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Galland Borthers

Adolf

Adolf Galland is probably the most known Luftwaffe pilot of WWII. Not because of number of his kills, but special kind of charisma , a characteristic for all great aces. He was the youngest general grade officer of either side in World War II, and at age 29, he was more competent in aerial combat, strategy and tactics than many of the experts nearly twice his age. As a fighter pilot he was credited with 104 aerial victories. He was also famous for making a lot of modifications to his Bf 109 fighters. He enhanced their fire power, installed better pilot armour and, a cockpit cigar lighter!

He was born in Westerholt, a small village in Westphalia on 19 March 1912. His father was an administrator of private lands and properties. Adolf was the second son, after Fritz. His younger brothers were Wilhelm and Paul. These two younger brothers followed Adolf into the Luftwaffe fighter forces. However they were not as lucky in combat. Paul (17 victories) was killed on 31 October 1943, mistakenly shot down by another pilot of JG26. Wilhelm (54 victories, Knight's Cross) was shot down a year later. Since childhood Adolf Galland was fascinated by aviation. He started building model aircraft when he was 12 years old. When he was 16, he began glider flights. In 1933 Galland realized a dream when he received his first pilot's license. During training in 1935, he crashed in a Focke-Wulf Fw-44 biplane and he was in a coma for three days. He had serious skull fractures, a broken nose, and a partially blinded left eye from glass fragments. His commander, Major Rheitel, an aviator from the First World War, assisted him during his recovery and getting back into flying. He returned to air duty, but a year later he crashed again, this time on Arado Ar-68. Galland again spent a lot of time in the hospital.

In 1937 he volunteered to go with a group of German pilots for service in the Spanish Civil War. In this group were other future aces like Hannes Trautloft, Wilhelm Balthasar, Günther Lützow, Eduard Neumann and Hajo Herrmann. They arrived in El Ferrol on 7 May 1937. Galland became a squadron leader in the Legion Fighter Group, equipped with Heinkel He-51 biplane fighters. Lützow led a squadron of the newest Messerschmitt Bf 109Bs. Galland entered action over Brunete in July 1937. He flew over 300 missions as a leader and he was awarded the Spanish Cross in Gold with Diamonds, only awarded 12 times in Spanish history. In 1938 he returned to Germany. Having great experience, was ordered to begin the organization of Luftwaffe ground attack units.

At the beginning of WW II, Galland flew in Poland in the Henschel Hs 123, until October 1, 1939, performing ground attack missions and proving the dive-bombing concept. For his efforts Galland was awarded by Iron Cross. Next, he was assigned to JG 27, commanded by Oberst Max Ibel. During the French campaign Adolf Galland scored his first kills on 12 May 1940, when he went with Gustav Rödel on a mission. Galland shot down two "Hurricanes" from 87th Squadron in two sorties. He had 12 victories by 9 June 1940.

Adolf Galland, Kommodore JG 26, 1940 Note ever present cigar and experimental telescopic gun sight. Galland had ashtray & lighter installed in planes.

When "Battle of Britain" started, Galland was assigned to JG26 Schlageter as Gruppenkommandeur of III/JG26. His debut in that unit was very successful: he shot down two fighters on his first mission. On 18 July 1940, he was promoted to Major and a month later (on 22 August) he received the Ritterkreuz (Knights Cross) after his 17th victory. During the "Battle of Britain" his score increased rapidly, and on 25 September he was decorated with the Oak Leaves (for 40 kills) by Hitler. Galland also succeeded Gotthard Handrick as Kommodore of JG26. On 1 November 1940, he scored his 50th victory and was promoted to Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel). One month later he became a full colonel.

Major Adolf Galland after scoring his 40th victory on 23 September 1940. Galland is greeted first by his crew chief Uffz. Mayer.

Galland experienced being shot down himself on 21 June 1941, when JG26 was stationed at Pas de Calais. The Germans attacked Bristol "Blenheim" bombers and Galland downed two of them. However, some escorting "Spitfires" shot up his plane. He was forced to belly-land in a field. This same day, after lunch, he went on his next sortie. On that mission he shot down his number 70, but when following the burning "Spitfire", he was bounced and shot up badly. His plane caught fire, and he was wounded. He tried to bail out, but the canopy was jammed. After a dramatic struggle with the canopy, he was able to bail out at the last moment. His parachute opened just as he hit the ground. He was bleeding from his head and arm and he had damaged his ankle on landing. On 2 July 1941 Galland again was in trouble, but that is another story. Please check the text: Adolf Galland and the dramatic air combat July of 1941. On 9 August 1941 Galland 'welcomed' the famous Douglas Bader, who was just shot down by JG26 fighters.

