Adolph Malan - Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

In 1935 the RAF started the rapid expansion of its pilot corps, and Malan was one of the people who joined up. He learned to fly in the Tiger Moth at an elementary flying school near Bristol, flying for the first time on 6 January 1936. He completed training by the end of the year, and was sent to join 74 Squadron on 20 December 1936. He was promoted to Pilot Officer in January 1937, and was appointed to acting Flight Commander of "A" Flight, flying Spitfires, in August. He received another promotion to Flight Lieutenant just before the opening of the war.

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