Photo source: Bundesarchiv

"Wutz" Galland - A Bird of Prey over the Channel Front.

Written by Diego Zampini.

Major Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland poses besides his personal Fw 190A-4, together with the chief of the ground personnel who took care of his personal plane. In the text there is another photo of him, plus an artwork showing the Fw 190A-5 of Hauptmann "Wutz" Galland (II./JG 26) while he is shooting down a B-24 of the 44th BG on March 8 1943 (drawing made by the author, Diego Zampini).

Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland is probably the best example that sometimes aeronautics become a family's bussines. His elder brother was the reputed ace and General of the Fighter Forces of Germany, Adolf "Dolfo" Galland (104 victories along WW2), and his younger brother Paul also became ace (17 kills). Originally the young Wilhelm was recruited to serve in the flak regiments (1935), but when the war began in 1939 he volunteered for flying training in the Ergänzungsgruppe./JG 26. When he completed the training in 1941, he immediatelly reported for active duty in the II./JG 26 on June 27. At this time the whole JG 26 was leaded by his elder brother Adolf, so he was anxious for getting a reputation of his own, for showing that he was more than only the younger brother of the already famous "Dolfo". On July 23 1941 "Wutz" began to gain such reputation when he knocked out a British Spitfire at the NW of Hesdin. By the end of the year, he already had three Spitfire kills in his scoreboard.

Those were happy times for the Luftwaffe units in the Channel Front, as is clearly shown by the figures of losses reported for both sides: Between June 13 and December 31 1941, the RAF lost over 600 aircraft (including fighters and bombers) in air combat and 411 airmen KIA or POW, while the Luftwaffe's actual losses in the air in that same period of time were only 135 aircraft, a kill ratio of 4:1 in favour of the Germans. It is also interesting to note that the Hurricane and Spitfire pilots at that time claimed 731 aerial victories, so they had a huge overclaiming ratio of 82 % !!!

Assigned to the 6./JG 26, "Wutz"'s personal tally began to increase fast when the JG 26 was re-equipped with the outstanding Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-1 in early 1942. On April 10 1942 Wilhelm Galland finally became an ace when blasted out of the sky his fifth victim: one Spitfire Mk.V of the No.340 Sqn RAF over Etaples. The command abilities of Wilhelm did not remain unnoticed, and he became Staffelkapitän of the 5./JG 26 on May 5. That same day he scored his 8th kill, another Spitfire (No.41 Sqn RAF). On June 2 1942 flew magnificently his Fw 190 when bagged two Spitfires (victories Nos.9-10), and repeated such success on July 31 when he piled up other two Spitfires into his scoreboard in less than a minute (Nos.12-13). During the period February - July 1942 the Experten of the JG 2 and JG 26 shot down at least 335 aircraft of the RAF, while losing only 84 Focke-Wulf Fw 190s and Bf 109Fs.

On August 19 1942 the RAF launched Operation "Jubilee", the air support to the assault against the portuary city of Dieppe. The JG 2 "Richthoffen" and JG 26 "Schlageter" (about 20 squadrons) faced the whole No.11 Group of the RAF with 48 squadrons of fighters and fighter-bombers. Despite being out-numbered, the German pilots beaten up their British adversaries, claiming 96 aerial victories that day, and it is highly likely that all the German claims are confirmed, because the RAF admitts the loss of 103 aircraft that day, including 88 Spitfires. Against such carnage, the Luftwaffe lost only 21 fighters and 14 pilots. Many German Experten increased their respective tallies that day, for example Joseph "Sepp" Würmheller (he shot down 7 Spitfires and 1 Blenheim bomber), Egon Mayer (1 Hurricane and 1 Spitfire), Siegfried Schnell (5 Spitfires), Wilhelm Roth (one Spitfire) and Adolf Glunz (one Spitfire too). Wilhelm Galland wasn't the exception, because he destroyed one Spitfire in the afternoon (17:55 hs) N of Dieppe.

Few days later (August 27) the 5./JG 26 intercepted the raid "Circus 208", consisting in 12 Bostons escorted by Spitfires of the No.350 Sqn (Belgian), and Wilhelm Galland shot down the Spit of H. Picard (POW), his 15th kill. "Wutz" suffered a hard strike on October 31 when his younger brother Paul was killed in action, but such tragic personal loss only reinforced his determination, and by the end of 1942, his tally rised to 21 kills (all Spitfires).

On January 3 1943 Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland was promoted to the rank of Hauptmann and took command of II./JG 26, and exactly one month later (February 3 1943) achieved his greatest succeses: that day "Wutz" leaded 40 Fw 190A-5 to intercepte 12 British two-engines bombers Ventura of the No.21 Sqn RAF escorted by Supermarine Spitfires of the No.64, 122 and 308 Sqns, which went to attack Courtrai-Wevelghem airfield. At 11:05 hs Galland sent downwards in flames the Ventura flown by Sgt G. K. Moodley, and only seven minutes later he blasted one Spitfire of the No.308 Sqn out of the sky (probably the one piloted by Fg Off J. Wiejsky). Besides, because of his excellent leadership, his men literally thrashed the escort when shot down other two Polish Spitfires and forced the pilot of a fourth one (Lt. Tadeusz Koc) to bail out over the waters of the Channel. During another Ventura raid in the afternoon, the Fw 190s of the I./JG 2 and II./JG 26 engaged one of the escorting squadrons, the No.416 of the Royal Canadian Air Force, and again the Experten of "Wutz" Galland beaten them up: three Spitfires were shot down in few minutes, one of them by Wilhelm (probably the Spitfire flown by Fg Off J. S. McKenty). A fourth Spitfire flown by Fg Off Rainville ditched in the waters of the Channel, Rainville was rescued safe and sound. So, that day the Luftwaffe shot down eight Spitfires and one Ventura (two Spitfires and the Ventura by Galland himself), and lost only one Fw 190. Ten days later "Wutz" added two more marks to the rudder of his personal Fw 190A-5 WNr 530125, when in only 3 minutes (10:17-10:20 hs) bagged a Spitfire of the No.340 Sqn and a second one of the No.485 Sqn (his victories Nos.28-29), scoring his 30th kill on February 15 (another Spitfire).

