Adolf
Galland
Adolf Galland was born on March 19, 1912 in
Westerholt, Westfalen. As with all German boys and young men he was drawn to
aviation with all the stories of the Red Baron and the glorious air battles of
World War I. He was participating with the local youth glider programs that were
sponsored by the government with the ulterior motive of building a future air
force.
These were the future pilots of the Luftwaffe. Adolf
was a glider pilot at the age of nineteen. How fascinating it must have been
because Hitler was promoting flying to teenage boys like in America we sponsored
the soapbox derby.
German fourteen year olds were soloing in gliders and learning to work together as a team. The local boys who signed up would be put into teams usually from their town, village, or hamlet. The boys were to plan the construction and build a fully functional flyable glider. Then they all took turns becoming proficient in the flying earning a certificate of glider pilot.
American boys were collecting Dick Tracy decoder
rings. German youth were competing with other villages, groups and glider clubs.
Later however when the threat of the growing German
air force was emanate President Roosevelt launched our governments program to
encourage flight training for high school and collage students. Almost all of
our future WWII aviators flocked to these learning centers and took advantage of
the program. American boys didn’t put down their comic books they took them
into the cockpits with them. They wanted to be the aviation hero they had
dreamed and read about in their full color picture books of glory.
Adolf was part of the German youth flight training and in 1932 he enlisted in the Dectches Fliegerschule, which was a formal aviation program. The school would teach powered flight and instruct students to get proper fight certifications. During one of his flights in training Adolf injured one of his eyes. This impaired his vision and he had an up coming eye exam for another physical. He was fortunate to get a good look at the eye chart and memorized it. So he easily passed the exam.
Adolf was promoted to the rank of Oberleutnant on August 1, 1937 and volunteered to join the Condor Legion headed for the Spanish Civil War. Adolf flew 300 ground support sorties in a Heinkel 51 bi-plane.
His skills in combat were rewarded with the Leader of
Spain personally presenting him with the Spanish Cross in Gold and Diamonds.
Herman Goring and his fellow pilots also noted his talents.
After his return from the Spanish conflict The
Luftwaffe asked him to prepare a report about all of the lessons he and the
Squadrons learned from actual combat. The report Galland finished was complete
with honest facts to the air forces strengths and its weaknesses. Along with his
full recommendations to solve the problems and unite the air core into a fully
functional combat weapon as a whole. Dive bombers, medium and high altitude
bombing. Fighter protection for bomber formations. Fighter tactics, ground
attack tactics. Adolf Galland turned in a report that set the foundation for the
Luftwaffe.
Adolf became Staffelkapitan in II(s) LG 2
Lehrgeschwader in the spring of 1939. The invasion of Poland was being planned.
And Adolf was one of the many that planned the logistics, which would put an
aerial armada that had not been seen since 1915 and 1916 in the air. You know
that Germany could simply have taken control of the commercial and passenger air
services in Europe being the best with the most comfortable passenger services
and the fastest aircraft but they chose to go to war.
This next sentence has been written in a hundred
different history books so I will openly borrow it as well. On September 1, 1939
Germany attacked Poland. Now lets add the details; during the initial invasion
Adolf was flying into combat the bi-wing Henschel Hs 123. He was flying up to
four missions a day. His job was to fly low and as fast as the little airplane
would take him. Drop small bombs on troop concentrations and all the while
firing his machine guns into their openly exposed positions from the air.
It would be hard to hide from a pilot with the skill of Galland after so much experience. The three hundred missions in Spain gave him a edge. And when you are 500 to 1000 feet high looking down on the ground for targets, it is hard to hide. The pilot can see everything. Like a hawk looking for a rabbit.
The Blitzkrieg was complete. The coordination of armor
and infantry with the assistance from Stuka JU87’s, and the Henschel 123’s
caught the Polish army by surprise. In fact the Polish did know that Germany was
going to invade and did make a minor effort to reposition troops and materials
but the Germans rolled over the defenses especially with the help of
paratroopers landing behind enemy lines cutting off supplies and attacking the
Polish troops from behind. The fall of a European country was calculated in
months, or weeks, or days.
America could not ignore Hitler and Goring any more.
The Stuka set fear in the heart of every small nation. The siren wale of the
dive-bomber was heard around the world in news clips from the front. The German
media for propaganda purposes supplied many movie clips. Motion pictures of the
German dive-bomber caught on film actually destroying a Polish tank, Dutch
bridges then French armies. Americans watched this and patriotism grew in their
hearts. Movie news clips of thousands of marching men in uniform. Attractive
uniforms marching perfectly. Parades of German tanks. It was impressive. At this
point in time Germany had the mightiest army in the world. And they were
developing a hardy track record. Decisions were being made.
