[Marcel van Heijkop]

Hi Ed,

Thanks for the interesting comment! What's your source and do you have pictures of the aircraft of this mysterious unit? It confirms my suspicions that 3./KG66 had nothing in common with I./KG66 except for the designation. (And hence that none of the I./KG66 veterans had any recollections about this unit and its men.)

@Brian: Name of the Staffelkapitän is probably Oblt. Heinz de Wilde instead of "de Milde". ("De Wilde" is a Dutch family name, maybe he was of Dutch origin.) There's a photo of him on page 244 of Jan Horn's KG6 unit history Volume 2. Aperently he was 15./KG6's last Staffelkapitän (15./KG6 being the nucleus for the new I./KG66.) According to Horn, Oblt. de Wilde was "Referent für Offiziers-Ausbildung der Ln.-Truppe beim Chef des Nachrichten-und Verbindungswesen im RLM" before that. I don't know completely what this mouthful means, but at least it has something to do with signals (which makes sense)!

BTW: Regarding "Schalldämpfungsflug", we have all been focussing on the suppression of engine (exhaust) sound so far. Could it be that they were actually trying to suppress the aircraft or systems electronic emissions ?(i.e. stealth?!)

Interesting topic!

Regards,

Marcel