He was the son of an estate bailiff of French descent, Galland became a skillful glider pilot before age 20 and joined the civilian airline Lufthansa in 1932 and served with Germany's Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War in 1937-38, flying several hundred missions. Galland held a staff post when Germany invaded Poland in 1939, but he went on to serve in a fighter group during the campaign against France in 1940 and promoted to Major on the 18th of July 1940. He then commanded III Gruppe of JG 26 a fighter squadron of Me109`s during the Battle of Britain, by the end of which he had destroyed about 100 enemy planes. In November 1941 he was promoted to the post of commander of the Luftwaffe's Fighter Arm, and a year later he was promoted to major general, becoming at 30 the youngest general in the German armed forces.

In 1943-44 Galland commanded Germany's fighter squadrons in their defence against Allied bombing raids. Despite his able and resourceful leadership, he was blamed by Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring for the gradual collapse of the German air defences in 1944, and he was relieved of his command in January 1945. Galland was soon returned to active duty as the commander of an elite squadron of jet fighters. At the war's end Galland was captured and imprisoned for a time.
After the war he became friends with one of his main opponents in the Battle of Britain, Douglas Bader.
Galland scored 104 victories in all and when the war ended, he was a General der Flieger (Lieutenant-General) with JG 26. Recipient of the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, andDiamonds. Surviving the war he only recently passed away in February 1996.