'Sailor' Malan : Battle of Britain legend : Adolph G. Malan

171 Pages·2012·2.34 MB·English

by  Kaplan

FOR MARGARET

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by
PEN & SWORD AVIATION
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright © Philip Kaplan, 2012
9781783830336

The right of Philip Kaplan to be identified as Author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying,
recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission
from the Publisher in writing.

Printed and bound in England
By CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation,
Pen & Sword Family History, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military,
Pen & Sword Discovery, Pen & Sword Politics, Pen & Sword Atlas, Pen &
Sword Archaeology, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe True Crime,
Wharncliffe Transport, Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics,
Leo Cooper, The Praetorian Press, Claymore Press, Remember When, Seaforth
Publishing and Frontline Publishing
For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
Table of Contents
Dedication
Title Page
Copyright Page
INTRODUCTION
SHOOTER
GENERAL BOTHA
A NEW YORK MINUTE
FLIGHT TRAINING
KIWI
SPITFIRE
HORNCHURCH
TEN COMMANDMENTS
FINGER-FOUR
KEEP UP WITH ME
BIGGIN HILL
COMBAT REPORT
FLYING SPRINGBOK
ON SCREEN
THE BLITZ
LEGEND
TORCH COMMANDO
REMEMBERING SAILOR
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The author is particularly grateful to the following people for their kind,
generous assistance in the research, preparation, and development of this book:
Malcolm Bates, Geoff Barlow, Tony Bianchi, Kazmierz Budzik, Alan Deere,
Bob Doe, Hugh Dundas, Royal Frey, Adolf Galland, James Goodson, Roger
Hall, Eric Holloway, Charles Hewitt, Jack Ilfrey, Hargi and Neal Kaplan, Brian
Kingcome, Walker Mahurin, Eric Marsden, Judy and Rick McCutcheon, Merle
Olmsted, Geoffrey Page, Gunther Rall, Jeffrey Simmons, Peter Townsend,
Hubert Zemke. Grateful acknowledgement to the following for the use of their
text: David Bourne, D.S. Brookes, Stephen Bungay, Winston S. Churchill, Alan
Deere, Len Deighton, Derek Dempster, Lovat Dickson, Sholto Douglas, Hugh
Dowding, R.M.B. Duke-Woolley, John Freeborn, Wilfrid Gibson, Jonathan
Glancey, Alex Henshaw, D.C. Inglis, Ira Jones, David Masters, May Morton,
Edward R. Murrow, William Nasson, Cuthbert Orde, Keith Park, Ernie Pyle,
Jeffrey Quill, Quentin Reynolds, W.M. Skinner, Henry Szczesny, Robert
Stanford Tuck, Oliver Walker, John G. Winant, Derek Wood.
INTRODUCTION
“Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends
our own British life and the long continuity of our British institutions and our
Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us
now. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If
we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may
move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world,
including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will
shrink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more
protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to
our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its
Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their
finest hour.’ ”
—Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 18th June 1940

Sailor Malan and his pilots pressed on with the fight in the daylight skies over
southeast England, adding almost daily to the toll of enemy aircraft brought
down, and to their own combat losses. Later that autumn, rains came; the
Germans increased the pace of their bombing raids on London. The final phase
of the Battle of Britain began.

“Taking a Spitfire into the sky in September 1940 was like entering a dark
room with a madman waving a knife behind your back.”—Sailor Malan