[rof120]

Please don’t close this all too quickly and don’t move it to « Books and magazines » for the central point of this post is not a book - even though I mention one - but the date of 2 victories won by Galland. It is a historical point if you take Galland’s career and fame into account.

Displaying a degree of bravery hitherto unknown in world history just as well as my proverbial modesty I dived into a huge mountain of moving boxes containing mainly books and the like (NOT only on WW II) and using the last amount of energy in my body I managed to successfully unearth an interesting book:

FIGHTER GENERAL
The Life of Adolf Galland
THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
Col. Raymond F. Toliver, USAF (Ret.)
& Trevor J. Constable
Foreword by General James H. Doolittle, USAF (Ret.)

Published 1999 by Schiffer Publishing Company
Atglen, PA
(PA is short for Pennsylvania)

On page 4 there is a very modest piece of information, almost hidden among many others:
(Pages 1-6 are not numbered but the numbered pages start with N° 7 : “Foreword” by Gen. Doolitle)

The original German language edition of this book was published by Verlag Herbig GmbH, Munich

(MY red bold characters) Indeed, Herbig was Galland’s German publisher after Schneekluth in Darmstadt. So the original of this Toliver-Constable American book is German. Who translated it into American? Certainly not T and C. The translator is not named; regrettably this happens very often.

On page 42 (2nd half) we find some short explanations on operation Paula against French aero-industry and airfields in the Paris area, including Galland’s victories on 2 Moranes (no Curtiss mentioned – and it was a Bloch 152). The date of “Paula” is not mentioned (they probably forgot it, possibly at the printers’) but everybody knows it was June 3, 1940.

The original edition being German (1992) and written, or re-written, by Galland (I know this for sure; my source is extremely reliable), there is no doubt that he once more “claimed” (or confirmed) two confirmed victories on June 3. That settles it: he won 2 victories on French fighters on June 3, 1940. The 3rd one was not confirmed but nowadays it is perfectly confirmed by French sources such as Fr. Air Force archive and Paul Martin’s books, the 2nd one of which was published by the late CJE.

A lot of guys use to look at the archive of the former enemy to check on victory claims, and rightly so. Why should this not be done in this particular case? I really wonder why, this is really strange…

As I pointed out several times in the preceding Galland-thread he was very exact, and very exacting, about the precise details published in his books. Prior to the publication of the 2nd French edition (entirely comprehensive – 2.5 times longer than the preceding “translation” - and not ridiculous*, at last) he sent the new French publisher a whole list of corrections and additions. He was adamant that every change had to be made exactly as he had written it but he changed nothing about “Paula”. This cannot be coincidental, quite on the contrary: he also sent a list of his victories in May and June 1940.

In spite of the quick closing of the first Galland-thread in a hurry people continued to read it up to this day: today at 17.30 hrs it had been visited 1,717 times, to which we can add 397 for the thread on poor translations of aviation books (in particular Galland’s), hidden under “Books and magazines”, totalling 2,114 visits at 17.30 hrs and still going strong. This could be TOCH-record for such a short-lived thread plus such a special one (translations) with the exception of very specialised threads which interest many people, like details on Me 109s, EOE, Luftwaffe paints etc., most of these giant threads having been here for years or at least for months. TOCH-readers voted within a few days – not with their feet but with their clicks.

* An ejection seat and two parachutes in a Me 109 in June 1941, Munich-“Riehm” (read Riem, twice) a suburb of Salzburg (distance is about 100 km or 60 miles), and on and on… Riem was, and still is, a part of München (Munich). I lived in Munich for 8 years, I ought to know.

MORE on Galland, his book, various aircraft, exciting photographs, etc. in several parts of this blog:

yves-michelet.over-blog.com/