get through" (alone). All of Galland's suggestions were adopted and proved successful in the early campaigns, 1939–41. During his time in the RLM, he instructed, trained and equipped ground-support wings for Fall Grün (Case Green), the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938. However, the invasion did not take place. Unluckily for Galland, his excellence at evaluation earned him a place at Tutow training facility where he was asked to test fly prototype reconnaissance and strike aircraft. This was not what he wanted, and he hoped to be returned to a fighter unit to fly the Bf 109. During his time there, he gave positive evaluations on types such as the Focke-Wulf Fw 189 and Henschel Hs 129. During his test piloting career at Tutow, Galland received unwelcome news; he was to become Gruppenkommandeur of II.(Schlacht)/Lehrgeschwader 2 (II.(S)/LG 2 – 2nd battle group of the 2nd Demonstration Wing). It was not a fighter unit, but a special mixed Geschwader of ground attack aircraft. Combat career (1939–41) Invasion of Poland Just before the outbreak of war, Galland was promoted to Hauptmann. During the invasion of Poland from 1 September 1939 onward, he flew with 4 Staffel, II./Lehrgeschwader 2. Equipped with the Henschel Hs 123, nicknamed the "biplane Stuka," supporting the German Tenth Army. On 1 September, Galland flew alone in a Fieseler Fi 156 'Storch' on a reconnaissance mission and was nearly shot down. The next day he flew ground attack missions in support of the 1st Panzer Division advancing to the Warta River. Galland's Geschwader flew intensive sorties in support of the division and XVI Army Corps at Kraków, Radom, Dęblin and L'vov. The German Army had reached the Vistula river near Warsaw by 7 September. and the Luftwaffe had been executing the kind of close air support operations Galland had been advocating. Galland participated in the maximum effort by the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Bzura. On 11 September, during one of his visits to the front, Adolf Hitler arrived at LG 2 headquarters for lunch with the staff. Such was the state of the Polish Air Force and Polish Army, that by 19 September 1939 some German air units were withdrawn from the campaign. Galland ceased combat operations on this date, having flown 87 missions. After flying nearly 360 missions in two wars and averaging two missions per day, on 13 September 1939, Galland was awarded the Iron Cross Second