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FIGHTER GENERAL
THE LIFE OF ADOLF GALLAND
(COLONEL RAYMOND E. TOLIVER &
TREVOR J. CONSTABLE)
The most famous German fighter ace and
airman of his generation, Adolf Galland began WWII as a lieutenant and squadron
commander, flying biplanes. He ended the
war as a Lieutenant General – and was again a squadron commander – flying
Me-262 jets. In all of aviation history
there is no comparable rise and fall by a fighter pilot.
Galland's story is simultaneously that
of the Luftwaffe Fighter arm, in which he served from foundation to finish. Fighter General illuminates for formative
years of the young Galland, determined to become a Lufthansa airline pilot
under the ailing Weimar Republic. His
sailplaning career, recruitment into the secret "Black Luftwaffe" and
his service with the Condor Legion in Spain, give a pilot's picture of a
crisis-filled era.
His star rises steeply with the outbreak
of war. He becomes a Goering protégé rapidly promoted to command the elite
JG-26 on the English Channel coast. A highly decorated ace in the Battle of
Britain, he is soon at loggerheads with Goering over unrealistic fighter
tactics. New perspectives appear on the
historic battle with the RAF. Sharply
drawn is the character contrast and clash between Galland and his formidable
sponsor, the Reich Marshal. Promoted to
general of the Fighter Arm at age 29, the young ace finds himself the bewildered
heir to a vast range of chronic, complex problems. His masterful command of air
cover for the escape of the German battleships from Brest is a moment of
triumph, earning him Hitler's brief favour. Thereafter Galland's career is a
ceaseless struggle to stem the decline and defeat of his beloved Fighter Arm –
a thin umbrella stretching from the Arctic to Egypt.
Galland's prescient warnings of the
coming daylight bombing threat go unheeded. His efforts to introduce new aircraft types,
improve armament, develop tactics, raise new units, expand pilot training, and
resist misuse of his forces, demand his highest abilities. His three successive
resurrections of his Fighter Arm shattered by crazy High Command wastages of
men and machines; his forthright defence of his pilots against Goering’s
allegations of cowardice; his passionate campaign to bring jet fighters into
operation over Hitler’s opposition, all combine to force his dismissal. Goering’s intention to blame him officially
for the collapse, including a kangaroo trial, drives him to plan suicide –
averted only by Hitler’s dramatic intervention.
The Fuhrer’s orders that he be given a single jet fighter squadron and
sent back into combat. Galland’s war
ends with shrapnel in his knee and his country in ruins.
Fighter General recounts the career of
an outstanding combat leader torn from the fighter cockpit to defend his
country and sometimes his own pilots in the bizarre bureaucracy of the
Luftwaffe High Command. Galland's battles against the Allied air forces, both
as a general and in individual combat, hold no less drama than his head-on
battles with Goering and Hitler. Galland's triumphs and tragedies, his friends
and his flames, his humour and heartaches pulse anew in Fighter General. Here
in this official biography is real-life adventure to shame the wildest fiction.
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