Kuttelwascher was born in 1916 in the village of Svatý Kříž in Bohemia, now part of Havlíčkův Brod in the Czech Republic.

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.

[1] 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.

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.

[1] 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,[3] and Kuttelwascher and his comrades continued to serve with their French units.

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 Royal Scotsman, 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.

[1] After a short stay in a transit camp, Kuttelwascher joined the RAF on 14 August 1940 with a rank of flight sergeant.

5 Operational Training Unit at RAF Aston Down in Gloucestershire, where he learnt to fly the Hawker Hurricane.

In December, the squadron was moved to RAF Northolt and flew combat missions over northern France.

On 8 April 1941, he achieved his first confirmed kill in RAF service by shooting down a Bf 109 near Cap Gris Nez.

1 Squadron was relocated to RAF Tangmere in West Sussex and assigned a new role: night intruder sorties over France.

They were dangerous missions, demanding both navigation and flying skills, excellent vision and great courage.

Each aircraft was equipped with two 45-gallon under-wing auxiliary tanks[4] that extended its airborne time to three to 3½ flying hours and gave a range of about 900 miles (1,400 km).

Josef Josten, who was looking after the BBC's military services in Czech, arranged for them to be broadcast, including a personal interview.

In August and September the pair flew six intruder missions over France and the Netherlands, but did not manage to shoot down any enemy aircraft.

[1] In October 1942, Kuttelwascher was withdrawn from combat flying and transferred to the Czechoslovak Air Inspectorate in London.

From June to December 1943, he spent six months in the US and Canada, primarily to try to recruit Czech and Slovak Americans and Canadians to join Czechoslovak units of the UK armed forces.

He transferred back to the Czechoslovak Air Force, was promoted to Staff Captain and was posted to Ruzyně near Prague.

[1] Ruby did not adapt to life in Czechoslovakia and Kuttelwascher's air force service there, and in January 1946 she returned to England.

Kuttelwascher became concerned about the growing power of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia under Soviet patronage in the Third Czechoslovak Republic.

[9] There are now monuments to him in his home village of Svatý Kříž, and a street named "Kuttelwascherova" after him in the Černý Most suburb of Prague.

[1] In 2017, the Czech Mint issued silver and gold commemorative coins (under the authority of Niue) paying tribute to Karel Kuttelwascher.