ing others, his methods were to prove amazingly successful. It Well-known portrait artist SAILOR MALAN, Eric Kennington put his was primarily this change in tactics that helped the RAF’s skills to work during WWII A FORMER MERCHANT MARINER, “valiant few” blunt the massive aerial onslaught by the and one of his projects was on England during the summer of 1940 and made it too costly doing pastel portraits of WOULD BECOME ONE OF THE RAF pilots. This is his 1940 for the enemy to continue. portrait of Sailor Malan. ’S The son of a Cape Province farmer of French-Dutch origin and an English mother, Adolph G. Malan was born in TOP SCORING ACES BUT, Wellington, South Africa, during 1910. Finding the prospects of a farming life unappealing to his adventurous spirit, Malan, at PERHAPS MORE IMPORTANTLY, the age of 15, went off to sea as a merchant seaman. For the HE WOULD REDEFINE THE RAF’S next ten-years, Malan visited most of the major shipping ports of the world while rising in rank to ship’s officer. But eventually, COMBAT TACTICS even a life at sea became too sedate and Malan began looking for new adventures. In 1935, at age 25, Adolph Malan joined the Royal Air Force. He successfully completed the Uxbridge Officer’s Course — then commanded by the legendary W/Cmdr. Ira Jones. Jones could take credit in recog- nizing Malan not only had exceptional fly- ing ability but also the potential for higher

command. When Malan complet- BY ROBERT W. HUCKER ed flight training at Grantham, COLOR PROFILES COURTESY OSPREY PUBLICATIONS Jones recommended the South burly, square-jawed ex-merchant seaman not only African be posted to his former No. 74 Squadron, the famous became a leading ace in the Royal Air Force, but also “Tigers” of the RAF. was largely responsible for improving British fighter tac- Malan, in addition to being an excellent pilot, also was a Atics during the early part of the Second World War. It superb marksman. He was to demonstrate this in 1938 by was during the crucial that Adolph Gysbert being instrumental in winning the Sassoon Air Firing Trophy Malan, then a squadron commander, saw flaws in the way for the squadron. British fighter operations were being conducted. No. 74 Squadron was to turn in their obsolete Gloster Adapting some of the enemy’s tactics, revising and originat- Gauntlet biplanes in the summer of 1939 for a revolutionary

Messerschmitt Bf 109E downed over Kent by Spitfires of No. 74 Squadron.

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