First Australian to shoot down an enemy aircraft in WW II

spidge · 18-04-2008, 03:59 PM

P/O John R.Cock flew with No 87 Squadron and was the first Australian to shoot down an enemy aircraft in WW II. He baled out of his Hurricane I (V7233) safely after being shot down off Portland Bill on the 11th of August 1940 at 10:50hrs by Helmut Wick in a Bf 109. He swam ashore slightly injured. The Hurricane I (V7233) LV-K was recovered in 1983 and was on display at Tangmere Aviation Museum.

This tells you that he was the first, it tells you he baled out on the 11th of August.

Does anybody have any information whether or not these two events occurred on the same day?

Peter Clare · 18-04-2008, 04:43 PM

Asked the question on another forum, this was the reply.

Cock's first confirmed kill was a He111 on 12 May.

18-04-2008, 03:59 PM	#1 (permalink)
spidge Legendary Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 7,775	First Australian to shoot down an enemy aircraft in WW II P/O John R.Cock flew with No 87 Squadron and was the first Australian to shoot down an enemy aircraft in WW II. He baled out of his Hurricane I (V7233) safely after being shot down off Portland Bill on the 11th of August 1940 at 10:50hrs by Helmut Wick in a Bf 109. He swam ashore slightly injured. The Hurricane I (V7233) LV-K was recovered in 1983 and was on display at Tangmere Aviation Museum. This tells you that he was the first, it tells you he baled out on the 11th of August. Does anybody have any information whether or not these two events occurred on the same day? __________________ Spidge, ------------------------------------------------------- My Avatar is the memorial to the 22 Commonwealth Coastwatchers at the Temakin Cemetery on Betio (Tarawa Atoll) who were beheaded by the Japanese on 15th October 1942. http://www.dva.gov.au/media/publicat...mem_beito.html "You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war." (Winston Churchill made this prophetic pronouncement in a House of Commons speech in 1938, just after Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich agreement with Hitler. Chamberlain returned from Germany with the signed agreement in hand, proclaiming that "peace in our time" had been achieved. Churchill attacked Chamberlain's "politics of appeasement" in this and many other speeches.) What did the Australians do in ww2 and other conflicts? Check out this site: http://www.diggerhistory.info/00-pag...ster-index.htm

18-04-2008, 04:43 PM	#2 (permalink)
Peter Clare Very Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Windsor UK Posts: 4,827	Asked the question on another forum, this was the reply. Cock's first confirmed kill was a He111 on 12 May. __________________ On weald of Kent I watched once more Again I heard that grumbling roar Of fighter planes; yet none were near And all around the sky was clear Borne on the wind a whisper came 'Though men grow old, they stay the same' And then I knew, unseen to eye The ageless Few were sweeping by

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