Karel Kuttelwascher

Karel Miloslav Kuttelwascher DFC and Bar (23 September 1916 – 17 August 1959) was a Czech fighter pilot, and a flying ace of the UK's Royal Air Force (RAF) in the Second World War. He was in combat service from May 1940 to October 1942, first with the French Air Force and then with the RAF.

Kuttelwascher, nicknamed "Kut", was the RAF's most successful Czechoslovak pilot, and one of the RAF's highest-scoring flying aces overall. In RAF service he shot down 18 enemy aircraft. He may also have scored numerous victories in French Air Force service, but these are unconfirmed as many French records were lost.

In 1945 Kuttelwascher returned to Czechoslovakia but in 1946 he returned to Britain, where he made a civilian flying career with British European Airways. He died of a heart attack in 1959, aged 42.

Early life

Kuttelwascher was born in 1916 in the village of Svatý Kříž in Bohemia, now part of Havlíčkův Brod in the Czech Republic. He was the third of six children. Their parents Josef and Kristina Kuttelwascher were ethnic Germans from Bavaria. The family name means tripe washer.

Aged 17, Kuttelwascher started work as a clerk at a flour mill in Kladno northwest of Prague. On 1 October 1934, aged 18, he joined the Czechoslovak Air Force. In March 1937, he qualified as a pilot and was posted to 4 Flying Regiment at Kbely airfield near Prague. There he trained as a fighter pilot, completing his training in May 1938. He was posted to 1 Air Regiment, which assigned him to the 32nd Fighter Unit. The unit was posted to defend Czechoslovak airspace over Moravia and Slovakia, but after the Munich Agreement in September 1938, it returned to base at Hradec Králové in northern Bohemia.

Germany occupied Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939 and dissolved the Czechoslovak Air Force the next day. On the night of 13/14 June, Kuttelwascher and six other Czechoslovaks escaped in a coal train from Ostrava in Czech Silesia to Bohumin, a former Czechoslovak town which Poland had annexed in October 1938. The group reported to the Czechoslovak Consulate in Krakow and was accommodated in a Czechoslovak transit camp at Bronowice Małe that had been converted from a disused Austro-Hungarian Army camp.

On 29 July 1939, Kuttelwascher and his group went to the Port of Gdynia, where they embarked on a Swedish cargo steamship, the ''Kastelholm'', to travel to France. In Gdynia, a group of Polish officials belatedly tried to persuade the Czechoslovaks to stay and join the Polish Air Force. A few, including another future RAF ace, Josef František, agreed to do so after tossing a coin. The remainder, including Kuttelwascher, stuck to their decision to leave Poland. On 30 July, they disembarked in the Port of Calais in France.

French service

Peacetime regulations did not allow the French Air Force to enlist people who were not French citizens. But the Czechoslovak Ambassador in Paris reached agreement with the French Government that Czechoslovak volunteers could join the French Foreign Legion for a five-year term, on the understanding that if war broke out they would be released to form a Czechoslovak army in exile. Kuttelwascher and his group joined the Foreign Legion and were posted to Sidi Bel Abbès in French Algeria for army training and to learn French.

On 3 September 1939, France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. On 17 November, the French Government and Czechoslovak National Liberation Committee agreed that Czechoslovak airmen would be transferred from the Foreign Legion to the French Air Force pending the formation of a Czechoslovak air force. Kuttelwascher was one of about 100 who were sent to the fighter training base at Chartres Aerodrome, where he quickly learnt to fly the Morane-Saulnier M.S.406C.1 fighter. However, he was not transferred to a combat squadron until 17 May 1940, when he was assigned to Groupe de Chasse III/3 at Beauvais–Tillé.

Four days later, GC III/3 moved to Cormeilles-en-Vexin, where it was re-equipped with the more modern Dewoitine D.520C.1 fighter. As German forces advanced in the Battle of France, GC III/3 retreated, first to Illiers-l'Évêque and then successively to Germinon, Chapelle-Vallon, Montargis, Grand Mallerey, Avord Air Base, and Perpignan-La Salanque.

On 17 June, the UK Foreign Office sent a signal to its Ambassador to France, Sir Ronald Campbell, who had evacuated from Paris to Bordeaux, asking him to give the Czechoslovak General Sergej Ingr an order from President Beneš to evacuate all Czechoslovak personnel and as many aircraft as possible to England. However, in the chaos engulfing France, the order reached few if any Czechoslovak personnel, and Kuttelwascher and his comrades continued to serve with their French units.

Kuttelwascher claimed that, while with the French Air Force, he destroyed or damaged several enemy aircraft. French records for that period are incomplete, but those which survive include two confirmed kills and one probable by Kuttelwascher.

On 22 June 1940, remnants of GC III/3 withdrew to Realizane in Algeria, but that same day France surrendered. The defeated French Air Force discharged its Czechoslovak personnel on 1 July. A group including Kuttelwascher travelled by train to Casablanca in Morocco, where Czechoslovak personnel were assembling to escape to the UK. On 9 July, they left the Port of Casablanca aboard a Scottish ferry, the , which took them to Gibraltar. On 19 July, they sailed from Gibraltar aboard the Elder Dempster Lines ship ''David Livingstone'', reaching Cardiff Docks in Wales on 5 August.

RAF service

After a short stay in a transit camp, Kuttelwascher joined the RAF on 14 August 1940 with a rank of flight sergeant. He was posted to a Czechoslovak depot at RAF Cosford in Shropshire and then to No. 5 Operational Training Unit at RAF Aston Down in Gloucestershire, where he learnt to fly the Hawker Hurricane.

Hurricane pilot with No. 1 Squadron

On 3 October 1940, Kuttelwascher was posted to No. 1 Squadron RAF, which was equipped with the Hurricane Ia. He fought in the latter part of the Battle of Britain. In December, the squadron was moved to RAF Northolt and flew combat missions over northern France. On 2 February 1941, Kuttelwascher may have shot down a Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter near Boulogne. On 8 April 1941, he achieved his first confirmed kill in RAF service by shooting down a Bf 109 near Cap Gris Nez. He shot down a second Bf 109 between Calais and Dunkirk

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