“I flew in, I saw them, I shot them down”: The story of Karel Kuttelwascher
Karel Kuttelwascher, the most successful Czechoslovak fighter pilot to serve with Britain’s Royal Air Force, was born 110 years ago, on September 23, 1916. His greatest victories came during daring solo night operations close to German airfields in occupied Europe. Archival recordings preserve his own vivid account of the missions that made him a wartime celebrity.
“I flew in, I saw them, I shot them down.”
That was how Karel Kuttelwascher summed up his wartime exploits in a BBC broadcast in 1942. By then, the Czech fighter pilot had become one of the best-known foreign airmen serving with Britain’s Royal Air Force.
Kuttelwascher, commonly known as “Kut”, was eventually credited with shooting down 18 enemy aircraft in RAF service. He became the most successful Czechoslovak fighter pilot of the Second World War and earned a particularly formidable reputation for his solo night missions over German-occupied Europe. His path to Britain began after Nazi Germany occupied the Czech lands in March 1939. Like many Czechoslovak airmen, he escaped first to Poland and later made his way to France.
After the fall of France in 1940, Kuttelwascher travelled through North Africa to Britain. He joined Number One Squadron of the RAF and took part in the closing stages of the Battle of Britain. His greatest successes, however, came in 1942 later.
Hunting bombers in the dark
Military historian Jiří Rajlich of the Military History Institute says Kuttelwascher carried out offensive solo operations close to German airfields on the occupied continent. “He waited for aircraft that were either taking off or returning from night raids over Britain,” Rajlich explains. “That was where he achieved his greatest wartime successes.”
Kuttelwascher flew alone at night, deep inside enemy-controlled territory. He patrolled close to German bases and attacked bombers when they were taking off or returning from missions, often at a moment when they were slow, low and particularly vulnerable. Flying a Hawker Hurricane, he became known in the British press as the “Night Reaper”.
In a BBC recording made in 1944, Kuttelwascher recalled one mission during which he encountered two German Junkers 88 bombers: “The first aircraft that came my way was a Junkers 88,” he said. “I fired at it from about five hundred feet, and it went straight down.” Almost immediately, another aircraft appeared in front of him. “Behind it, as if it had fallen from the sky, a second Junkers 88 came into my sights. It also received a full burst and crashed in flames.”
The engagement took place directly over a German airfield. “It caused indescribable panic,” Kuttelwascher recalled. During his most successful mission, he brought down three German Heinkel 111 bombers. His victories made him a national hero in wartime Britain and a symbol of the contribution made by Czechoslovak airmen to the Allied war effort.
A contemporary BBC report described the scale of his popularity. His photograph appeared in hundreds of publications, from major national newspapers to small provincial titles. “Journalists are competing to invent questions for interviews with Kuttelwascher,” the report said. “Kuttel, as he is known here, is being filmed, he speaks on the radio, and boys fight over his autograph.”
From fighter ace to test pilot
Kuttelwascher left active operational service in October 1942. The Czechoslovak air force inspectorate sent him on a six-month tour of the United States and Canada. Part of his role was to encourage Czechoslovaks living abroad to join the country’s air force. The Czechoslovak units fighting alongside the Allies still depended heavily on the men who had managed to escape occupied Europe. Kuttelwascher also shared his experience with American pilots, teaching techniques connected with the type of offensive night fighting in which he had specialised.
After returning to Britain, he spent the remainder of the war as a test pilot. In another archival recording, Kuttelwascher described how his combat experience and the knowledge he had acquired in North America were being put to use in his new role.
“I am now using the experience with which I supplemented my earlier combat knowledge in America,” he said. “I am a test pilot. I fly many different types of aircraft and hand them over for service only after they have been thoroughly tested under a wide range of conditions.” After the war, Kuttelwascher returned to Czechoslovakia only briefly before settling once again in Britain. He continued working in aviation but died of a heart attack in 1959, at the age of just 42.
His achievements received one of their most important official recognitions decades later. In 2016, the Czech Republic posthumously awarded Karel Kuttelwascher the Order of the White Lion, the country’s highest state honour. The award citation described him as the most successful Czechoslovak fighter pilot of the Second World War and honoured him for his exceptional wartime service and combat record.