At the end of 1941 Galland become General der Jagdflieger ("commander of fighter forces"), and went to Berlin. Gerhard Schoepfel became Kommodore of Galland's beloved JG26. On 28 January 1942, Hitler awarded him again, this time with the Brillanten (Diamonds). Galland still was at the rank of Colonel, but in 1942 he was promoted to General, then General Leutnant. He was enthusiastic about the new jet fighter project, and he gave great support to the Me 262 program. However, the protracted development time and Hitler's idea to turn the aircraft into a bomber "Schwalbe" slowed the entrance of this revolutionary fighter by a year.

In January of 1945 Galland and other officers (Lützow, Johannes, Steinhoff) had a notorious confrontation with Göring over the performance and future of the Fighter Arm. Galland was removed from his position and even arrested and threatened with a court-martial. Eventually he was allowed to organize a special jet unit using the Me 262. He created Jagdverband 44 a unit with most experienced pilots. His 'recruiting' officer, Steinhoff, traveled to all of the major bases, selecting pilots who wanted join to new adventure. Some very famous pilots joined over a period of weeks: Gerhard Barkhorn, Walter Krupinski, Heinz Bär , Erich Hohagen, Günther Lützow, Wilhelm Herget.

The newly organized unit flew several missions with varying success. Some aircraft used the anti-bomber R4M rockets. During his first attack with rockets Galland, with Walter Krupinski as a wingman, attacked a group of American B-26 "Marauders". Galland's rocket attack knocked down two of them.

In his last aerial combat in WWII, Adolf Galland took off on 26 April 1945. During an attack against Marauders his rockets would not fire, so he had use the 30 mm cannons. His Me 262 was hit by return fire from a rear gunner. The Allied bomber withstood Galland's fire. When Galland turned to finish the bomber, he was surprised by a P-47D flown by James Finnegan. Shells from the P-47's eight 12,7 mm guns destroyed Galland's instrument panel, shattered the jet's canopy, and struck his right knee. With his plane losing power and in great pain, Galland returned to his base, arriving just at the moment when a strafing attack by enemy fighters was underway. He successfully landed and escaped the wreck of his Me 262, avoiding the fire of the straffing attackers.

An autographed photo of German General Adolf Galland and his wife Heidi. Galland is wearing the watch he wore as a pilot in WWII. This photo was taken at a dinner aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA, on February 28, 1987. 3-1/2 by 5 inches. Condition is excellent. RARE photo, since Heidi rarely signed.

After war Galland was invited by Juan Perón to help build Argentinian Air Forces. Here he established a training and operations school, developed tactical training program. In 1955 he returned to Germany. Adolf Galland, a holder of the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, died in 1996.

Wilhelm-Ferdinand

Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland is probably the best example that sometimes aeronautics become a family's bussines. His elder brother was the reputed ace and General of the Fighter Forces of Germany, Adolf "Dolfo" Galland (104 victories along WW2), and his younger brother Paul also became ace (17 kills). Originally the young Wilhelm was recruited to serve in the flak regiments (1935), but when the war began in 1939 he volunteered for flying training in the Ergänzungsgruppe./JG 26. When he completed the training in 1941, he immediatelly reported for active duty in the II./JG 26 on June 27. At this time the whole JG 26 was leaded by his elder brother Adolf, so he was anxious for getting a reputation of his own, for showing that he was more than only the younger brother of the already famous "Dolfo". On July 23 1941 "Wutz" began to gain such reputation when he knocked out a British Spitfire at the NW of Hesdin. By the end of the year, he already had three Spitfire kills in his scoreboard.

Those were happy times for the Luftwaffe units in the Channel Front, as is clearly shown by the figures of losses reported for both sides: Between June 13 and December 31 1941, the RAF lost over 600 aircraft (including fighters and bombers) in air combat and 411 airmen KIA or POW, while the Luftwaffe's actual losses in the air in that same period of time were only 135 aircraft, a kill ratio of 4:1 in favour of the Germans. It is also interesting to note that the Hurricane and Spitfire pilots at that time claimed 731 aerial victories, so they had a huge overclaiming ratio of 82 % !!!

