Adolph Malan

Group Captain Sailor Malan about 1945

Adolph Gysbert Malan (born March 24, 1910 in Wellington , Cape Colony ; † September 17, 1963 ), better known as Sailor Malan , "Seaman Malan", was a South African fighter pilot in the British Royal Air Force (RAF) who served in the 74th RAF Air Force at the height of the Battle of Britain . Malan was known for sending German bomber pilots back home with dead crew members as a warning to other Air Force pilots. His squadron became one of the best RAF units under his leadership. Malan scored 27 kills, seven involvement in kills, three potentially successful kills, and 16 damage to enemy fighter planes.

After the war, Malan took part in the anti- apartheid movement in his home country. His younger brother George F. Malan flew a Spitfire for the 72nd RAF Squadron and died in action.

youth

Malan was born in Wellington, South Africa and joined the training ship General Botha in 1924 or 1925 as Kadet No. 168 . In 1928 he came as an officer candidate on the ship Landsdown Castle of the Union-Castle Line of the International Mercantile Marine Co., which later earned him the nickname "seaman" among his colleagues.

Royal Air Force

In 1935 Malan reported to the RAF, which at this time began to rapidly increase its number of pilots. He learned to fly on a Tiger Moth at a flying school near Bristol . His first flight was on January 6, 1936, on March 2, he was certified as a pilot, he completed his training at the end of the same year and went to the 74th Squadron on December 20, 1936, where he became an air officer on January 6, 1937 and in August of the same year took command of a Spitfire squadron. He was promoted to pilot officer on May 20, 1938 and promoted to senior pilot officer on July 6. Six months before the war broke out, Malan was promoted to lieutenant pilot on March 2, 1939.

Second World War

Battle of Barking Creek

The 74th Squadron was deployed for the first time 15 hours after the declaration of war. She rose on September 6, 1939 to intercept supposed enemy bombers, which later turned out to be returning RAF aircraft. After Malan's attack command, two hurricans of the 56th RAF Squadron were shot down, with one of the pilots not surviving the self -fire that went down in history as the Battle of Barking Creek. At the subsequent military trial, Malan denied responsibility for the attack. He testified against his own pilot that they had acted irresponsibly and impulsively and had violated basic communication rules in the process. This statement led Sir Patrick Hastings, the pilot's attorney, to label Malan an outrageous liar. Hastings was assisted by the London lawyer and RAF auxiliary pilot Roger Bushell, who later led the breakout from the Stalag Luft III prisoner of war camp . The court ruled that the incident was an unfortunate event and acquitted both pilots involved in the killings.

Dunkirk

The war events should soon overrun the squadron. After fierce aerial battles over Dunkirk during Operation Dynamo, Malan was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for shooting down five enemy planes. During this aerial fight his fearless and ruthless fighting spirit first showed itself. Once he was even able to change the burnt-out light bulb on the visor during combat. During a night mission from June 19th to 20th, he shot down two Heinkel He 111 bombers in the bright moonlight , which was an extraordinary achievement at the time and earned him a clasp on the Distinguished Flying Cross band. On July 6, he was promoted to flight lieutenant.

Malan and his pilots in charge decided to abandon the V formation in favor of the disbanded four-fingered flock developed by the Air Force during the Spanish Civil War . Legends say that on July 28th, Malan met Werner Mölders during the fight . He would have damaged and wounded his plane in the process, but was unable to crash his plane. However, recent investigations revealed that Mölders had been wounded in a fight with the 41st RAF squadron.

Leader of the 74th Squadron

At the height of the Battle of Britain , Malan was given command of the 74th Squadron. He was appointed squadron commander on August 8th and had to intercept an attack near Dover with his squadron three days later on August 11th . The fighting began as early as 7 a.m. and continued all day because the squadron was to be involved in three more dogfights. At the end of the day, it testified that it shot down 38 planes. The day went down in history as Sailor's August the Eleventh, "August 11th of the Sailor". Malan said only that this was the end of a very successful fight morning, and for the events that day he received another clasp for his Distinguished Flying Cross.

On the ground, Malan was known as a die-hard gambler, often owing money to his subordinates. Malan was older than most of his commanders, and off duty appeared sociable and relaxed. He spent most of his time with his wife and family who lived at Biggin Hill. Malan soon developed the habit of only flying the first mission of the day and then handing over command of the squadron to a subordinate while he stayed on the ground and did office work. Despite his frosty relationship with John Freeborn, one of the pilots involved in the kills at the Battle of Barking Creek, Malan often put him in command of the squadron, showing that Malan could separate personal and business.

Malan led the 74th season with strict discipline and could not stand fools. He was reluctant to award awards and made precise guidelines for awarding recommendations: six confirmed kills for a Distinguished Flying Cross, twelve for an additional clasp and 18 for a Distinguished Service Order .

On December 29, 1941, Malan became one of the select aviators portrayed in charcoal by Cuthbert Orde . He also had the much rarer honor of being immortalized by Orde in an oil painting.

Airman Lt. Col. from Biggin Hill

On December 24th, Malan received the Distinguished Service Order and on July 22nd, 1941 an additional clasp on the order. He was named Lieutenant Colonel on March 10, 1941, as one of the first offensive missions, and led the RAF squadron from Biggin Hill through the spring and summer until he was spared further missions in August. He ended his active fighter pilot career in 1941 with 27 kills, seven participations in kills, two unconfirmed kills, three possible kills and 16 damage to enemy planes. This made him the leading flying ace of the RAF and one of the pilots with the highest kill rates who served exclusively for the combat troops during the Second World War. He was assigned to the reserve as a squadron leader on January 6, 1942.

