Nice adding, Chris, for this NJG 2 airman.
There was a Bf 109 pilot, whose name I can not remember by heart, who had achieved the markings (50 or 75 victories) to have the RK...and was not awarded. So he painted a RK and an interrogation point (?) on his rudder. There are several photographs of this plane...Of course, his victories rised up and he was later awarded the coveted medal...but you see that it "had something" related to the C.O. pushing up the paper ahead...or to slack off....
http://aces.safarikovi.org/victories...ied-night.html
Take Kuttelwascher for instance...his record put him on the 7th place amongst the RAF night-fighter aces in WW2...and he got only a DFC and BAR, whilst British born airmen with lower records got the DSO and DFC and BAR....
Another Czech, BOBEK (5 victories) got only a DFC....whilst other British airmen with the same or slightly higher scores got the DSO.
A.