Cedric Bassett Popkin 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. Popkin was an anti-aircraft (AA) machine gunner with the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during the First World War.
Group portrait of the officers and NCOs of the 24th Machine Gun Company in March 1918. Sergeant Popkin is second from the right in the middle row.
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, known in English as Baron von Richthofen or the Red Baron, was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, being officially credited with 80 air combat victories.
Richthofen wears the Pour le Mérite, the "Blue Max", Prussia's highest military order, in this official portrait, c. 1917.
Major Lanoe Hawker VC
Richthofen's all-red Fokker Dr.I
Richthofen in the cockpit of his famous Rotes Flugzeug ("Red Aircraft") with other members of Jasta 11, including his brother Lothar (sitting, front), 23 April 1917