full moon. They were dangerous missions, demanding both navigation and flying skills, excellent vision and great courage. The squadron was then operating the Hawker Hurricane Mk IIc, painted black for night flying. Each aircraft was equipped with two 45-gallon under-wing auxiliary tanks that extended its airborne time to three to 3½ flying hours and gave a range of about . Armament was two Hispano-Suiza 20mm cannon on each wing, but with only 91 rounds of ammunition. This was enough for only about nine seconds of firing time. Kuttelwascher's Hawker Hurricane IIc was serial number BE581 and carried the code letters "JX-E". It also carried a personal emblem of a yellow scythe with a red banner emblazoned "Night Reaper". Kuttelwascher had the greatest number of successful strikes of any night intruder. On the night of 1/2 April 1942, Kuttelwascher scored his first victories as a night intruder, shooting down one Junkers Ju 88 fighter-bomber and damaging a second, both near Melun. On the night of 16/17 April, he shot down a Dornier Do 217 bomber near Saint-André-de-l'Eure. His next victories were a Do 217 and a Ju 88, both near Rouen-Boos. On the night of 30 April/1 May, he shot down a Do 217 near Rennes and a Heinkel He 111 bomber off the coast near Dinard. On the night of 4/5 May near St-André, Kuttelwascher shot down three He 111s within four minutes. On the night of 2/3 June, Kuttelwascher shot down a Do 217 off Dunkirk. The next night near St-André, he shot down two He 111s and a Do 217 and damaged a second Do 217. On the night of 21/22 June, again near St-André, he shot down an Ju 88 and damaged a second. On the night of 28/29 June 1942 Kuttelwascher shot down a Do 217E-4 of VII/Kampfgeschwader 2 at Trévières in Normandy, killing all the crew. On the night of 1/2 July near Dinard he shot down two Do 217s and damaged a third. No. 1 Squadron destroyed 21 enemy aircraft in three months. Of these, Kuttelwascher had shot down 15 and damaged another five. For this he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and news media nicknamed him the Czech Night Hawk. Kuttelwascher's exploits were a great morale booster for his countrymen back home. Josef Josten, who was looking after the BBC's military services in Czech, arranged for them to be broadcast, including a