After traveling to the USA and working at the Central School for Aviator Guners, he was promoted to Wing Commander ad-interim and Site Commander of Biggin Hill on September 1, 1942, where he was promoted to War Nouns Wing Commander on July 1, 1943. Malan was still flying air missions, ignoring standing orders to site commanders prohibiting such activities to prevent the commander from being shot down. In October 1943 he became commander of the 19th Fighter Wing in the RAF Second Tactical Air Force , then commander of the 145 (Free French) Fighter Wing during D-Day , in the late afternoon of which he led a detachment of the air force over the beaches .

Malan and RAF officers on D-Day

Rules of dogfight

Although Malan was not a born gifted pilot, he was extremely skilled and an extremely aggressive air fighter. He was also an excellent tactician who instilled the methods and techniques he had practiced himself in 1940 in the following generations of fighter pilots.

Malan compiled a set of simple rules for fighter pilots that were circulated in the RAF Fighter Command and were eventually posted on the walls of most air force bases:

Ten of my rules for air combat

1. Wait till you see the white in his eyes. Shoot short bursts of one to two seconds as long as you really have the target in your sights.
2. Don't think about anything else while you shoot, anchor your body, keep both hands on the stick, focus on the front sight .
3. Always keep a close look. "Keep your finger out".
4. Height gives you room to maneuver.
5. Always face the attack.
6. Make your decisions right away. It is better to act quickly even if your tactics are not the best.
7. Never fly straight ahead at the same altitude for more than 30 seconds in the combat area.
8. Always leave part of your formation up high when you stab down to attack. It serves you as protection from above.
9. DETERMINATION, ATTACK , AIR DISCIPLINE and COOPERATION are NOT just empty words in aerial combat.
10. Get in quickly - hit hard - get out of here!

Next life

On April 5, 1946, Malan quit his service with the RAF, where he retained the rank of Group Captain . He returned to South Africa, where he joined the Torch Commando , a joint project of the anti-fascist veterans organization Springbok Legion and the War Veterans Action Committee . Seaman Malan became president of the new organization, which, according to Malan, aimed to combat the police state , the abuse of state power , censorship , racism , the withholding of the colored suffrage (see Separation of Voters Act ) and other suppressive measures of creeping " fascism “The National Party was founded.

Among the leading members of the Springbok Legion were many veterans who later joined the African National Congress and Umkhonto we Sizwe . Joe Slovo , Jack Hodgson, Wolfie Kodesh, Brian Bunting and Fred Carneson were among this group of people . After the National Party came to power and began to pursue its policies, many believed the Springbok Legion, founded in 1941, to be too left-wing and too radical. In 1950 Springbok Legion members began to work with other more moderate organizations and with the parliamentary opposition, the United Party . The aim was to find new ways of supporting the protest against apartheid laws.

In 1951, the Springbok Legion, together with the War Veterans Action Committee, formed the Torch Commando resistance group , which was supposed to appeal to a wider circle of veterans. It mainly served to thwart the plans of the National Party, which intended to revoke the Coloreds' voting rights. Veteran Harry Schwarz , who later became a leader within the anti-apartheid movement, was one of the founders of the organization. The Torch Commando fought for more than five years and at its peak had more than 250,000 members. The government was so concerned about the high influx of judges, civil servants and military officers to the organization that it promptly passed a law banning civil servants and the military from joining the organization. The National Party tried to erase the memories of the Springbok Legion story at Torch Commando and Malan, fearing that especially young white South Africans might emulate Malan.

The Springbok Legion was able to mobilize 75,000 participants at the largest protest rally by the Torch Commando . At a speech in front of the Johannesburg City Hall , Malan cited the ideals that were fought for during World War II. He said that the size of the rally was evidence that the men and women who fought for freedom in the war would still cherish what they fought for and that they would not be deprived of the fruits of that victory .

Malan died in 1963 of Parkinson's disease , a rare and unexplored disease at the time. A considerable sum of money was collected in his name and a foundation, which still exists today, was established for further research into the disease.

After his death he left behind his wife Lynda, his son Jonathan and his daughter Valerie.

Reception in art

In the 1969 war film Battle of Britain , the character of the Squadron Leader Skipper played by Robert Shaw is deliberately modeled on Malan, as director Guy Hamilton later said. At one point at the beginning of the film, Skipper gives an inexperienced pilot air combat maneuvers training and snaps at him spitefully that he should never fly straight ahead and at the same altitude for more than 30 seconds in the combat area - a quote from the air combat rules established by Malan.

Individual evidence

1. ^ John Keegan: The Second World War. Penguin Books 1989, p. 102.
2. ↑ Price 1997, p. 65.
3. ↑ CR1 record card, R42512, record group BT348, The National Archives (London)
4. ^ [1] In: The London Gazette of August 23, 1938.
5. ↑ [2] In: The London Gazette of August 16, 1938.
6. ↑ [3] In: The London Gazette of March 2, 1939.
7. ↑ [4] In: The London Gazette of August 13, 1940.
8. ^ RAF Museum, Battle of Britain , accessed November 4, 2010.
9. ↑ (Supplement) No. 36524, p. 2339. In: The London Gazette, May 23, 1944.
10. ↑ (Supplement) No. 35725, p. 4258. In: The London Gazette, October 1, 1942.
11. ↑ (Supplement) No. 36157, p. 3927. In: The London Gazette, September 3, 1943.
12. ↑ [{ https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37526/supplements/1795  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ] In: The London Gazette, April 9, 1946.  

Web links

• A flying Springbok of wartime British skies: AG 'Sailor' Malan - Bill Nasson
• ZAR.co.za Biography