Adolph Malan
|
|
Adolph Gysbert Malan (March 24, 1910 - September 17, 1963), better known as Sailor Malan, was a famed World War II RAF fighter pilot who led 74 Squadron during the height of the Battle of Britain. Under his leadership the 74 became one of the RAF's best units.
| Contents |
Early Life
Adolph Malan was born in Wellington, Cape Province, South Africa and joined the Union-Castle Line of the Mercantile Marine at the age of 15, where he gained the nickname "Sailor".
Royal Air Force
In 1935 the RAF started the rapid expansion of its pilot corps, and Malan was one of the people who joined up. He learned to fly on Tiger Moth at an elementary flying school near Bristol, flying for the first time on January 6, 1936. He completed training by the end of the year, and was sent to join 74 Squadron on December 20, 1936. He was promoted to Pilot Officer in January 1937, and was appointed to acting Flight Commander of "A" Flight, flying Spitfires, in August. He received another promotion to Flight Lieutenant just before the opening of the war.
The Battle of Barking Creek
74 Squadron saw its first action only 15 hours after war was declared, sent to intercept a bomber raid that turned out to be returning RAF planes. On September 6 1939 "A" Flight was scrambled to intercept a suspected enemy radar track and ran into the Hurricanes of 56 Squadron. Believing 56 to be the enemy Malan ordered an attack and in the subsequent tragic battle pilots Paddy Byrne and John Freeborn shot two RAF aircraft down, killing one officer. This friendly fire incident of aircraft shooting at each other became known as the Battle of Barking Creek. At the subsequent courts martial Malan tried to cover up his role in the incident and put the blame entirely on his subordinates insisting, in spite of evidence to the contrary, that he had issued a recall order. One of Malan's weaknesses was that he was not prepared to be blamed for anything. Fortunately his story was not believed and Byrne and Freeborn were acquitted, the court having accepted the entire incident was an unfortunate error.
The Second World War
Events soon overtook the squadron. After fierce fighting over France on June 28, 1940, Sailor was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. During this battle he became famous as being fearless. In one incident he was able to coolly change the light bulb in his gunsight while in combat and then quickly return to the fray.
Malan and his senior pilots also decided to abandon the "vic" formation used by the RAF, and turned to the "finger four" that the Luftwaffe had turned to just before the war started. Legend has it that on July 28 he met Werner Moelders in combat, damaging his plane and wounding him, but failing to bring him down.
On August 8th Malan was given command of 74 Squadron and promoted to Acting Squadron Leader. This was at the height of the Battle of Britain. Three days later, on the 11th, action started at 7am when 74 was sent to intercept a raid near Dover, but this was followed by another three raids, lasting all day. At the end of the day 74 had shot down 38 aircraft, and was known from then on as "Sailor's August the Eleventh". Malan himself simply commented, "thus ended a very successful morning of combat."
On the ground Malan was remembered as an inveterate gambler and often owed his subordinates money. He would soon develop a routine of flying the first sortie of the day and then handing the squadron to a subordinate while he stayed on the ground to do paperwork. Despite frosty relations after the Battle of Barking Creek he would often give command of the squadron to John Freeborn (himself an ace of note), showing Malan's ability to keep the personal and professional separate. Two criticisms of Malan were that he could be high-handed with sergeant pilots (many non-commissioned pilots were joining the RAF at this time) and that he was stingy with decorations. He had a strict yardstick by which he would make recommendations for medals: six kills confirmed for a DFC, twelve for a bar to the DFC; eighteen for a DSO.
On December 24th Malan received the Distinguished Service Order, and on July 22, 1941, Bars to the Order. He finished his active fighter career with 32 kills and 2 unconfirmed, the RAF's leading ace.
Rules of Air Fighting
Malan developed a set of simple rules for fighter pilots, to be disseminated throughout RAF Fighter Command, which eventually could be found tacked to the wall of most airbases:
TEN OF MY RULES FOR AIR FIGHTING
- Wait until you see the whites of his eyes. Fire short bursts of one to two seconds only when your sights are definitely "ON"
- Whilst shooting think of nothing else, brace the whole of your body: have both hands on the stick: concentrate on your ring sight.
- Always keep a sharp lookout. "Keep your finger out".
- Height gives you the initiative.
- Always turn and face the attack.
- Make your decisions promptly. It is better to act quickly even though your tactics are not the best.
- Never fly straight and level for more than 30 seconds in the combat area.
- When diving to attack always leave a proportion of your formation above to act as a top guard.
- INITIATIVE, AGGRESSION, AIR DISCIPLINE, and TEAM WORK are words that MEAN something in Air Fighting.
- Go in quickly - Punch hard - Get out!
In August 1941 Malan was promoted to Group Captain and moved to Biggin Hill. His days of flying were limited from this point on.
Later Life
In 1946 Malan left the RAF and returned to South Africa. In the 1950s he formed a protest group of ex-servicemen called the Torch Commando to fight the National Party's plans to remove Cape's "coloured" voters from the roll. The Torch Commando fought battle for more than five years, and at its height had 250,000 members. The government was alarmed by the number of judges, public servants and military officers joining the organisation that a new law was passed to ban anyone in public service or the military from joining.
Malan died in 1963 from Parkinson's Disease, at the time a rare and essentially mysterious malady. A considerable sum of money was raised in his name to further study the disease, a fund that continues to this day.
He left his wife, Lynda, son Jonathan, and daughter Valerie.