Dr Syn, Must have been quite a sight, the Conti getting in the way of a cloud/ground strike.
Must take issue about the two types of strike however, as a lightning strike is nothing other than a large static discharge between opposingly charged objects.
As perceived by the public these would be clouds and Earth or whatever were attached to/standing on it. An aircraft may gain a relative charge quicker than the wicks can discharge it under certain circumstances.
I have had four full blown strikes over 35yrs in Europe, depite taking pains to avoid obvious cells. The bang and the flash were probably the worst thing about them. Two were preceded by the most intense Elmo's I have ever seen with a huge cone of "fire" extending from the aircraft nose.
In the RAF, a compass "swing" used to be mandatory after such an encounter, as they reckoned the magnetism of the structure would be changed.