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Adolf Galland
| General Adolf Galland (deceased) Adolf Galland fought in the great Battles of Poland, France and Britain, leading the famous JG26 Abbeville Boys. He flew in combat against the RAFs best including Douglas Bader, Bob Stanford Tuck and Johnnie Johnson. In 1941, at the age of 29, he was promoted to Inspector of the Fighter Arm. In 1942 Hitler personally selected Galland to organise the fighter escort for the Channel Dash. He became the youngest General in the German High Command but open disagreements with Goering led to his dismissal at the end of 1944. He reverted to combat flying, forming the famous JV44 wing flying the Me262 jet fighter, and was the only General in history to lead a squadron into battle. With 104 victories, all in the West, Adolf Galland received the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. Born 19th March 1912, died 9th February 1996. Born in 1911, Adolf Galland learned to fly at a state-sponsored flying club in the early 1930s. In 1933 he was selected to go to Italy for secret pilot training. Galland flew for a brief time as a commercial airline pilot prior to joining the clandestine Luftwaffe as a Second Lieutenant. In April of 1935 he was assigned to JG-2, the Richtofen Fighter Wing, and in 1937 he joined the ranks of the Condor Legion flying the He-51 biplane fighter in support of General Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Despite flying 280 missions, Galland attained no aerial victories, a rather inauspicious start for a pilot would go on to attain more than 100 aerial victories - the highest for any pilot who flew on the Western Front. During Germanys invasion of Poland, Galland was assigned to an attack squadron and he flew over fifty ground sorties. He was promoted to Captain for his efforts, but Galland was anxious to return to a fighter squadron, and he got his wish in October of 1939 when he was transferred to JG-27. It was with JG-27 that Galland first learned to fly the Bf-109. In May of 1940 JG-27 flew in support of the invasion of Belgium, and Galland achieved his first combat victory on May 12. Two months later his score had risen to more than a dozen, and at this time he was once again transferred to JG-26 situated on the Channel Coast. Engaging the RAF on a daily basis during the Battle of Britain, Gallands score rose steadily until it exceeded 40 victories by September. After a short leave Galland rejoined JG-26 in Brittany, where the squadron played a defensive role. Following Germanys invasion of Russia in June of 1941, JG-26 became one of only two German fighter squadrons left on the Channel Coast. This resulted in plenty of flying, and by late in 1941 Gallands victory totals had reached 70. Following a near brush with death when the fuel tank of his 109 exploded, Galland was grounded for a time, and sent to Berlin where he was made the General of the Fighter Arm, reporting directly to Goring and Hitler. Galland spent most of the next few years carrying out inspection tours, and was at odds with his superiors about the need for an adequate fighter defense to negate ever-increasing Allied bombing of Germanys cities. He continued to fly combat missions when the opportunity presented itself, despite Gorings orders to the contrary. In January of 1945 almost 300 fighters were lost in an all-out attack on Allied airfields in France, a mission Galland did not support. He was dismissed as General of the Fighter Arm for his insubordination, but reflecting his flying abilities Hitler ordered Galland to organize JV-44, Germanys first jet-equipped fighter squadron. By March of 1945 Galland had recruited 45 of Germanys best surviving fighter pilots, and this new squadron was given the difficult task of trying to counter the daily onslaught of 15th Air Force bombers coming at Germany from the South. Gallands final mission of the War occurred on April 26 when he attained his 102nd and 103rd confirmed aerial victories prior to crash landing his damaged Me262. Several days later the War was over for both Galland and Germany. General Galland died in 1996. |
Items Signed by General Adolf Galland (deceased) |
  | Return from Schweinfurt by Robert Taylor. SOLD OUT | B-17 Fortresses of the American 8th Air Forces 1st Wing, fighting their way back from Schweinfurt on 17th August 1945. ...... | NOT AVAILABLE |
  | Ready for Combat by Ivan Berryman. (B) Price : £380.00 | Erich Rudorffer commanding I./JG7 flying the Me262. Erich Rudorffer was the master of multiple scoring - achieving more multiple victories than any other pilot. ...... | |
