed. They disembarked at Devonport, England on 20 December 1916 and were transferred to the Australian training camp at Perham Downs on Salisbury Plains on 29 December 1916. Suddenly I felt miserable, desperately unhappy, as if I had committed an injustice. So a low damage, low velocity hit tends to indicate a long-range shot. It was reported that a spent .303 bullet was found inside Richthofen's clothing. Following their marriage in Queensland and birth of their first daughter Gladys Lilian, Dan William Bassett Popkin and his wife Lilian moved to St Leonards in Sydney where a daughter Sophia Edith was born in 1887 quickly followed by Marjory in 1888 . He recalled that everyone was scrambling for souvenirs, with one officer claiming the Barons gold wrist watch. The Red Baron broke away to the right. A student at the same school, Cedric was reported as having a "bad" character who had been before the Bench of Magistrates previously. The 53rd. Home; About; Products; who is the highest paid worker in sierra leone But Brown would have been firing from behind and above left. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. Many experts believe that the shot came from Popkin. Five years later Cedric was living alone at Irving Street, Torwood in Brisbane and working as a carpenter when he met and married Nellie Ellen Bull on 10 March 1913. WebWe found 4 dictionaries with English definitions that include the word Popkin: Click on the first link on a line below to go directly to a page where "Popkin" is defined. Cedric Bassett Popkin was born in Sydney in 1890 to William (Dan) Bassett and Lilian Martha Popkin (nee Gilbert)1. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Sergeant Popkins Statement recorded in the AIF War Diary of the 24th Australian Machine Gun Company for April 1918 is as follows: About 10.45 a.m. on the 21st April, 1918, one of our Aeroplanes was being engaged by a German Aeroplane and was being driven down. By April 1918, Popkin who had achieved the rank By April, 1918, Cedric had achieved the rank of sergeant in a gunnery regiment and found himself stationed in the Somme area of When he was shot down at the age of 26, he had already been resposible for shooting down at least 80 allied aircraft. As shown on PBS's NOVA, the medical reports showed von Richthofen was hit by an upward shot to the right side. He came from an aristocratic family, and his father was Major Albrecht Philipp Karl Julius Freiherr. "If the bullet had struck von Richthofen at close range, I would have expected a more explosive type wound," Peter Franks, a ballistics expert, told NOVA . It is now widely accepted that Cedric Popkin #424 brought down the Red Baron as studies have demonstrated that the locations that the other contenders would have fired from and the timing of the crash means that none could have inflicted the fatal wound. Nellie remained with the children at Palmwoods until Cedric returned, quite a different man from the one who left. Private Alfred Fowler, with the 40th Australian Battalion, witnessed the Red Baron's death. Cedric was working as a builder in Mullumbimby in 1908 and later moved to Brisbane where he married Nellie Ellen Bull on 10 March 1913. As soon as this risk was over, I opened fire a second time and observed at once that my fire took effect. I handed my gun over to the No. "The fact that the bullet was found intact inside the clothing of Richthofen is another indicator that it was a long-range shot," Franks told NOVA, "and I would say that would be probably 600 yards plus. He was buried with full military honors by No. At about 10.35am on 21 April, Baron von Richthofen, flying his red Fokker DR-1, engaged Sopwith Camels from 209 Squadron, RAF. Cedric Popkin enlisted in the AIF in Brisbane on 6 May 1916, just before his 26th birthday. Cedric Bassett Popkin (Born 20 June 1890, died 26 January 1968) is considered the person most likely to have killed German ace Manfred von Richthofen also known as the Red Baron on 21 April 1918. 209 Squadron, Royal Air Force, when he was attacked by a second Sopwith Camel BR, number B 7270, piloted by Captain Arthur Roy Brown, D.S.C., Mays commanding officer. Many researchers have come to the conclusion that Sergeant Cedric Bassett Popkin, 24th Australian Machine Gun Company, 4th Division, Australian Imperial Force, fired the burst of gunfire that struck the Baron. It is now considered all but certain by historians, doctors, and ballistics experts that von Richthofen was killed by an AA machine gunner firing from the ground, for a number of reasons. There was evidence of only one hit on the triplane, which would fit with the cone of fire from a Vickers at long range. Because of the type of weapons that where involved, we can say that it was probably a Vickers MG that fired the shot. 'Red Baron' Photos courtesy of John Nichols. "He said, 'Have you got somebody who knows what they're doing, 600 yards away, and he's firing at von Richthofen's right side?' Who shot him was one of the great puzzles of the War and the subject of decades of controversy. He died in France, aged 24, on 27 Sept 1918. Other Australian machine gunners and riflemen also fired at the Baron. An older sister Gladys Lilian also served in WW1, as an Australian army nurse. The police report stated "he keeps company with bad companions and often sleeps out at night". He then returned to his previous trade of carpentry, and aged 59 Cedric and Nellie were living Fingal Head. He appeared so small to me, so delicate. Harris "harry" Popkin in MyHeritage family trees (Franzeck Web Site) view all Immediate Family Rose Popkin wife Tessie Davis daughter Herman Popkin son Benjamin Popkin son Lillian Popkin daughter Ruth Boles daughter Jacob Popkin son Sylvia Knight daughter Sarah Lowy daughter view all 11 Harris Popkin's Timeline We said 'yes.' The distance from the spot where the Plane crashed and my gun was about 600 yards. the sight of Richthofen as I walked closer gave me a start. 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 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. When first engaged he was pursuing one of our own machines, reported to be a Sopwith Camel, in a W.N.W. We said 'yes.' They remained at Tyalgum for about ten years and then moved further north to run the post office at Cudgen. Supplied: Popkin family archive. Page contents not supported in other languages. He said he had lent the piece of laminated timber fuselage to someone in Murwillumbah running a war souvenir display and never got it back. (Chronicle 23 Aug 1918 p2), William Bassett (known as Dan) Popkin m. Lillian Martha Gilbert, 11 October 1884 Queensland, (Regn B009200 p5350), http://blogs.ancestry.com/au/2011/03/03/entrance-books-for-the-vernon-and-the-sobraon-1867-1911/. There was a lump in my throat. WebLeo C. Popkin (19142011) was a film director and producer in the United States. If you would like to view one of these trees in its entirety, you can contact the owner of the tree to request permission to see the tree. Despite this, the attending surgeons at Richthofen's autopsy were of the opinion that the angle and nature of the bullet wounds ruled out the possibility that he had been shot from the ground, and that the injuries were due to the efforts of a Canadian pilot Roy Brown. "The only claimant at that range is Popkin. I immediately got my gun into action and waited for our own plane to pass me, as the planes were close together, and there was a risk of hitting both. 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. He pursued a Camel piloted by a Canadian, Lieutenant Wilfrid May. He looked so friendly. "In our view and final analysis, the best candidate for bringing down von Richthofen was Cedric Popkin, Australian Sergeant machine gunner," Norman Franks told NOVA. I gnashed my teeth, I cursed the war. You can contact the owner of the tree to get more information. Richthofen's early education saw him attending military schools, and he quickly asserted himself as a talented athlete and a solid horseman. He was initially taken to the 4th Australian Field Ambulance located at The Chateau, Les Alencons, France. Running to the wreckage, Fowler saw bullet wounds in Richthofen's chest, and was convinced he had been killed by the gunners. A student at the same school, Cedric was reported as having a "bad" character who had been before the Bench of Magistrates previously. He was issued with Regimental Number 424 and his rank on enlistment was Private. I saw the documentary also. Roland G Popkin, 762984, a law student, enlisted in 1916 in 28th Battalion, Artists' Rifles.
