1. Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was a German Luftwaffe pilot during World War II, a fighter ace credited with 162 enemy aircraft shot down in 732 combat missions.
36 Facts About Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke
1. 2.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke claimed the majority of his victories over the Eastern Front, and 25 over the Western Front, including four four-engined bombers.
3.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke then fought in the aerial battles of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
4.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was born on 11 March 1913 at Schrimm in the Province of Posen, part of the Kingdom of Prussia at the time, now Srem in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland.
5.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was the son of a Hauptmann of Infanterie-Regiment 47, Hans Wilcke, who died of pneumonia when Wilcke was just four weeks of age.
6.
In 1931, Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was arrested for attending a then-illegal demonstration of the Nazi Party.
7.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke volunteered for military service in the Reichswehr after receiving his Abitur.
8.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke joined Artillerie-Regiment 6 in Minden as a Fahnenjunker on 1 April 1934.
9.
In March 1939, Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke volunteered for service with the Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War.
10.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was awarded the Spanish Cross in Bronze with Swords for his service in Spain.
11.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke claimed his first aerial victory on 7 November 1939, over the Western Front when he shot down an Armee de l'Air Potez 630, a twin-engined fighter, near Volklingen during the Phoney War.
12.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was promoted to Hauptmann the next day and again took command of 7.
13.
On 13 August 1940, during the Battle of Britain, Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke replaced Hauptmann Harro Harder as Gruppenkommandeur of the III.
14.
The day of his appointment, Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke almost lost his life as well, when he was forced to bail out after engine failure over the English Channel.
15.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was rescued that night by a Dornier Do 18 flying boat.
16.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke destroyed a barrage balloon on the morning mission and claimed his fourth victory, a Supermarine Spitfire in the vicinity of Dover during his second mission of the day.
17.
In combat with RAF Spitfires, Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke claimed his 13th victory at 11:45 am on 10 October 1940, his final of the Battle of Britain.
18.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke claimed his 19th victory on the evening of 30 June 1941, flying a combat air patrol into the Barysaw area.
19.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was ordered to form "Gefechtsverband Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke" on 1 July 1941.
20.
The next day, over the spearheads at Yartsevo-Bely, Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke shot down a Polikarpov I-180 fighter.
21.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 6 August 1941 for 25 victories.
22.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke claimed his first victory during the siege, and 35th overall, over a Spitfire fighter on 2 April 1942.
23.
On 18 May 1942, Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was transferred to Jagdgeschwader 3 "Udet", named after the World War I fighter ace Ernst Udet.
24.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke followed this with another LaGG-3 on 22 June, and a LaGG-3 and a Polikarpov R-5 reconnaissance bomber on 24 June 1942.
25.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke claimed one aircraft destroyed on 28 August, one more on 30 August and four on 31 August, taking his total to 96 aerial victories by the end of August 1942.
26.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was the 20th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark.
27.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke led about 40 serviceable German fighters against the Soviet 8 Vozdyshnaya Armiya, 16 Vozdyshnaya Armiya, and 102 Istrebitel'naya Aviatsionnaya Diviziya Protivo-Vozdushnaya Oborona over Stalingrad.
28.
At the time, Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke often flew with Hauptmann Walther Dahl as his wingman.
29.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke organized fighter escort missions for the transport aircraft delivering supplies for the 6th Army.
30.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke claimed two victories on 24 November 1942, an Il-2 Sturmovik and a Yak-1, his first victories in support of the Stalingrad pocket.
31.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke became the fourth German fighter pilot to achieve 150 aerial victories in combat.
32.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was promoted to Oberst on 1 December 1943 and requested permission to fly operationally and lead his Geschwader from the air.
33.
In February 1944, although still officially banned from flying operations, Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke ignored the order and flew several missions leading his Stabsschwarm against the United States Army Air Forces in Defense of the Reich missions.
34.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke shot down two Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers on 4 March 1944, his 159th and 160th aerial victories.
35.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke had been nicknamed "Furst" by his comrades on account of his attitude towards his men and paternal sense of responsibility, and his being very conscious of his style and appearance and therefore wearing a very expensive and custom tailored leather coat.
36.
Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was buried in the honor section of the cemetery in Monchengladbach-Holt next to the grave of Klaus Quaet-Faslem.