Sailor Malan

Malan was born on 24 March 1910 to an Afrikaner family of Huguenot descent in Wellington, Western Cape, then part of the Cape Colony. He joined the South African Training Ship General Botha in 1924 or 1925 as a naval cadet (cadet number 168) at the age of 14, and on 5 January 1928 engaged as an officer cadet (seaman's discharge number R42512) aboard the Landsdown Castle[3] of the Union-Castle Line of the International Mercantile Marine Co. which later earned him the nickname of "Sailor" amongst his pilot colleagues. On 19 February 1932, he joined the Royal Naval Reserve as an acting sub-lieutenant, and was commissioned a sub-lieutenant on 18 June 1935.[4]

In 1935 the Royal Air Force (RAF) started the rapid expansion of its pilot corps, for which Malan volunteered. He learned to fly in the de Havilland Tiger Moth at an elementary flying school near Bristol, flying for the first time on 6 January 1936. Commissioned an acting pilot officer on 2 March,[5] he completed training by the end of the year, and was sent to join 74 Squadron on 20 December 1936. He was confirmed as a pilot officer on 6 January 1937,.[6] He was promoted to acting flying officer on 20 May 1938[7] and promoted to substantive flying officer on 6 July.[8] He received another promotion to acting flight lieutenant on 2 March 1939,[9] six months before the outbreak of war.

Although not an instinctive pilot Malan was an exceptional shot and a highly aggressive fighter-pilot, and above all a superb tactician who instilled the methods and techniques he had honed in 1940, which would cast an influence on successive generations of RAF fighter pilots who followed after him. He developed a set of clear rules for fighter-pilots (similar to those of Mick Mannock in the First World War), which was disseminated throughout RAF Fighter Command, and which during the latter part of the war could be found tacked to the wall of most airfield's Orderly Rooms:

Ten of My Rules For Air Fighting

1. Wait until you see the whites of his eyes. Fire short bursts of one to two seconds only when your sights are definitely "ON".
2. Whilst shooting think of nothing else, brace the whole of your body: have both hands on the stick: concentrate on your ring sight.
3. Always keep a sharp lookout. "Keep your finger out".
4. Height gives you the initiative.
5. Always turn and face the attack.
6. Make your decisions promptly. It is better to act quickly even though your tactics are not the best.
7. Never fly straight and level for more than 30 seconds in the combat area.
8. When diving to attack always leave a proportion of your formation above to act as a top guard.
9. Initiative, Aggression, Air Discipline, and Teamwork are words that Mean something in Air Fighting.
10. Go in quickly – Punch hard – Get out!

After the victorious conclusion of World War 2 Malan resigned his commission with the Royal Air Force in April 1946, retaining the rank of Group Captain,[19] and returned home to South Africa, where he commenced a career in sheep farming.[20] In the early 1950s he became involved in the increasingly febrile South African domestic political scene, with its radical polarizing atmosphere and racially and culturally divided societal tensions. After the National Party was voted into Government in the late 1940s South Africa's domestic governance moved to a position of National Conservatism, and commenced the introduction Apartheid, a system of organised racial segregation, which Malan objected to. In the early 1950s in response Malan joined a Liberal politically organized protest movement opposed to the introduction of the Apartheid System styling itself as the "Torch Commando", which - with his public recognition acquired from his glamourous war career - to the Presidency of which he was elected. Through the early 1950s he involved himself in political opposition to what he perceived was the increasing authoritarianism of the National Party in Government, which he felt threatened to become fascist in nature. At one point the "Torch Commando" (so-called for its predilection for staging night-time rallies outside government buildings with the protestors bearing flaming torches for dramatic illumination) movement had 250,000 members, and staged well-attended rallies across South Africa, which Malan often publicly addressed.[21] By the late 1950s however the movement lost momentum as some of the factions that constituted it increasingly moved from a hitherto public Liberal position to one of World Communism, and splintered away to join the newly insurgent African National Congress, with which Malan was not sympathetic.[22] The rise of the A.N.C. with its ideological radical agenda in turn discouraged the majority of the "Torch Commando's" membership from continuing with their campaign against the Apartheid State laws, with Malan leaving the disintegrating organization and retiring from politics and public life, leaving the National Party to rule South Africa exclusively for the next four decades.[23]

Malan died at the age of 53 on 17 September 1963 from Parkinson's disease, at that time a rare and little understood medical condition. A considerable sum of money was raised in his name to further study the disease. His funeral service was at St. Cyprian's Cathedral,[24] and his body was buried at 'West End Cemetery' in Kimberley, Cape Province.[25]

Malan married Lynda, the marriage producing a son, Jonathan, and daughter, Valerie.

In the 1969 cinema film Battle of Britain, the character of Squadron Leader Skipper played by Robert Shaw was based on Malan.[26]

• List of top World War II aces
• List of World War II aces from South Africa
• Huguenots in South Africa, for the history of French surnames (like Malan) in South Africa.

• Sailor Malan at acesofww2.com
• ZAR.co.za Biography