Assigned to the 6./JG 26, "Wutz"'s personal tally began to increase fast when the JG 26 was re-equipped with the outstanding Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-1 in early 1942. On April 10 1942 Wilhelm Galland finally became an ace when blasted out of the sky his fifth victim: one Spitfire Mk.V of the No.340 Sqn RAF over Etaples. The command abilities of Wilhelm did not remain unnoticed, and he became Staffelkapitän of the 5./JG 26 on May 5. That same day he scored his 8th kill, another Spitfire (No.41 Sqn RAF). On June 2 1942 flew magnificently his Fw 190 when bagged two Spitfires (victories Nos.9-10), and repeated such success on July 31 when he piled up other two Spitfires into his scoreboard in less than a minute (Nos.12-13). During the period February - July 1942 the Experten of the JG 2 and JG 26 shot down at least 335 aircraft of the RAF, while losing only 84 Focke-Wulf Fw 190s and Bf 109Fs.

On August 19 1942 the RAF launched Operation "Jubilee", the air support to the assault against the portuary city of Dieppe. The JG 2 "Richthoffen" and JG 26 "Schlageter" (about 20 squadrons) faced the whole No.11 Group of the RAF with 48 squadrons of fighters and fighter-bombers. Despite being out-numbered, the German pilots beaten up their British adversaries, claiming 96 aerial victories that day, and it is highly likely that all the German claims are confirmed, because the RAF admitts the loss of 103 aircraft that day, including 88 Spitfires. Against such carnage, the Luftwaffe lost only 21 fighters and 14 pilots. Many German Experten increased their respective tallies that day, for example Joseph "Sepp" Würmheller (he shot down 7 Spitfires and 1 Blenheim bomber), Egon Mayer (1 Hurricane and 1 Spitfire), Siegfried Schnell (5 Spitfires), Wilhelm Roth (one Spitfire) and Adolf Glunz (one Spitfire too). Wilhelm Galland wasn't the exception, because he destroyed one Spitfire in the afternoon (17:55 hs) N of Dieppe.

Few days later (August 27) the 5./JG 26 intercepted the raid "Circus 208", consisting in 12 Bostons escorted by Spitfires of the No.350 Sqn (Belgian), and Wilhelm Galland shot down the Spit of H. Picard (POW), his 15th kill. "Wutz" suffered a hard strike on October 31 when his younger brother Paul was killed in action, but such tragic personal loss only reinforced his determination, and by the end of 1942, his tally rised to 21 kills (all Spitfires).

On January 3 1943 Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland was promoted to the rank of Hauptmann and took command of II./JG 26, and exactly one month later (February 3 1943) achieved his greatest succeses: that day "Wutz" leaded 40 Fw 190A-5 to intercepte 12 British two-engines bombers Ventura of the No.21 Sqn RAF escorted by Supermarine Spitfires of the No.64, 122 and 308 Sqns, which went to attack Courtrai-Wevelghem airfield . At 11:05 hs Galland sent downwards in flames the Ventura flown by Sgt G. K. Moodley, and only seven minutes later he blasted one Spitfire of the No.308 Sqn out of the sky (probably the one piloted by Fg Off J. Wiejsky). Besides, because of his excellent leadership, his men literally thrashed the escort when shot down other two Polish Spitfires and forced the pilot of a fourth one (Lt. Tadeusz Koc) to bail out over the waters of the Channel. During another Ventura raid in the afternoon, the Fw 190s of the I./JG 2 and II./JG 26 engaged one of the escorting squadrons, the No.416 of the Royal Canadian Air Force, and again the Experten of "Wutz" Galland beaten them up: three Spitfires were shot down in few minutes, one of them by Wilhelm (probably the Spitfire flown by Fg Off J. S. McKenty). A fourth Spitfire flown by Fg Off Rainville ditched in the waters of the Channel, Rainville was rescued safe and sound. So, that day the Luftwaffe shot down eight Spitfires and one Ventura (two Spitfires and the Ventura by Galland himself), and lost only one Fw 190. Ten days later "Wutz" added two more marks to the rudder of his personal Fw 190A-5 WNr 530125, when in only 3 minutes (10:17-10:20 hs) bagged a Spitfire of the No.340 Sqn and a second one of the No.485 Sqn (his victories Nos.28-29), scoring his 30th kill on February 15 (another Spitfire).

However, despite the Experten of the JG 2 and JG 26 were at the top of their skills, they were engaging more frequently a new adversary: the 8th Air Force of the USAAF, with its fighter wings equipped with P-47s and the bomber wings equipped with the four-engine B-17s and B-24s. So far, the two German fighter wings had been fully capables to keep the Axis' air superiority over Northern France and to beat up the RAF, but the massive arrival of this new contendor threatened with neutralize the German advantage. "Wutz" faced that new threat for the very first time in the afternoon on March 8, when he shot down an USAAF B-24 of the 44th BG over Totes.

