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Re: Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke at Stalingrad
Warning! Speculation and (probably) faulty memory ahead.
I seem to remember some off-hand comments in some of the books I own that Wilcke was one of the most outspoken opponents of the brown rulers in Berlin within the Jagdwaffe. It is documented that several pilots of III./JG 53 overpainted the swastika on their aircraft to demonstrate to Göring what they thought of him and his political meddling (that means the issue about Major von Cramon-Taubadel, former Kommodore of JG 53) and Wilcke just happened to be in command of III./JG 53 in the timeframe in question. It is entirely possible that the delayed promotion was a little payback by the "powers that be".
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