he would be gettin on now but is he still with us ??????? i have kept footage of him speaking in the 60s about being asked did he need anything and his reply was , give us spitfires please !!!!!!! he sounded like a nice approachable bloke. does anyone have any storys about him ??????
Very sad to say that Adolf Galland passed away on February 9th, 1996. There's some information at ; - http://members.aol.com/geobat66/galland/galland.htm and an interview not long before his death at ; - http://history1900s.about.com/library/prm/blgalland1.htm His own memoir, ' The First And The Last ' is worth reading.
In his memoir "Wing Leader", Johnnie Johnson says this of Galland: 'After the war, when we interrogated him at Tangmere, we were greatly impressed by the man's quiet dignity and his unshakable confidence in his own tactics and theories. He told us he was a chain smoker of cigars and how he had given himself permission to smoke on operations. He claimed to have flown the only German fighter equipped with an electric cigar-lighter, and when he was promoted to high rank, five tobacco firms requested the exclusive privilege of providing his cigars for the duration of the war. He very decently accepted all these offers and enjoyed twenty cigars a day until captured by the Americans at the end of the war, when he still had a modest stock of sixty boxes. He related how Hitler objected to his incessant smoking on the grounds that it was a poor example to the youth of the master race and forbade him to be photographed with a cigar clenched between his teeth. Obviously Galland was a man after our own hearts, but at the time we only knew him as a cunning and highly dangerous opponent.'
two cents....... I personally think that Galland was the only stedfast and solid Luftwaffe personality still left in the general staff during 1945 as well as Macky Steinhoff while trying to wake up "Fatty" to the realities of the doom and gloom during the 1945 period. A well educated and thoughtful man. ~E pick up a copy of don Caldwell's JG 26 book and read more about the man and his old unit.
I find the late Johannes Steinhoff an interesting person & just found ( from the same source as above ) a most absorbing interview conducted shortly before he died. In it, he covers many topics ( eg Me-262 ) which we discuss on this Forum : - http://militaryhistory.about.com/library/prm/bljohannessteinhoff1.htm
Straits of Messina is a good book by Steinhof to have on the shelves. also Galland and Steinhoff and a few other winners were banned as traitors by the well known 'fat man' as he felt all dued to be removed and the introduction of Galland as Luftwaffe Führer ~E
Although Rudel was in a high ranking postion in his Schlachtgeschwader 2 he was still performing missions. And yes he survived the war. Galland on the other hand was only flying few mission with JV 44 as his duties seemed to be re-directed and not of his own choosing. Again the situation with Fat man Göring was temporal and Steinhoff, Galland and the others-mostly winners formed up JV 44 to protect the southern hemisphere from 9th AF B-26's
hhhhhhhhhhhm well some historians have said that and would be researchers. The guy was a fitting tribute to the spirit of anti-communism, and his prowess as a pilot was second to none. A keen eye and expert with the Kanon-vögel as many of his comrades in the Panzerstaffels in the Schlachtgeschwaders. Confused, why Kai ? off to another vets cemetary........see ya
Erich, I do admire the man, Rudel, for his actions in the war but not all his dedication for Hitler and the nazi cause. But then again without the fanaticism he might not have been as great a Stuka pilot as he was... I´m just looking for facts here and definitely not trying to condemn him for believing in Hitler. But in a sorta way he was being blind , I think, for otherwise a smart man that he was...
being anti-communistic is not being a Nazi. I am still trying to find a decent reference of him stating he was........? Which do you prefer, under Hitler or under Stalin.........the choice sucks ! ~E
Lieutenant general Adolf Galland was a gentleman, well brought, elegant and intelligent man. And an extremely good and brave pilot as well. General Steinhoff is of course, a great man too. Have you watched a documentary about him called "The Ace"? It makes you cry in the end. Very good. Contains testimonies from Johnnie Johnson, Air marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris, Walther Schuck, lieutenant general Günther Rall, Henry Kissinger, and his sons. Very good! And about Rudel, I think he did support the régime and Hitler - as nearly EVERYBODY did - and is not a criminal for thinking all the things he believed in. I highly recommend his memoirs: "Stuka Pilot". Easy and enjoyable reading.
Yes, I don´t blame soldiers for believing in the nazi cause during the war as propaganda can make you think anything they want really. But I´m surprised that many still believed in all this long after the war. Even Guderian seems to have been among(?). http://www.third-reich-books.com/naumannwerner.htm Naumann and his associates continued to meet, talk and organize for the next year. They established secret cells of like-minded National Socialists in several German cities and forged alliances with other clandestine revolutionary groups throughout the fatherland. One of these secret societies was called the German Free Corps. Formed in Hamburg on August 17, 1951, this National Socialist group was made up of former SS members, NSDAP officials and war veterans. The dominating personality was Colonel Hans-Ulrich Rudel,. Members swore to live according to the twenty-five points of the NSDAP program and considered Grand Admiral Dönitz the legal head of the German state. Eventually some 2,000 men would hold membership in this secret army. Important German Nazis such as the great tank commander Heinz Guderian and the former Minister of Economics Hjalmar Schacht rallied behind Naumann. Former Youth Leader Artur Axmann and leading propagandist Hans Fritsche gave their support to Naumann as well.
Gallands JV 44 seemed to have been free of the Nazi sypathizers but not JG 7 the highest scoring of the Me 262 units. Even today the unit will not form up at all for a reunion because of the animosity of some of it's members due to their old politcal views..........weirdos ! ~E
Erich is right, I read about JV-44 being made mostly of the best and most rebeld pilots. Lützow, Galland, Steinhoff, Rall and others who were 'conspiring' against Göring were appointed to this almost suicidal missions as punishment. Right? But it is really hard to get rid of the ideology you grew up with. It is very hard to say that my grandfather after so many years stills believes most of the things he learned back then and is not someone very 'tolerant'...
Basically Galland threw in the towel just to get out of Göring's hair. formed JV 44 as there was need for more defence against 9th and 15th US AF units from the southern part of the Reich. Rall was never in a jet unit operationally as he took over command of JG 300 and has never commented seriously on the late war activities of the single engine Geschwader. Lützow was killed in action with the unit and we know what happened to "Macky" on take off viewed hideously by three other jet pilots that date. ~E
Thanks, Erich! I didn't know that Rall wasn't a jet pilot. I thought Galland had took him with the others into JV-44 because he was an ace and one of the anti-Göring or bad Luftwaffe guys... Have you watched the programme I mentioned, there they play photographs of general Steinhoff all over the years and the progress of his plastic surgeries. Very impressing and heartbreakening.
have seen similiar pics and have one of his books besides the big JV 44 thingie and the smaller protection Würger staffel book by eagle editions. The book Battle over Bavaria is basically a copy of the materisl in the big JV 44 book. Rall did some test up flights after the war. ~E
