| A Mission to Remember August 12th, 1944 By Richard Kik Jr. & Kenneth Kik |
My grandfather always said that "a war story usually means that something went wrong"
August 12th, 1944 was one of those days.
As told by Richard Kik Jr. 395th Fighter Squadron.
We took off on a usual mission, armor cover flight at the Falaise track. Down at the Falaise track it was hard
fighting, a lot of anti-aircraft fire, a lot of infantry, armor, trucks, a lot of everything. I went down on a strafing
run and hit this truck Previous to that I heard a thump somewhere in the airplane and I didn’t realize what it
was, but when I came off the strafing run my wingman, Chuck Rife said "have you got the water on?" I said "no,
why?" Chuck said "you’re trailing smoke." He came up and looked around and said "it’s coming off the bottom
of the engine." It Turned out a 20 mm knocked two or three cylinders off my engine. That Pratt & Whitney
never stopped. I’m telling you, those people deserve a medal for that engine, I’ve never seen one like it.
Our element leader, Captain Mazur said "well Rife, escort him home." So we started back across the line and as
we got going along, Chuck caught a burst of anti-aircraft fire. Both of his wings were struck by 40mm rounds.
The flak rounds exploded and pieces of metal entered his cockpit. The explosion damaged his instruments and
shredded his parachute pack. So as we got across the line I told Chuck, "you better get ready to bail out." He
said "I can’t, my parachute’s all tore up." I told Chuck you’ve got two live bombs on your wings, you’re not
going to be able to belly land with those, can you drop them? He said "no, I can’t" and held up his bomb
release, "cause here’s my bomb thing." It was a mess. He said "all my instruments are gone and I can’t put the
gear down." So anyway, as we were going home and I’m talking to him all the time, telling him try to do this,
try to do that. Chuck said he had to take both legs and hold the stick over cause it kept wanting to roll. Finally
he got the gear down manually. I said "okay, let’s just fly her in." Chuck said "I don’t have any instruments, I
don’t have any idea what the speed is." I told him okay, I’ll tell you what, you fly on me, just stay right with me
and we’ll get you down. So I kept the speed up pretty high and took him down to the runway. He made it down
safely.
Then when I turned around to land it dawned on me, I’m burning! I forgot about myself during this whole
thing. The smoke’s really rolling out now. So I whipped it around and landed, turned off the runway and the
engine quit.
We made it! I jumped out of my plane and ran over to Chuck and helped him out of his damaged jug. Then I
discovered that I also had two live bombs on I had forgot to drop. And one of them was hanging by the rear
shackle, nose down. What happened was when I strafed that damn truck I was a little to low, Something had
hit the nose fuse and I had a hanging armed bomb. They (the ground crew) were a little unhappy that I didn’t
drop the bomb. Hell, I was happy to just be on the ground. There happened to be a whole bunch of AP
reporters around that day, one of them wrote an article for the AP news.
Cliff Gamble stated that after Kik pulled Rife out of his plane he (Cliff) gave Kik a big hug and told him "Don't you
ever do that again!"
Kik was later awarded the Silver Star.
Charlie Rife was wounded in the lower back and spent a few days in the hospital.
August 12th, 1944 was one of those days.
As told by Richard Kik Jr. 395th Fighter Squadron.
We took off on a usual mission, armor cover flight at the Falaise track. Down at the Falaise track it was hard
fighting, a lot of anti-aircraft fire, a lot of infantry, armor, trucks, a lot of everything. I went down on a strafing
run and hit this truck Previous to that I heard a thump somewhere in the airplane and I didn’t realize what it
was, but when I came off the strafing run my wingman, Chuck Rife said "have you got the water on?" I said "no,
why?" Chuck said "you’re trailing smoke." He came up and looked around and said "it’s coming off the bottom
of the engine." It Turned out a 20 mm knocked two or three cylinders off my engine. That Pratt & Whitney
never stopped. I’m telling you, those people deserve a medal for that engine, I’ve never seen one like it.
Our element leader, Captain Mazur said "well Rife, escort him home." So we started back across the line and as
we got going along, Chuck caught a burst of anti-aircraft fire. Both of his wings were struck by 40mm rounds.
The flak rounds exploded and pieces of metal entered his cockpit. The explosion damaged his instruments and
shredded his parachute pack. So as we got across the line I told Chuck, "you better get ready to bail out." He
said "I can’t, my parachute’s all tore up." I told Chuck you’ve got two live bombs on your wings, you’re not
going to be able to belly land with those, can you drop them? He said "no, I can’t" and held up his bomb
release, "cause here’s my bomb thing." It was a mess. He said "all my instruments are gone and I can’t put the
gear down." So anyway, as we were going home and I’m talking to him all the time, telling him try to do this,
try to do that. Chuck said he had to take both legs and hold the stick over cause it kept wanting to roll. Finally
he got the gear down manually. I said "okay, let’s just fly her in." Chuck said "I don’t have any instruments, I
don’t have any idea what the speed is." I told him okay, I’ll tell you what, you fly on me, just stay right with me
and we’ll get you down. So I kept the speed up pretty high and took him down to the runway. He made it down
safely.
Then when I turned around to land it dawned on me, I’m burning! I forgot about myself during this whole
thing. The smoke’s really rolling out now. So I whipped it around and landed, turned off the runway and the
engine quit.
We made it! I jumped out of my plane and ran over to Chuck and helped him out of his damaged jug. Then I
discovered that I also had two live bombs on I had forgot to drop. And one of them was hanging by the rear
shackle, nose down. What happened was when I strafed that damn truck I was a little to low, Something had
hit the nose fuse and I had a hanging armed bomb. They (the ground crew) were a little unhappy that I didn’t
drop the bomb. Hell, I was happy to just be on the ground. There happened to be a whole bunch of AP
reporters around that day, one of them wrote an article for the AP news.
Cliff Gamble stated that after Kik pulled Rife out of his plane he (Cliff) gave Kik a big hug and told him "Don't you
ever do that again!"
Kik was later awarded the Silver Star.
Charlie Rife was wounded in the lower back and spent a few days in the hospital.
| Newspaper clippings from around the U.S. |
| Damage to Charlie Rife's right wing |
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| Lt. Richard Kik Jr. |
| Damage to Charlie Rife's left wing |
| Original AP wire story given to Richard Kik by the writer Henry Jameson after story was transmitted |