First Australian to shoot down an enemy aircraft in WW II

Pilot Officer J R Cock Australian 87 sq "One of the Few"

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.

From: Co-pilots

Unable to get a photo of him.................anybody?

He also survived the war.

 

Spidge, yep, got one mate. Will have to scan it though but will try hunting down its source first.

 

Got one too but Andy will probably getting to his scanner before I can

 

Spidgeman, this is the best I can do. Page 79 of Australian Air Aces by Dennis Newton and published by Aerospace Publications P/L in 1996.

I imagine Tangmere might have a good pic of him. There's a pic here Australian Aces of WWII but even my scan is better than that!

I reckon someone else on here will have a better source.

Edit: go for it Kyt, a full pic would be better.

 

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?

 

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

Thanks to.......

 

:becky:

I hadn't seen this thread CXX :>

Spidge, I'll scan the relevant entries for Cock in Aces High

 

Scan 1 is from Men of the Battle of Britain
Scan 2 is from Aces High Volume 1

 

Thank you Peter.

The piece was written as though it was on the same day yet seemed to be missing a sentence.

Kyt's info says April 10th. Is their a difference on "confirmed"?

Great Info.

 

Thanks Kyt,

Your info has his first as April 10th.

 

There is a footnote (a) on that claim that was gven as confirmed at the time, but subsequent research by Shores et al (the authors of Aces High Volume 1) now shoes that the aircraft actually survived. It may have been scrapped after making it back but that doesn't count as a kill.

But a number of piots' 'kills' are being re-examined as new evidence comes to light.

 

The pilots would not be very happy if they took a kill of them.

John oster_oops:

 

Should we combine these threads? - http://ww2chat.com/forums/war-air/2201-pilot-officer-j-r-cock-australian-87-sq-one-few.html

 

Good pick up Andy. I did a search before I posted and it came up blank.

 

That's my incredible memory again...who are you? :-D Perhaps I should say selective memory.