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A four-year-old French boy was sitting
three meters above the ground on the terrace
of a former pigeon loft near Calais. It was
the summer of 1942, and the boy watched in
amazement as aerial battles unfolded in the
sky. Suddenly, not far from where he was sitting,
a twin-engined British aircraft flew low over
the ground. The right engine was running at full
power, while the left engine was on fire, and
much of the tail surface was missing. The crew
was attempting an emergency landing, and the
boy had the impression that the pilot waved at
him. However, upon contact with the ground, the
aircraft exploded.
The boy, named Michel Ringot, grew up to be
the head of flight operations at one of the French
Air Force bases. This memory of the war never
erased from his mind. In 2020, with the help of
his family and others, he learned who were the
pilots whose crash he had witnessed.
It was July 12, 1942, and the aircraft belonged
to No. 1 PRU RAF. It was Mosquito PR Mk.II
W4089, piloted by 29 year-old F/Lt V. A. Ricketts,
DFC, with 24 year-old navigator P/O G. B.
Lukhmanoff, DFM. By the time they flew their
first reconnaissance mission together, Ricketts
had already conducted such missions along
the French-Spanish border while piloting the
Mosquito. Meanwhile, Lukhmanoff, as navigator,
had flown several missions over Norway and
Vichy North Africa.
Victor Anthony Ricketts was born in January
1913 in Penzance, Cornwall. Interested in flying
from a young age, he became an aviation
correspondent for the London Daily Express
and earned his pilot's license in February
1936. In February 1938, together with New
Zealander Arthur E. Clouston, he attempted
a record-breaking flight to Australia, but it was
unsuccessful. A second attempt was scheduled
for March 15, 1938, with the DH88 Comet (G
-
ACSS)
“The Burberry.” This time, they returned to the UK
after covering a route of 26,450 miles in ten days,
twenty-one hours, and twenty-two minutes,
achieving a total of eleven records.
After the war, Clouston wrote a book, The
Dangerous Skies, in which he confessed that
in 1938 he was part of a private initiative to kill
Adolf Hitler. His mission was to use a modified
DH88 Comet (G
-
ACSS) to bomb Hitler during
a parade in Berlin on Unter den Linden. Clouston
ultimately refused to carry out this action.
The aircraft is currently part of The Shuttleworth
Collection.
Ricketts became a member of the RAFVR in
March 1939, achieved officer rank in February
1940, was assigned to No. 248 Sqn RAF that same
month, and transferred to No. 1 PRU in early 1942.
He received a DFC for a photographic mission
he completed on March 4, 1942, in extremely
difficult weather conditions at low altitude. His
navigator Lukhmanoff received a DFM for this
mission. Their target was the Renault factory
at Boulogne-Billancourt, which had been hit by
RAF bombers the previous night. Together, they
flew over Augsburg, Pilsen and Marseille, among
other missions.
George Boris Lukhmanoff was born in March
1918 in Harbin, China, to Russian parents as Boris
Dimitry (Dmitrievich) Lukhmanov. His father,
Boris, was a representative of the auxiliary
naval organization Dobrovolnyi Flot in Shanghai
and later became Harbour Master of the Port
of Woosung. However, the Soviet government
stripped them of citizenship, prompting them to
emigrate to the US. Boris later returned to China,
where he was tortured to death by the Japanese
in 1943 because his son was a member of the
RAF. Interestingly, Boris's father was likely the
legendary Russian and Soviet captain Dmitry
Afanasyevich Lukhmanov (1867-1946), who
was married three times and authored many
publications on naval issues.
Dmitry's grandson, Boris Dimitry, became
a naturalised British citizen as George Boris
Lukhmanoff, first studying at Margate College
in Kent and then gaining a degree in mechanical
and electrical engineering from Glasgow
Technical College in June 1939. In April 1940 he
joined the RAF and his first combat unit was No.
206 Sq. RAF in Gibraltar. Further details of the
crew can be found at The Battle of Britain London
Monument.
The promising careers of both airmen was
ended on July 12, 1942, by Obfw. Erwin Leibold of
Stab I./JG 26. At the time we were preparing the
box art for this kit, Mr. Ringot's testimony was
not yet available. As we already know, the British
crew almost succeeded in making an emergency
landing. Erwin Leibold survived his victims by
only two weeks. After being hit by an American
or Canadian Spitfire, his Focke-Wulf exploded.
Although Leibold miraculously survived and his
parachute opened, he drowned after landing
in the sea.
Text: Jan Bobek
Illustration: Adam Tooby
Ricketts and Lukhmanoff
#82146
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