Karl-Eduard Wilke

Karl-Eduard Wilke (born January 24, 1901 in Kiel ; † May 10, 1990 in Hagen ) was a German major general in the Air Force during World War II .

Life

Wilke took effect on 25 March 1918 the army and served in the last days of World War I in the infantry . After the war he first served in the Eulenburg Freikorps before he was accepted as a lieutenant in the Reichswehr on December 10, 1919 . In 1926 he made a private aviation training and was promoted to first lieutenant on August 1, 1926 as a member of Artillery Regiment 1 of the 1st Division . From March 31, 1928 he took part in a secret flight training at the Soviet Lipetsk airfield . After being promoted to captain on January 1, 1934 , he switched to the newly established Luftwaffe on June 15, 1934, where he joined the staff of the inspector of the reconnaissance aircraft. On May 1, 1935, he went to the Reich Ministry of Aviation as an adjutant to the State Secretary , where he was promoted to major on June 1, 1936 . Later, on 1 October 1936, he took over as group commander of the III. Group of the Greifswald training squadron, the later training squadron 1 .

After he served in the same function in the II. Group of Kampfgeschwader 152 in April 1937 , he took a general staff training from April 1, 1938 on which he completed at the Air War Academy and the Army War Academy. This was followed by posts as first general staff officer on the staff of the General of the Air Force at the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and, now as Lieutenant Colonel , head of the chief department of the Air Force Personnel Office in the Reich Aviation Ministry. After he was promoted to colonel on October 1, 1941 , he took over the Kampfgeschwader 53 as a squadron commodore on November 1, 1942 . The squadron with its Heinkel He 111 was fighting in the German-Soviet War in the central section of the front. After he received the German Cross in Gold on March 15, 1943 , he changed from May 1, 1943 as Chief of Staff to the Commanding General of the German Air Force in Romania . On November 16, 1943, he then took over the same position at the Air Force Command Southeast , where he was promoted to major general on January 1, 1944. On November 1, 1944, he took over the position of commander of the southeast branch of Air Fleet 4 in Zagreb . But on November 22, 1944, he switched to the staff of Commander-in-Chief West on the Western Front as Air Force Liaison Officer. On January 12, 1945, he took over the II. Jagdkorps as commanding general, before he took over the 15th Flieger Division on January 26, 1945. On April 28, 1945, he took over the organization department of the Reich Air Fleet as chief . After the end of the war he went into British captivity from August 12, 1945, from which he was released on June 7, 1947.

Web links

• Henry L. deZeng IV, Douglas G. Stankey: Air Force Officer Career Summaries, Section S – Z. (PDF) 2016, p. 673 , accessed on June 8, 2017 (English).