Adolph Malan - Rules of Air Fighting

Rules of Air Fighting

Although not an instinctive, gifted pilot Malan was an exceptional shot and a very aggressive air fighter, and above all a superb tactician who instilled the methods and techniques he had honed in 1940 into successive generations of young fighter pilots who followed him.

Malan developed a set of simple rules for fighter pilots, to be disseminated throughout RAF Fighter Command, which eventually could be found tacked to the wall of most airbases:

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!

Read more about this topic:  Adolph Malan

Famous quotes containing the words rules of, rules, air and/or fighting:

    “Trust men, and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great, though they make an exception in your favor to all their rules of trade.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “Can rules or tutors educate
    The semigod whom we await?
    He must be musical,
    Tremulous, impressional,
    Alive to gentle influence
    Of landscape and of sky
    And tender to the spirit-touch
    Of man’s or maiden’s eye.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “subtle birds
    Wheel and go,leaving air in shreds
    black beaks shine in gray haze.
    Brushed by the hawk’s wing
    of vision.”
    —Gary Snyder (b. 1930)

    “It was a cruel city, but it was a lovely one, a savage city, yet it had such tenderness, a bitter, harsh, and violent catacomb of stone and steel and tunneled rock, slashed savagely with light, and roaring, fighting a constant ceaseless warfare of men and of machinery; and yet it was so sweetly and so delicately pulsed, as full of warmth, of passion, and of love, as it was full of hate.”
    —Thomas Wolfe (1900–1938)