Salute! Small story about Adolf Galland.

[Dowly]

In England during the Second World War, there was this RAF rookie pilot learning how to fly.
Suddenly out of the skies and from behind come these two Messerschmitt Bf-109s fighter planes and the RAF pilots braced themselves for the worse to what would be their fate.
The fighter planes circled the little yellow DeHavilland tiger-Moth for a closer look. The surprised British pilots tried hard to signal the German fighters by putting their hands in the air and that they were defenceless and were surrendering.
To their amazement the fighter planes circled around them once again and one German fighter slowed down his airplane and flew by next to the little Yellow RAF aircraft.
The German pilot waved at the British pilots and smiled. In the fuselage below the cockpit it had a painted Mickey-Mouse.
The pilot saluted them and then both fighter planes flew off into the clouds above.
That German pilot was none other than Adolf Galland, a fighter ace with a total of 103 victories in 705 missions.

[Chock]

Unfortunately, Galland wasn't always like that, If you read recollections from several pilots who flew with him, you find that he could be nasty and arrogant too, with many fellow pilots accusing him of racking up his score at the expense of losing wingmen. He was noted for suffering from what the German pilots called 'Halsweh' (a sore throat), i.e. he was desperate to get a Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds dangling from his neck - in competition with Werner Moelders.

Here's one example of how hearltess Galland could be in his quests for victories at the expense of the 'Katschmarek' (faithful family servant) as the wingmen referred to themselves: When flying with JG26, Ulrich Stienhilper (author of Spitfire on my Tail - great book by the way) relates that he heard the frightened voice of one of the inexperienced JG26 pilots calling out for assistance: 'Spitfire hinter mir' (There's a Spitfire behind me). A few seconds later, the same voice urgently repeated 'Spitfire immer noch hinter mir, Was soll ich tun? Immer noch hinter mir!' (Spitfire still behind me, what should I do? He's still behind me). Galland's voice came over the radio: 'Aussteigen, sie bettnasser!' (Bale out, you bedwetter!).

Not exactly an example of inspired leadership. Contrast this with James E 'Johnny' Johnson's account of Galland's famous foe, Doulgas Bader in the same situation, which Johnson recounts in his book Wing Leader (also a great book, probably the best one of its kind in fact). When Johnson was coming back from France in his Spitfire after a mission, he got left behind the main squadron as they withdrew. With German fighters on his tail and desperately circling, there was no way he could disengage. Fortunately for Johnson, another withdrawing Spitfire pilot glanced backwards and saw Johnson's aircraft trying to extricate itself. He immediately reported it to Bader with the call: 'There's a Spit in trouble back there'. Johnson had been too busy trying to fend the German fighters off to use the radio, but now he blurted out: 'It's me, Johnny'. Bader immediately radioed him and said that it would be okay, they were coming back to help him out, whereupon he wheeled the entire squadron around and headed back toward France and Johnson's predicament. Johnson recalls that the moment he heard Bader's voice reassuring him, he felt a whole lot better, and knew it would be okay, which is a great example of the positive benefits good leadership can imbue.

To be fair though, without actually being there at both these events, it is hard to judge them objectively, and it is apparent in Steinhilper's book that he has (not without some justification) a bit of a chip on his shoulder where Galland is concerned. We do not know, for example, how much fuel the aircraft had left in both examples (probably not much in both cases). And Bader could be arrogant at times too, of course.

There is no doubt Galland was a very good shot and most of the time he was a pretty good leader too (Steinhilper's book also details an example of this when he recounts how Galland made him fly twenty perfect circuits and landings in a FW Stosser after Steinhilper had crashed a brand new bf109E on landing). Notably, Galland did famously stand up to Goering quite a few times at the risk of his career as a fighter pilot (his request for a squadron of Spitfires being one famous example), which took some guts and is clearly an admirable trait. But Galland was far from a saint, and his own memoirs from WW2 are a bit revisionist to say the least, although ironically many copies of this book do in fact have a forward written by Douglas Bader.

Galland and other veterans from the Condor Legion were known to be nasty and contemptuous with Luftwaffe pilots who had not served in Spain, and it is this attitude which was to some degree responsible for the Luftwaffe not doing as well as it could have when it came to experienced pilots nurturing the new guys. Although he is certainly one of the more enigmatic, interesting, and difficult to understand personalities of all those who flew fighters in WW2.

Whatever the truth may be, the story of him flying by the training aircraft and saluting it is one of the nicer ones to come out of that terrible war.

Chock

[Dowly]

Thanks for sharing that, Chock! I havent studied the people flying the machines too much, should buy a book or two. :hmm:

And thanks for telling what kind of person Galland was at times. Also, reading that story of the RAF pilot left behind, I must say that Brits & Finns are very similar when it comes to defending your country. In Finland we call it 'Sisu', which is basically stubborness+bravery+care for the guy next to you all in same word.

I saw that story at Screenshotart.com and it had an composite screenshot with it, which was just awesome.

Here's the link, not sure if you can see the image without registering:
http://www.screenshotart.com/index.php?showtopic=30685

[GlobalExplorer]

Good post by Chock. I am getting tired myself of the Maximilian Schell type stereotype of the german officer, as well as the other, Herrmann Goering fat schemer type. Real people tend to fall in between those two extremes, and neither was Goering the fool that everyone believes him to be today, nor was Galland the chivalrous hero that just happened to be on the wrong side.

Lets not forget Galland was a member of the Condor clique, known for their arrogant, inappropriate, and generally unmilitaric behaviour.

[Frenssen]

Galland was charming and spoke English well and the Brits and Americans liked him. He didn`t look like a stereotype Hollywood nazi and didn`t hurt either.

[NiclDoe]

Very nice find Dowly. thats pretty odd if you ask me to do that to a Brit.

[GlobalExplorer]

Generally an excellent pilot and leader and but his main failure was his vanity. Besides, there is a reason that german pilots felt less hatred than their British adversaries. Apart from the risk to lose ones life, which was accepted, there was nothing deeper at stake for them. They thought it was some sort of sport for gentlemen, whereas the british pilots knew they were defending their home country, and that they could not afford to lose.

[nikimcbee]

I read his bio. He didn't get along too well with Goring.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

I read his bio. He didn't get along too well with Goring.

Who did? AFAIK, Goering was more interested finding all the valuable art pieces from the ruins of Europe than of Luftwaffe.