Argentina
After Galland was released, he travelled to
Schleswig-Holstein to join Baroness Gisela von Donner, an earlier acquaintance, on her estate and lived with her three children. During this time, Galland found work as a forestry worker. There he convalesced and came to terms with his career and
Nazi war crimes. Galland began to hunt for the family and traded the kills in the local markets to supplement meagre meat rations. Soon Galland rediscovered his love of flying.
Kurt Tank, the designer of the Fw 190, requested that he go to his home in
Minden to discuss a proposal. Tank had been asked to work for the British and Soviets, and had narrowly avoided being kidnapped by the latter. Tank, through a contact in
Denmark, informed Galland about the possibility of the Argentinian Government employing him as a test pilot for Tank's new generation of fighters.
[182] Galland accepted and flew to
Argentina. He settled with Gisela in
El Palomar,
Buenos Aires. Galland enjoyed the slow life. His time there, aside from work commitments, was taken up with Gisela and the active Buenos Aires night life. Galland found
South America a world away from post-war shortages of Germany. Soon, he took up gliding again.
[183]
In a professional capacity, Galland spoke fluent
Spanish, which helped in his instruction of new pilots. During his time with the
Argentinian Air Force (FAA) he flew the British
Gloster Meteor. Galland, mindful that it was a contemporary of the Me 262, commented that it was a fine aircraft. He claimed that if he could have fitted the Meteor engines to the Me 262 airframe he would have had the best fighter in the world. Galland continued training, lecturing and consulting for the FAA until 1955.
[184] During his later years in Argentina Galland returned to
Europe to test fly new types. While there, he teamed up with
Eduard Neumann, the former
Geschwaderkommodore of
Jagdgeschwader 27 and mentor of
Hans-Joachim Marseille "The Star of Africa". Neumann had joined Galland's staff in April 1943. They flew a
Piaggio P.149 in an international air rally across
Italy. The weather was appalling and seven aircraft crashed taking two lives. Galland and Neumann came in second place.
[185 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Galland#Argentina