For his gallant ability to help plan, fly and fight in
the first successful demonstration of the “Blitzkrieg” Adolf was promoted to
Hauptmann on October 1, 1939. He then transferred to JG27 in time for the
invasion of France. This time Adolf would be flying a Bf-109E fighter and not
the bi-wing Henschel 123. Now was his chance to be a fighter pilot like his
friend Werner Molders. Molders would be the first fighter pilots to achieve 100
aerial victories.
The French army held fast but the brute strength of
the Panzers were over whelming. Many believe that the French are a bunch of
sissies. That is not true. The one fault the French had was the military leaders
were from the WWI era and were not up to date or advanced in their thinking, as
the Germany military had become. The French fought. They were rolled over. After
all if you will remember, England and a lot of aircraft, men and materials in
the fight also. They too were overwhelmed.
During the aerial assault Galland did prove himself as a crack pilot with a good eye. He scored his first three aerial victories on May 12, 1940 shooting down three Hurricanes on two different flights. Adolf ended the French war with eleven victories to his credit.
However the German aircraft proved to be venerable in
the French War. For the first time the Germans started to loose bombers. French
pilot Marcel Albert was able to shoot down a Dornier DO-17 on May 20, 1940,
later that day he shot down a Bf-109. On May 20th right before the
armistice was signed with Germany he shot down a Heinkel HE-111 but the paper
work was never process in Paris because the city was being evacuated.
Marcel claimed these victories flying the Dewoitine
D-520, which was definitely a more advanced fighter than the Luftwaffe was use
too. The English Hawker Hurricane was active in France along with a small group
of Spitfires. Air combat did take place. The German pilots were hungry for
kills. They flew with blood lust. But Stuka’s and Me-110’s were starting to
loose some of their glamour. The Stuka pilot was a hero when he ruled the skies,
however with the tables turned a Stuka with a Hurricane on its tail with eight
fifty-caliber machine guns is at a disadvantage. At this point in time the tail
gunner was just having someone along for the ride to die with.
The fighter that Galland flew was the Bf-109E-4. The aircraft had the engine panels, spinner cone and the bottom intake panel painted in yellow, Gelb 27. This was for easy identification in aerial combat. The bottom of the wings and fuselage sides and tail were painted light blue, Hallblau 65. The tops of the wings were a splinter pattern of black green and medium green.
This artwork is by Claes Sundin.
The rudder was painted yellow with Adolf’ s victory marking painted in bold vertical black bars against a light blue background. The rest of the vertical area of the tail was painted light blue adorning the swastika. Onto the light blue sides and tail was sprayed in a mottled pattern different sizes of patches of dark and light grays. This gave the aircraft a camouflage look of an animal. The top of the fuselage spine was crowned with the black and medium greens as the wing top surfaces.
This artwork is by Claes Sundin.
Bold black crosses outlined with white border then outlined in thin black adorned the tops and bottoms of the wings. The side of Galland’s Messerschmitt had the Chevron, Black Bar, The German Cross, followed by another Black Bar denoting his rank.
This artwork is by Claes Sundin.
Adolf also had a personal cartoon artwork on the side of his cockpit. It was of a Mickey Mouse figure with a hatchet in one had and a pistol in the other. Since Adolf was notorious for smoking cigars even in combat, Mickey Mouse also sported a cigar. Between the air intake and the canopy on the fuselage Adolf had the Squadron Emblem of a black “S” on a white shield.
The Germans now stood on the shore of France and
looked at England and its white cliffs. There was one step to take and that
would be over the Channel.
Adolf was again hard at work within his command
planning some of the build up of the Luftwaffe airfields and the methods of
attack. Target identification, RAF airfields, aircraft factories, docks and
shipping facilities. The list is now typical in strategic air planning.
Distances were charted to each. The amount of time the Bf-109 fighter would have
over the combat area was almost useless. Many a German pilot would end up dead
in the Channel or as a prisoner of war because they ran short of fuel.
The German fighters were not capable of long flights
and combat. They planned as best they could with the take off times of the
bombers and then the fighters. So many plans of fighters meeting their bombers
at 00 degrees latitude, 00 degrees longitude were looked over and over and the
answer was always the same. The fighters don’t have the range to be as
effective as they need.
