adolf galland t/s...

 Mutiny of Adolf Galland

Luftwaffe fighter ace with 104 kills to his name, Oberstleutnant Adolf Galland flew during the entirety of the Second World War and volunteered for the Condor Legion in Spain in 1937 for the Nationalists. He was shot down four times during the war fighting the Americans. Galland and Reichsmarshal Herman Goering never seemed to agree on how best to handle Allied bombing raids over Germany, as the war went on, their professional relationship deteriorated. This came to a boiling point which was recounted by Galland years later in an interview. Herman Goering accused the Luftwaffe pilots of cowardice and inflating their kill claims. After Galland and others challenged Goering at a meeting in early 1943, Galland states "Goering then accused me of falsifying reports and hiding deficiencies from him. This was the last straw for me. I then stood, unhooked my Knight’s Cross, Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, and threw them onto the heavy oak table. I then took off my Wound Badge and Iron Cross, along with the Spanish Cross in Gold with Diamonds, and they went on the table also … (the other pilots at the meeting) also took off their medals from around their necks and put them on the table … I then moved my chair back and turned to leave the meeting with my fighter leaders following me. Goering yelled at us, stating that we had not been dismissed … (Gunther) Lutzow shot back ‘You can’t shoot us all.’ We were all thinking that we had just terminated our careers, if not our lives … we never heard anything further about this from Goering. My medals were sent to my office a few days later."