Did Mickey Mouse fly with the Luftwaffe!?
View more posts David Wesley Tonkin
Where and why did that quintessentially American icon so beloved by generations of American children become a feature in the history of the Luftwaffe during World War II?  Mickey Mouse was the personal aircraft insignia used by Luftwaffe General Adolf Joseph Ferdinand Galland (19 March 1912 – 9 February 1996). Galland first painted the famous…
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Byways to Everywhere
Where and why did that quintessentially American icon so beloved by generations of American children become a feature in the history of the Luftwaffe during World War II?

Mickey Mouse was the personal aircraft insignia used by Luftwaffe General Adolf Joseph Ferdinand Galland (19 March 1912 – 9 February 1996).

Galland first painted the famous symbol on his Messerschmidt Bf 109 E in 1937, when he volunteered to fly for the German Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War where he flew ground attack missions in support of the Nationalists under Francisco Franco.

Galland’s Mickey Mouse was a far more belligerent fellow than the cartoon character we all grew up with. Firstly he carried a hatchet in one hand and an old blunderbuss handgun in the other. Then of course there was the omnipresent cigar!

During one of his frequent post-war trips to visit his friends in the USA and the UK Galland said during a newspaper interview, “Mickey was smoking a cigar, which I loved. But after the war I had to give cigars up!” In the same series of interviews Galland admitted that he probably flew the only cigar-lighter equipped Bf 109 E. “… plus a cigar holder for it if I was on oxygen. It created quite a controversy, I can tell you!”

“Dolfo” Galland was an avant-garde thinker about tactics and practices for the effective use of aircraft as ground and sea attack weapons; he literally “wrote the book” on the topic for the Luftwaffe in 1938 when he returned from Spain. He authored several definitive manuals and position papers that he was to successfully put into practice during Germany’s invasion of Poland in September 1939.

In early 1940 Galland switched roles and became a fighter pilot. Again flying a Messerschmitt Bf 109 (with a Mickey Mouse insignia!) during the Battle of Britain he shot down 57 Royal Air Force (RAF) Blenheims, Defiants, Hurricanes and Spitfires.

After the Luftwaffe were resoundingly beaten in the Battle of Britain’s “war of attrition” Galland was extremely critical of the Luftwaffe leadership’s strategies and tactics during the battle. The leader he constantly and publicly disparaged was Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Goring, the Luftwaffe’s supreme commander. His critiques and opinions; while often logical, insightful and right were never popular; and he made an influential and lasting enemy!

In the twilight of the Battle of Britain defeat Goring asked a group of his senior squadron and group commanders what they needed to turn the situation around and win the battle. Galland’s immediate reply was “I should like an outfit of Spitfires for my squadron.” This response was said to have caused Goring to be speechless with rage for several hours.

What kept Galland out of trouble was his ever growing magnitude of air combat victories. Throughout 1941 Galland continued to fight the RAF and later the USAAF over the English Channel and the Pas de Calais (What became known as the “Channel Front”). By November 1941 Galland achieved two remarkable milestones; his combat victories rose to 96 and he was promoted to Major General (General der Jagdflieger), at age 30 this made him the youngest General officer in the Luftwaffe.

In January and February 1942, Galland conceived, planned and personally led the Luftwaffe’s cooperative air-cover for the Kriegsmarine’s (German Navy) Operation Cerberus which was quite probably the German Navy’s least costly (and rare!) success in World War II. During the approximately 24 hours that Cerberus lasted both the Battleships Scharnhorst (Pictured above) and Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prince Eugen with a substantive naval escort of smaller craft sailed from Brest (In France) and headed up the English Channel to return to their base in Wilhelmshaven (Germany). This was the first time since the 17th and 18th centuries that a belligerent Navy (The Dutch during The Engels–Nederlandse Oorlogen or Anglo-Dutch Wars) had fought-off the might of the Royal Navy while sailing the length of the Channel. Galland was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds for a crucial contribution to the success of the operation.

During 1944 Galland and Goring repetitively and vehemently blamed each other for the failure to block the ever-increasing and successful Allied bombing of Germany in daylight and throughout the night. The relationship totally disintegrated during January 1945, when Galland was relieved of his command by Goring.

In the classic “too little too late” situation Galland was allowed to form Jagdverband 44 (A special unit of Germany’s surviving ace fighter pilots) in February 1945.

The aircraft used by the squadron were Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighters. They were instantly nicknamed the “Der Galland-Zirkus” (The Galland Circus). Galland’s tally rose to 103 victories in these twilight days of World War II … and! …

Yes! Adolf Galland’s Me 262 was proudly emblazoned with a Mickey Mouse insignia!

Acknowledgements and comments:

My thanks to Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Wiki Commons and Google Images for the photographs of Adolf Galland and his aircraft.

The composite illustration of Galland, his aircraft and the Mickey Mouse emblem were previously published in a paper I wrote on this topic.

My gratitude to the Docents at the Imperial War Museum in Saxonwold, Johannesburg, South Africa for telling me about the Mickey Mouse insignia on a high school trip to this outstanding museum in the 1960’s.

Adolf Galland was, by all accounts an honorable and decent man. He certainly showed his contempt and lack of respect for Hitler and Goring publicly on many occasions. He is one of the few German military people I would consider writing about!

A long weekend stay at the Sheldon Park Castle Golf Club and Hotel near Croydon in the English countryside where I had the pleasure of many conversations with a splendid Gentleman names Simon Stanford Tuck … we talked at length about his father, Robert Stanford Tuck (Wing Commander , RAF) and his father’s close friend General Adolph Galland.

As in all my articles, papers and blogs I have hidden the swastika emblem that appears on the aircraft images. I do this out of respect for the men and women who gave their lives honorably to free the world of Nazism. I have no tolerance for symbols of oppression, bigotry, racism, vindictive and ignorant cultism and hate.

(Below) Former protagonists … (left) General Adolf Galland of the Luftwaffe and Wing Commander Robert Stanford Tuck (right) of the Royal Air Force … bird hunting in Scotland in 1950.