Sailor Malan

This is a gripping biography of Adolph Gysbert Malan, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar (1910-1963), better known as ‘Sailor’ Malan, a South African WWII fighter pilot and flying ace in the Royal Air Force (RAF). During the height of the Battle of Britain, No. 74 Squadron became one of the RAF's most accomplished squadrons under Captain Malan’s leadership, scoring 27 kills, seven shared destroyed, three probably destroyed and 16 damaged.

“Sailor Malan was at the spearhead of that small ‘Worshipful Company of Fighter Pilots’ who smashed the overwhelming might of Goering’s squadrons in the darkest days of 1940. They scribbled history in vapour trails six miles above the Kentish hopfields, and it is fitting that that epic aerial scrawl should achieve the more enduring substance of print and in such graphic form.”—The Star, Johannesburg.

“Why was A. G. ‘Sailor’ Malan so ruthlessly efficient a fighter pilot? What were the qualities that made him one of the best-known Battle of Britain pilots? How did he come to be national president of the Torch Commando? These are a few of the questions answered by Sailor Malan by Oliver Walker. It tells the fascinating story of the man who has twice gripped the imagination of the public of two countries—in England during the Battle of Britain, and in South Africa during the Battle of the Constitution.”—Eastern Province Herald

“’A prophet is not without honour, except in his own country’—So, to some extent, it may be said of ‘Sailor’ Malan, one of the greatest air aces and tacticians of the Second World War. For that reason we are indebted to Oliver Walker for his short and attractive biography of this great fighter-pilot.”—the Friend, Bloemfontein.