The unit had been commanded by Hauptmann Wolf- Dietrich Wilcke from 12August 1940, and it has been claimed that he personally ordered the tail swastika to be painted out and refused to have aircraft of the III Gruppe painted with a red band. Nevertheless, there is evidence of III Gruppe aircraft bearing the red rings.
The assertion as regards to the swastikas was later confirmed by Hermann Neuhoff who had served as a Feldwebel with III/JG53 in 1940 and who achieved eight victories during the Battle of France. When asked about the matter in post-war years, he was clear about Wilcke’s order:
“After the war, it was popular to say that so-and-so was not a Nazi, but Wilcke really was hostile to the Nazis. He stood up for our Geschwaderkommodore to the utmost. After the order to paint over our Ace of Spades, Wilcke’s response was to have the swastikas on the tail fins on all aircraft in our Gruppe painted over.”
Neuhoff was very clear about the background to the deletion of the swastikas, but the political message being sent by the brazen act of removing them can only be described as exceptionally brave.

Sonnabend, 18. Juli 1942

Mit einem Begleitschutz für Ju 88 nach Rosta (von 13.35 bis 14.35 Uhr) kann die Besatzung Ofw. Munding/Uffz. Gunzelmann den 1.500. Einsatz der Staffel feiern. Bilanz: In 1.500 Einsätzen wurden 82 Flugzeuge abgeschossen (dazu kommen noch mindestens zwei weitere, die nicht anerkannt wurden) und 20 am Boden zerstört. Vernichtet wurden ferner 43 Lokomotiven, 396 Eisenbahnwaggons, 8 Flakstellungen, 34 Funkstellen, dazu Bahngebäude, Baracken, 126 Lastwagen und andere Fahrzeuge. Beschädigt wurden ferner 7 Schiffe. Auf der Passivseite der Bilanz sind auch eine ganze Reihe Verluste zu verzeichnen: 11 Besatzungsmitglieder gefallen oder vermisst und 3 verwundet, außerdem mindestens 25 Bf 110 Totalschaden und 17 beschädigt...

Bilder auf dieser und der folgenden Seite (oben):
Die Helden des Tages sind Ofw. Karl Munding und Uffz. Erich Gunzelmann, deren Bf 110 F-2 “HR” gerade vom 1.500. Kampfeinsatz der Staffel im Eismeerraum zurückkommt. Die beiden werden mit großem Hallo empfangen.

...While JG 53 was making a reputation for itself during the Battle of Britain, according to RAF Air Ministry intelligence summary no. 60, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring was informed that Major Hans-Jürgen von Cramon-Taubadel's wife was Jewish...

At this time - apparently at the end of July 1940 - an order reached the Geschwader which was received with some lack of understanding and not a little irritation: the order decreed that wearing of the Geschwader emblem - the “Ace of Spades” - on the unit’s aircraft was forbidden as of that date. Unfortunately, neither the name of the office that issued the order nor its contents have survived; all that is known is that the “Ace of Spades” emblem disappeared from the unit’s aircraft and for a time was replaced by a narrow, approximately 25-centimeter-wide, red band around the engine cowling.
At the time it was announced that this measure was solely intended for purposes of camouflage - by then the “Ace of Spades” had become too well known to the fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force, and by replacing the eye-catching emblem with the red band the RAF would be deceived into thinking that it was dealing with a new unit. However, this “explanation” may not have corresponded to the actual motives behind the change; it seems more likely that the another reason lay behind the order: the Geschwaderkommodore of JG 53, Oberstleutnant von Cramon, was not exactly well-liked by the Luftwaffe command, because he had married, as he put it, “a wife who was not quite aryan”, a situation which frequently stood in the way of a successful Luftwaffe career for him and which was to lead to all sorts of spiteful acts against him.
Since his Geschwader had over time developed a considerable pride in the “Ace of Spades” emblem, something which was obviously supported by the Kommodore, the Luftwaffe upper echelon came up with the idea of prohibiting the out-of-favor Oberstleutnant von Cramon’s JG 53 from wearing its unit emblem. It is noteworthy in this context that von Cramon was not among the Kommodores who - like Ibel, Osterkamp or von Billow - were decorated with the Knight’s Cross in 1940, although his Geschwader had demonstrably been among the most successful!