In France
In France, the Czech airmen, including Kuttelwascher, were initially enlisted in the Foreign Legion. After World War II broke out and France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, the French started to use Czech pilots properly. On 17 May 1940, Kuttelwascher was assigned to the French GC III/3 fighter squadron, flying a MS.406, then a D.520 fighter. It is unclear whether he achieved any victories in France or how many. Incomplete French documents do not confirm any victories, but Kuttelwascher claimed he destroyed or damaged several enemy aircraft. His most likely score is two team victories and one probable individual victory. When France fell, GC III/6 squadron was withdrawn to Algiers. Kuttelwascher left the French service there on 1 July and got to Britain by sea.
Read more about this topic: Karel Kuttelwascher
Famous quotes containing the word france:
“The bugle-call to arms again sounded in my war-trained ear, the bayonets gleamed, the sabres clashed, and the Prussian helmets and the eagles of France stood face to face on the borders of the Rhine.... I remembered our own armies, my own war-stricken country and its dead, its widows and orphans, and it nerved me to action for which the physical strength had long ceased to exist, and on the borrowed force of love and memory, I strove with might and main.”
—Clara Barton (1821–1912)
“It is not what France gave you but what it did not take from you that was important.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)