The Germans were falsely impressed with the luck of
the He-111, JU-88 and the Stuka in Spain, and then again against obsolete
aircraft of the Polish, Dutch, Netherlands, and then France. However the
Dornier, Heinkel’ s and Stuka’s would have their work cut out for them
against a squadron of top-flight fighters piloted by determined pilots. Because
the English were also planning for their defense.
A few months passed before the assault on the United
Kingdom itself started. Giving the new Luftwaffe airfields time to organize
their shops and repair facilities. Fuel need to be delivered all after cleaning
up the damaged airfield and buildings from past Luftwaffe attacks. Where French
fighters once sat now sit the air fleet Goring had been planning for six years.
Row after row of Henkle-111, Dornier 17’s, Junkers
88’s, Me-110’s, Stuka’s and Bf-109’s lined the French airfields.
Thousands of men in black outfits scurried performing their duties. Panels were
taken off, hydraulic lines checked. Guns cleaned and oiled. Tires and exhaust
system checks, electronics tested. It took an army of men to get the Luftwaffe
aloft.
Pilots and crews were assigned their aircraft and the
squadron artwork was proudly painted on. Personal artwork was added with the
taste of the aviator. Galland would be flying a different Messerschmitt but the
over all color scheme and marking would be the same. Again Mickey Mouse sporting
a cigar would go with Adolf into combat.
Adolf started scoring quickly as the Battle of Britton
started. On July 18, Galland was promoted to Major and on August 1st
he was awarded the Ritterkreuz for his seventeenth victory and received another
promotion to Kommodore of JG26 on August 22nd. These were promotions and awards
that he planned, flew, and fought for.
As the Battle of Britton drug on the German Luftwaffe
had been dealt a stunning blown. Losses of aircraft and aircrews was staggering.
Adolf was the leader of his Geschwader during the most trying times of the air
war with England. His squadron preformed outstandingly and his personal aerial
victories grew along with the success of his fighter pilots. However this was
not enough for Herman Goring. He became furious with his fighter pilots openly
blaming them for the traumatizing loss of bombers and their crews.
It was like blood letting. The loss of this many
bombers should have resulted in the collapse of England and terms of a treaty.
Yet here they are months later when they should have been standing on an English
airfield they were still on French soil. Goring openly berated his pilots as
they stood in silence at attention. One day Goring openly asked the question of
Galland and his pilots “What was it going to take to finish this campaign?”
Galland stepped forward and said. “Give us Spitfires.” Goring being a
sensitive person took this quite personally.
The problem was that the British were well trained in
their defensive tactics. Bomber no matter how protected by fighters are still
going to get attacked. And the English was tearing up the German bombers. The
bomber pilots complained that the fighters would not stay close enough for
proper protection. Goring told the fighter pilots to stay closer to the bombers.
Galland and all of the other fighter pilots fought this but Goring’s word was
final.
The results were the increase in losses of bombers. For the fighters to obey orders and stay close to the bombers this did not give them the time they needed to fin off an attacking aircraft. Fighters come in too fast. A defending fighter needs room to move around. The fight between Goring, his Generals and his fighter pilots continued and the result was the air war coming to an end in not just German failure but humiliation. Bomber command won but lost.
This artwork is by Claes Sundin.
On September 25th, Adolf was awarded the
Eichenland for his fortieth victory. Soon to follow was his 50th
victory and another promotion to Oberstleutnant and on December 8th
Adolf became a full Oberst.
The next year, 1942 would be different. The African campaign was going well but within months it would be floundering. The Russian Campaign was being planned and the invasion of England was called off. After Russia was invaded Galland stayed in the west with his squadron and they played cat and mouse games with English.
This artwork is by Claes Sundin.
The English attacked on June 22nd with twin engine Blenheim bombers and an escort of both Hurricanes and Spitfires. Their targets were ports and airfields. JG26 intercepted one of the flights raiding St. Omer. Adolf was the first to score a victory which was his 68th followed quickly by another for his 69th. In return English fighters fired on and hit his fighter damaging the radiators. His engine quickly froze up and he made a belly landing. Adolf was quickly picked up by military personal who returned him to his base for him to again take off and pursue the intruders. He intercepted another flight south of Boulogne.
