100 Years Ago (OT)

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Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 21, 2018 - 08:40am PT
Australian machine gunner Sgt. Cedric Bassett Popkin shot down the Red Baron.
https://www.stripes.com/100-years-ago-wwi-s-red-baron-met-defeat-1.522817


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedric_Popkin
At about 10:35 a.m. on 21 April, 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 0.303 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.[3] Another eye witness, Sergeant Ted Smout, reported that Richthofen's last word was "kaputt" ("finished") immediately before he died.[4]

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; 0.303 ammunition was the standard ammunition for all machine guns and rifles used by British Empire forces during World War I. Many experts believe that the shot probably came from Popkin,[3] though some believe that William John "Snowy" Evans may have been responsible.[5] 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 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.

[Click to View YouTube Video]
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Apr 21, 2018 - 10:32am PT
Way cool.

We are coming up on some noteworthy hundred year marks.
originalpmac

Mountain climber
Timbers of Fennario
Apr 21, 2018 - 10:54am PT
And here I thought Snoopy took him down.


I have been re-reading Into the Silence. The descriptions of the Battle of the Somme are intense to say the least. The First World War would have been horrifying.
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Apr 21, 2018 - 10:58am PT
Yeah, aerial recon, instantaneous long range messaging, long range creeping bombardment, transporting troops by train, ........ oh wait. That was the Civil War a half century earlier.
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Apr 21, 2018 - 11:50am PT
[Click to View YouTube Video]
originalpmac

Mountain climber
Timbers of Fennario
Apr 21, 2018 - 12:00pm PT
Toker, curious what you mean by the instanteous long range messaging. Signals from the balloons used for aetial surveying?
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
Apr 21, 2018 - 12:55pm PT
Fond memories of a visit to the fabulous OMAKA Aviation Museum near Nelson New Zealand several years back!

DanaB

climber
CO
Apr 21, 2018 - 01:38pm PT
instanteous long range messaging.

Maybe a heliograph?
Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 21, 2018 - 03:01pm PT
Richthofen was called the deadliest pilot in WWI based on his 80 victories, but as Peter Hart points out in Bloody April, anonymous artillery spotters on slow, vulnerable two seaters killed more men in one day than any fighter ace did in a career. Of course, that's what the fighters were for, shooting down two seaters. Those poor bastards didn't stand a chance.

The mortally wounded Richthofen made a good landing and his triplane was pretty much intact, but souvenir hunters quickly took care of that.

WWI generated some good books on aerial warfare.
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Apr 21, 2018 - 04:03pm PT
original

maybe I'll telegraph you the answer.
originalpmac

Mountain climber
Timbers of Fennario
Apr 21, 2018 - 04:45pm PT
Toker, right. My morse code is a little rusty though.

What seemed horrible about the Somme was British generals not fully grasping the power of machine guns and sending men with bayonets on their rifles towards bunkers. They were just being mowed down.

I knew a WWII vet that was the commander of ten gunners on a ship when it took two direct kamikaze hits. He told me half the men literally sh it themselves trying to rrpel those attacks.
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Apr 21, 2018 - 04:51pm PT
The first ever dogfight was between two American mercenaries in Mexico in 1913. No casualties.

Five years later they were friends flying together fighting Germans in the Lafayette Escadrille.
clinker

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
Apr 21, 2018 - 06:06pm PT

Donini was in grade school?
clinker

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
Apr 21, 2018 - 06:15pm PT

This photo was in a book or encyclopedia at my folks house.

There was a drawing of the shape of the exit wound as well, but I could not find it.
aspendougy

Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
Apr 21, 2018 - 06:34pm PT
One of Japan's WW 2 aces wrote a fascinating autobiography. They had to jump off a two story building, do flips and land on their feet. Also, they stared at the sky for long periods, and could see stars during the day. Some of it sounds a bit far out, but a good read, I think his name began with "N". A lot of them did not survive the training, according to him.
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Apr 21, 2018 - 07:11pm PT
Second use of a plane in warfare I think was near Tannenberg, August 1914. A Fokker flew recon that allowed the German commander (Max Hoffman) to slaughter over a quarter million Russian conscripts in the one battle. Many were shoeless peasants.
Messages 1 - 16 of total 16 in this topic
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