"A Necessary Evil"

Adolf Galland, a fearless, cigar-chomping flyer, was the youngest major general in German history. He learned to fly a glider in the post-Versailles days when the Germans were forbidden an air force. He learned to fight as a member of the German "volunteer" Condor Legion in Spain, came home a squadron leader. In 1942, after three years of World War II, Fighter Pilot Galland was 30, a major general, a top-ranking ace, and inspector general of the Luftwaffe fighter command. After his 94th kill, Hitler personally hung the diamond-studded Knight's Cross around Galland's neck.

Young General Galland probably saw little of Hitler, except on such ceremonial occasions, but as inspector general he fought mightily for development of the jet-powered Messerschmitt 262 as the only possible defense against the Allies' vast fleets of bombers. Hitler, against the advice of his best airmen, ordered the jets used as bombers, not fighters, and also opted to throw Germany's resources into making guided missiles--the put-putting V-1 and the rocket-powered V2. By late 1944 Galland, like his fellow airmen, was perfectly able to see that Germany, without enough defense against the air raids, had had it. Relieved in the dying days of the war, he took command of a last-ditch squadron of hand-picked aces, none ranking lower than colonel, and went up to battle again.

At war's end, Airman Galland blamed Germany's "indescribable misery" on the Allied bombing, and after a few years went off to authoritarian Argentina to ply his trade as adviser to Peron's Aeronautics Ministry. Galland stayed carefully out of politicking in Argentina's tight little ex-Nazi community.

Last week, black Havana jutting from scarred cheek, Adolf Galland was home, the No. 1 candidate for commander of the soon-to-be 80,000-man West German air force. He landed in Frankfurt after six years' absence, cried: "I am happy to be back," and promptly denied the headlines about his new post. But the tall, slim airman, now 43, talked suspiciously like a commanding officer: "The new German air force will not be built around World War II flyers, who are now too old. It will be built around youth. It's now become a necessary evil for Germany to rearm." For the record, Bureau Blank, West Germany's shadow Defense Ministry, denied any ties to Galland (it does not like to name names before the French Senate votes). But privately a Bureau Blank man admitted: "Galland, after all, is about the only man we have who's been near a plane in ten years."

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