Adolf fired on a Spitfire and the fighter started to
flame. Number 70! Not so fast as quickly he was attacked and a wave of bullets
from the eight machine guns of a Hurricane ripped off a section of the fuselage,
perforated the wings and the fuel tanks. Adolf was wounded both in an arm and
his head. The smell of fuel filled his fighter cabin. Flames erupted. Adolf
unbuckled his seat belt and seat harness and opened the canopy. As his plane
rolled he fell out but the aircraft aerial caught his parachute harness.
As the Messerschmitt started its earth spiral it was
pulling Adolf down with it. Adolf said that he somehow was able to break free
and parachute to safety to land in a field springing one of his ankles.
Adolf sat there waiting for someone to retrieve him he considered himself a lucky man. Shot down twice in one day and scored three victories. Not a bad day at the office. This is what fighter pilots dream of and Adolf was in the right place at the right time to experience the best aerial combat could be. Still plenty of combat was ahead for him. He was alive; a few of the men he fought with today were now dead. That’s the life of a fighter pilot.
Unfortunately things were not so wonderful in
paradise. There were riffs within the Nazi Party as to the conduct and actions
of the secret police. Some openly protested. They were jailed. After the jailing
of a noble Catholic Priest, the star of Luftwaffe propaganda Werner Molders
rebelled by taking all of his medals and awards and mailed them back to
headquarters saying in a letter that he would never wear the German uniform
again as long as such oppression continues. Werner Molders death was reveled to
the German press has him dieing in an aircraft accident.
Ernst Udet had committed suicide because of the way he
had been shut out by Goring who took total control of the Luftwaffe and becoming
Hitler’s lap dog. Goring was a weak man. He had his faults, which were many.
The death of Udet was suspicious but the war was now consuming the minds of all
Germans. They had the entire world against them. Germany stood against the whole
world. Except Japan, Switzerland, and Spain that is. The rest however was fairly
well honked off.
Galland was promoted to the position of General der
Jagdwaffe, or General of the Fighting Arm. On January 28, 1942 Adolf Galland was
awarded the Brillanten, Diamonds, to the Ritterkreuz. It sounds like a lot and
it is. Galland was a proud and levelheaded man. A great leader but his butting
heads with Goring was turning into real anger.
One of his first duties in his new job was to plan the
relocation of German warships out of the range of long-range British bombers.
“Operation Thunderbolt” was also known as the “Channel Dash”. The
mission was a success and another feather in the cap of General Galland.
Finally after another year of bogged down war on every
front with Goring getting more and more undependable, and even unreliable to his
own men the fighter pilots led by Adolf rebelled. Hitler ordered Goring to have
them all shot. That was one order best not followed. Goring’s drug and alcohol
use was ruining his capability to be a competent leader. The war was going bad
and he was going down with it. Yet, he was their leader.
Adolf was demoted in a way but never lost his rank. He was allowed to climb back into the cockpit and form a new squadron. The Messerschmitt ME-262 was now squadron available. Franz Stigler another ace I have worked with was at the time a trainer for pilots in the ME-262. With pilots checking out in the new ME-262 Galland put together a “Squadron of Experts”. JV44 was truly a successful squadron experimenting with air-to-air rocket launching against American Bombers.
On April 24, 1945 General Adolf Galland scored his 104th
aerial victory. The war ended and after becoming a salesman for German companies
in South America, Adolf joined with the newly formed Luftwaffe and flew the new
American made jet fighters. The F-86 was one of his favorites. Adolf retired
from the German Air Force and traveled around as a celebrity giving talks about
his war experiences.
I contacted him at the very end of his life. I knew
that I did not have time to publish a print and fly to Germany fast enough. So I
mailed him a hand full of photographs for him to sign. I also mailed seven
original painting I did of his fighters and he autographed them for me. Two
weeks later he left us.
I never got to meet him but talked to him several
times along with his wife. General Adolf Galland was one of my aviation heroes
when I was in junior high school through graduation. After reading the book
“The First and the Last” my mind was captured forever in the world of
aviation combat. So when I decided that I was going to be an artist, the subject
would be simple.
To be able to fly and fight, and live, well that was
the life of Adolf Galland, General, Fighter Pilot, Ace.
I am merely an artist and storyteller. I love my job.
I hope you enjoy my writings.
Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette
All research, writings and artwork are by Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette.
No one is permitted to republish any part of this story with out my personal permission.
Please call or e-mail me for any use of this story.
I do not mind sharing, just call or e-mail and ask for permission.
Sir. Ernie Hamilton Boyette
904-282-4198
Started 2-9-07