However, despite the Experten of the JG 2 and JG 26 were at the top of their skills, they were engaging more frequently a new adversary: the 8th Air Force of the USAAF, with its fighter wings equipped with P-47s and the bomber wings equipped with the four-engine B-17s and B-24s. So far, the two German fighter wings had been fully capables to keep the Axis' air superiority over Northern France and to beat up the RAF, but the massive arrival of this new contendor threatened with neutralize the German advantage. "Wutz" faced that new threat for the very first time in the afternoon on March 8, when he shot down an USAAF B-24 of the 44th BG over Totes.

His next battle against the "Vërmoten" (the German nickname for the four-engine bombers) happened on April 4, when he leaded the II./JG 26 to intercepte the enemy bombers and the escort near Fécamp. In first place shot down one of the escorting Spitfires, and later riddled two B-17s which went down in flames. On the next day the victim of his lethal Fw 190 was a B-17 of the 384th BG, which was wiped out near Antwerp. April was a good month for "Wutz": besides the already mentioned victories, he blasted out of the sky one Typhoon of No.56 Sqn on the 17th and two Venturas of the No.21 Sqn on April 21 1943.

After a well deserved rest, on May 18 "Wutz" was awarded with the Ritterkreuz (Knight's Cross) and promoted to the rank of Major. Ironically, when Wilhelm had his finest moments as a fighter pilot, the Luftwaffe was begining to be overwhelmed by the crushing numerical superiority of the Western Allies. In May 1943 the JG 2 and JG 26 lost 91 fighters, and other 53 were seriously damaged; but the worse was that one Gruppenkommandeur and 15 Staffelkapitänen were killed in action. Germany simply just could not replace such losses of experienced pilots. Even worse, the Western Allies were not only growing in strenght with the arrival of more and more USAAF squadrons, but also their pilots were gaining combat experience, closing the gap of skills with the German Experten.

Anyway, the Luftwaffe was still able to cause a tremendous defeat to the American 8th Air Force on June 26 1943: that day 250 B-17 Flying Fortresses attacked Villacoublay airfield escorted by 300 fighters (RAF Spitfires and Typhoons, and P-47s of the 56th FG). At 17:45 hs the Fw 190s of the JG 2 leaded by Major Egon Mayer met the B-17s over Liseaux and flamed five of them in few minutes with head-on attacks. An hour later, the Fw 190A-5s of the II./JG 26 caught by surprise the P-47s of the 56th FG, and in the blink of an eye its commander Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland, Oberleutnant Heinz Hoppe and Feldwebel Günther Scholz had bagged one Thunderbolt each. Twelve minutes later (19:04) "Wutz" piled up another P-47 of the 56th FG into his scoreboard, his 46th aerial victory. By the end of the day, seven Thunderbolts and five B-17s had been downed, against no losses in the German side.

Wilhelm Galland shot down his 54th and last victim on August 12 (a B-17). Five days later, he took off in the cockpit of his beloved Fw 190A-5 WNr 530125 leading the whole II./JG 26 against a group of 200 bombers which were returning to England after bombing Schweinfurt. When he was about to order the assault against the four-engine bombers, his Gruppen was suddenly jumped by P-47 Thunderbolts of the 56th FG. One of them was flown by Walker "Bud" Mahurin, who riddled Galland's Fw 190 with 12.7 mm machinegun fire and sent it downwards in flames. Probably we never know whether the unfortunate "Wutz" was killed instantly or he tried to bail out, but what is out of question was the fact that he didn't make it: he died when his aircraft crashed W of Maastricht, leaving a huge crater in the ground. The American 56th Fighter Group took revenge that day of its defeat on June 26, and Galland's defeater, Walker Mahurin, ended the war with 24.25 victories (20.8 in Europe and the remaining ones in the Pacific).

In a certain way, it was like his fate was linked with the one of the whole Luftwaffe: as long as he was alive and bagging Allied planes, the Luftwaffe in the Channel Front could mantain the air superiority, but few months after his death, the P-47s and Mustangs of the 8th AF controlled the airspace over Northern France, allowing the massive Allied landing in Normandy on June 6 1944, and the begining of Third Reich's end. However, his outstanding war career is one of the best examples of the patriotism and skills shown by the brave German pilots who fought against all odds in the Western Front.

SOURCES AND REFERENCES:

JG 26: TOP GUNS OF THE LUFTWAFFE, Donald L. Caldwell.
FOCKE WULF FW 190 ACES OF THE WESTERN FRONT, John Weal, Osprey Aeroespace.
ENCICLOPEDIA ILUSTRADA DE LA AVIACIÓN, Editorial Delta, 1981 (Courtesy of my friend Miguel Rösli).
Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland, Petra Kacha, Aces of the Luftwaffe website.

Drawing of a Fw 190A-2 of II./JG 26, Abbeville airfield, August 1942. All the aircraft of the unit (including the one flown by Oberleutnant "Wutz" Galland) had a similar scheme painting.

Profile: Enciclopedia Ilustrada de la Aviación, Editorial Delta 1981

Badges' unit of the 5th Staffel (left) and II Gruppen (right) of the JG 26, the units commanded by Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland.