Cedric Bassett Popkin (20 June 189026 January 1968) was an Australian soldier considered most likely to have killed "The Red Baron" according to original research and forensics done by Dr M Geoffrey Miller “The death of Baron Manfred Richthofen: Who fired the fatal shot?” in 1998 (Journal and Proceedings of Military History Society of Australia). Popkin was an anti-aircraft (AA) machine gunner with the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during the First World War. Early life Cedric Bassett Popkin was born in Sydney on 20 June 1890 and was a carpenter by trade. When he enlisted in the AIF, in Brisbane 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 Sergeant – was a gunner in the 24th Machine Gun Company (an element of the 4th Machine Gun Battalion) stationed in the Somme Valley, France. Death of the Baron At about 10:35 a.m. on 21 April, 1918, Richthofen, flying his red Fokker Dr.I, engaged Sopwith Camels from 209 Squadron, Royal Air Force (RAF). He pursued a Camel piloted by a Canadian, 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 – 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 British Empire forces during World