Snowy Evans

Willy John "Snowy" Evans (-1925) was a Lewis machine gunner in the Royal Australian Artillery (RAA) during World War I. Unsolved History, produced by Discovery Channel credited him with firing the shot that killed Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), near Vaux-sur-Somme, France on 21 April 1918. However, most sources attribute the feat to Sergeant Cedric Popkin of the 24th Machine Gun Company. Other sources have suggested that Gunner Robert Buie, also of the 53rd Battery, fired the fatal shot, but there is now little support for this theory. His father, who had an address on the North Shore of Sydney, was recorded as his next of kin. Evans left Australia with his unit on HMAT Persic, which sailed from Sydney on 21 December 1914. The 5th LHR fought, without its horses, at the Gallipoli campaign during 1915.
Evans was transferred to the Royal Australian Artillery on 27 March 1916, Evans returned to Australia on 3 December 1918. According to the documentary he was a drifter and died childless in 1925.<ref name=unsolved/>
 
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