His next battle against the "Vërmoten" (the German nickname for the four-engine bombers) happened on April 4, when he leaded the II./JG 26 to intercepte the enemy bombers and the escort near Fécamp. In first place shot down one of the escorting Spitfires, and later riddled two B-17s which went down in flames. On the next day the victim of his lethal Fw 190 was a B-17 of the 384th BG, which was wiped out near Antwerp. April was a good month for "Wutz": besides the already mentioned victories, he blasted out of the sky one Typhoon of No.56 Sqn on the 17th and two Venturas of the No.21 Sqn on April 21 1943.

After a well deserved rest, on May 18 "Wutz" was awarded with the Ritterkreuz (Knight's Cross) and promoted to the rank of Major. Ironically, when Wilhelm had his finest moments as a fighter pilot, the Luftwaffe was begining to be overwhelmed by the crushing numerical superiority of the Western Allies. In May 1943 the JG 2 and JG 26 lost 91 fighters, and other 53 were seriously damaged; but the worse was that one Gruppenkommandeur and 15 Staffelkapitänen were killed in action. Germany simply just could not replace such losses of experienced pilots. Even worse, the Western Allies were not only growing in strenght with the arrival of more and more USAAF squadrons, but also their pilots were gaining combat experience, closing the gap of skills with the German Experten.

Anyway, the Luftwaffe was still able to cause a tremendous defeat to the American 8th Air Force on June 26 1943: that day 250 B-17 Flying Fortresses attacked Villacoublay airfield escorted by 300 fighters (RAF Spitfires and Typhoons, and P-47s of the 56th FG). At 17:45 hs the Fw 190s of the JG 2 leaded by Major Egon Mayer met the B-17s over Liseaux and flamed five of them in few minutes with head-on attacks. An hour later, the Fw 190A-5s of the II./JG 26 caught by surprise the P-47s of the 56th FG, and in the blink of an eye its commander Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland, Oberleutnant Heinz Hoppe and Feldwebel Günther Scholz had bagged one Thunderbolt each. Twelve minutes later (19:04) "Wutz" piled up another P-47 of the 56th FG into his scoreboard, his 46th aerial victory. By the end of the day, seven Thunderbolts and five B-17s had been downed, against no losses in the German side.

Wilhelm Galland shot down his 54th and last victim on August 12 (a B-17). Five days later, he took off in the cockpit of his beloved Fw 190A-5 WNr 530125 leading the whole II./JG 26 against a group of 200 bombers which were returning to England after bombing Schweinfurt. When he was about to order the assault against the four-engine bombers, his Gruppen was suddenly jumped by P-47 Thunderbolts of the 56th FG. One of them was flown by Walker "Bud" Mahurin, who riddled Galland's Fw 190 with 12.7 mm machinegun fire and sent it downwards in flames. Probably we never know whether the unfortunate "Wutz" was killed instantly or he tried to bail out, but what is out of question was the fact that he didn't make it: he died when his aircraft crashed W of Maastricht, leaving a huge crater in the ground. The American 56th Fighter Group took revenge that day of its defeat on June 26, and Galland's defeater, Walker Mahurin, ended the war with 24.25 victories (20.8 in Europe and the remaining ones in the Pacific).

In a certain way, it was like his fate was linked with the one of the whole Luftwaffe: as long as he was alive and bagging Allied planes, the Luftwaffe in the Channel Front could mantain the air superiority, but few months after his death, the P-47s and Mustangs of the 8th AF controlled the airspace over Northern France, allowing the massive Allied landing in Normandy on June 6 1944, and the begining of Third Reich's end. However, his outstanding war career is one of the best examples of the patriotism and skills shown by the brave German pilots who fought against all odds in the Western Front.

Paul

Paul Galland was the youngest of the Galland brothers. He joined JG 26 as a Leutnant in February 1941 having completed his operational training with Ergänzungsgruppe/JG 26. He was assigned to 8./JG 26. He scored his first victory on 6 July when he shot down a RAF Spitfire. By the end of 1941 his score had reached three. He recorded his 10th victory on 3 May 1942, another Spitfire shot down over Calais. On 31 October 1942 Galland participated in the vengeance raid on Canterbury. On the return flight Galland answered a call from a German pilot being attacked by a Spitfire. The Spitfire spotted Galland's approach and pulled up into the cloud cover. Galland attempted to follow but stalled and had to dive away to regain speed. The Spitfire took the opportunity to dive from the clouds and shoot down Galland's Fw 190 A-4 (WNr 2402) "Black 1".

Paul Galland was credited with 17 victories in 107 combat missions.