Bio / Text:
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My father, Fritz Kurrein, was born in 1918 in Berlin of Jewish parents Max and Lotte Kurrein. They left Germany in 1932 to escape the Nazi Regime and emigrated in good order to Haifa in Palestine.
Fritz, who had been working a chauffeur for a Police Superintendent Hood (while spying for the Hagenah too), joined the RAF in Haifa on 11 July 1940 and worked as a clerk.
He was in Crete when the Germans invaded and hid in the mountains for a week with his colleagues until a Catalina Flying Boat was able to pick them up and fly them to safety in Egypt.
He was then transferred to Rhodesia, where he trained in Tiger Moths and Harvards. He was awarded his wings on 17 March 1944, before qualifying to fly combat in Spitfire IVs at RAF Fayid in Egypt on 14 September 1944. He joined 185 Squadron on 30 March 1945 at Pontderra, flying Spitfire IXs.
He flew a total of 14.40 operational hours, and then trained on Mustang III and IVs.
At the end of the war he was posted to his unit in England. He married, had four children, and passed away at Rye at the age of 73 in 1992. See also www.kurrein.com for family history.
