Night Hawk: Flight Lieutenant Karl Kuttelwascher DFC and Bar, the Raf's Greatest Night Intruder Ace

In this absorbing account of the air ace Karel Kuttelwascher, Mr Darlington illuminates two neglected subjects: the émigré Czech airmen who served in the RAF in World War Two, and the RAF’s night ‘intruder’ operations over occupied Europe.Eighty-eight Czech airmen served in the Battle of Britain, including Kuttelwascher, many of whom had already seen in action with the French airforce in the Battle of France. Perhaps because their contribution is alluded to in a single line in the film ‘Battle of Britain’, their contribution is generally unjustly neglected. But in Kuttelwascher’s case, his fame as a pilot rests on the period after the conclusion of that battle when RAF Fighter Command switched over the offensive. He participated in the costly ‘circus’ raids over France in 1941, before his squadron were switched to night flying intruder operations. Flying a Hurricane fitted with drop tanks, Kuttelwascher shot down a succession of German bombers over their own airfields, including in one remarkable sortie, three Heinkel 111s, and ending with a confirmed tally of eighteen kills, though the actual number is probably more. It is worth noting that this was achieved in a single-engine aircraft without radar aids, at a time when by common consent the night fighter efforts of the RAF were generally pitiful.Mr Darlington tells this story with verve: Kuttelwascher himself, like many real-life heroes was taciturn about his own exploits but is brought to life through a range of remembrances and anecdotes. There is an underlying piquance to the story in that the ethnic German Czechs (of whom Kuttelwascher was one) were viciously treated by their own country after the war, which then in turn was subject to a communist take-over. Kuttelwascher returned thence to the UK, but his story is another small reminder that for many of the émigré servicemen who fought with gallantry in the allied cause there was no happy ending.