Otto Smik, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Otto Smik

slovak pilot

Date of Birth: 20-Jan-1922

Place of Birth: Borjomi, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Georgia

Date of Death: 28-Nov-1944

Profession: airman

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

Otto Smik DFC (20 January 1922 – 28 November 1944) was a Czechoslovak pilot who became a fighter ace in the Royal Air Force.
He joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in July 1940 and was in training until the end of 1942.
Between March 1943 and June 1944 he shot down 13 Luftwaffe fighter aircraft probably shot down one more and shared in the shooting down of two others.
In July 1944 he shot down three V-1 flying bombs. Smik was born in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic to a Slovak father and a Russian Jewish mother.
When he was 12 the Smik family moved to Slovakia.
He was the highest-scoring Slovak fighter ace in the RAF. In October 1944 Smik survived being shot down behind enemy lines in the Netherlands, successfully evaded capture and returned to Allied-held territory.
In November 1944 the RAF promoted him to Squadron Leader and put him in command of No.
312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF.
On 28 November he was shot down again over the German-held territory in the Netherlands and was killed.