  | Morning Maintenance by Ivan Berryman. (B) Price : £480.00 | Me262 of I./JG7 is prepared for an early morning sortie. ...... | |
  | Defending the Homeland by Ivan Berryman. (B) Price : £430.00 | Erich Rudorffer's Me 262 brings down a B-17 Flying Fortress during the defence of Germany. ...... | |
  | Bf109E of III./JG2 - Summer 1940 by Ivan Berryman. (B) Price : £440.00 | A Bf109E fighter is prepared to fight over southern England during the Battle of Britain....... |
  | Bf109E of III./JG2 - Summer 1940 by Ivan Berryman. (P) SOLD OUT | A Bf109E fighter is prepared to fight over southern England during the Battle of Britain....... | NOT AVAILABLE |
  | Gunther Rall - Black 13 by Ivan Berryman. (P) Price : £700.00 | Bf 109G-2s of III/JG 52 leave their dispersal on the Eastern Front in 1943. Nearest aircraft is Black 13 of Gruppenkommandeur Gunther Rall, then fast approaching his 150th victory. ...... | |
  | Tribute to the Blenheim Crews by Ivan Berryman. (B) Price : £400.00 | Blenheim IVs of No 21 Squadron, here being attacked by Adolf Gallands Bf 109 on 21st June 1940. Galland claimed two Blenheims and a Spitfire that day before he, too, was shot down by the defending Spitfires of 303 Sqn. ...... | |
  | Messerschmitt Me262B-1a/U1 by Ivan Berryman. (C) Price : £310.00 | Messerschmitt Me262B-1a/U1 of 10 Staffel, Natchjagdgeschwader 11. ...... | |
  | Adolf Galland by Ivan Berryman. (B) Price : £480.00 | Adolf Galland hunts down another victim on a raid over the English Channel during the Battle of Britain. ...... |
  | Lost Over Dunkirk by Ivan Berryman. (B) Price : £430.00 | Spitfire N3289 of F/O John Wilson was shot down over Dunkirk on 29th May 1940 by a Messerschmitt Bf109. ...... | |
  | Snow Warriors by Ivan Berryman. (P) Price : £690.00 | Gunther Rall in his Me109G Black 13 about to set off with the rest of III./JG52 from a snow covered eastern front airstrip in 1943. ...... | |
  | Gunther Rall - Me109 Ace by Ivan Berryman. (P) Price : £690.00 | With 275 victories, Gunther Rall was one of the top Luftwaffe Aces of the second world war. Here, he is depicted in his Me109 Black 13 of JG52. ...... | |
  | Clipped Signature - Adolf Galland. Price : £60.00 | Perhaps the most famous of German pilots, he flew in the Spanish Civil War and on the Western Front throughout WW2. He flew the Me109 with JG26 and JG27, before commanding JV44 flying the Me262 with the rank of General. He scored over 100 victorie...... | |
  | The Last Patrol by David Pentland. (L) Price : £280.00 | A pair of ME109 G-14s of 9th Staffel, Jagdgeswader 54 (Greenheart Wing) make a final sortie during the last days of March 1945. ...... |
  | Eagles Over the Steppe by Graeme Lothian. (B) SOLD OUT | Depicting ME109s flying over the Russian Front, the background is the enormous panorama of the Russian Steppe. The enormity of the battlefield on the Eastern Front was staggering in its vastness, stretching, as it did, nearly two thousand miles fr...... | NOT AVAILABLE |
  | Adolf Galland / Messerschmitt Bf109 E-4 by Ivan Berryman. (APB) Price : £350.00 | Germanys primary fighter during World War II, the Daimler-Benz DB601A powered BF109E-4 was much loved by its pilots, combining good speed and manoeuverability with a powerful armament, namely two 7.9mm MG17 machine guns in the top decking, two wing m...... | |
  | In Defense of the Reich by Nicolas Trudgian. SOLD OUT | The legend of Willie Messerschmitts Me262, and the elite fighter Aces who piloted this revolutionary jet aircraft, is as secure as any born during the Second World War. As they hurtled into the air, climbing at speeds hitherto unknown, a small grou...... | NOT AVAILABLE |
| | In Defense of the Reich by Nicolas Trudgian. (AP) SOLD OUT | The legend of Willie Messerschmitts Me262, and the elite fighter Aces who piloted this revolutionary jet aircraft, is as secure as any born during the Second World War. As they hurtled into the air, climbing at speeds hitherto unknown, a small group...... | NOT AVAILABLE |
| | In Defense of the Reich by Nicolas Trudgian. (B) SOLD OUT | The legend of Willie Messerschmitts Me262, and the elite fighter Aces who piloted this revolutionary jet aircraft, is as secure as any born during the Second World War. As they hurtled into the air, climbing at speeds hitherto unknown, a small grou...... | NOT AVAILABLE |
| | In Defense of the Reich by Nicolas Trudgian. (C) Price : £480.00 | The legend of Willie Messerschmitts Me262, and the elite fighter Aces who piloted this revolutionary jet aircraft, is as secure as any born during the Second World War. As they hurtled into the air, climbing at speeds hitherto unknown, a small grou...... |
