In January 1945, he succeeded Generalleutnant (Major General) Adolf Galland as Inspector of Fighters, a position he held until the end of the war.

Both his parents had studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where they mutually befriended Gordon Mallet McCouch, an American artist of Scottish descent.

[2] Following four semesters of mechanical engineering at the University of Graz, Gollob joined the Austrian Armed Forces in 1933 as an officer cadet in the artillery.

Gollob scored the first of his aerial victories over Poland on 5 September 1939, shooting down a PWS 56 (Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów—Podlasie Aircraft Factory) biplane.

[8] From early October to mid-December, I. Gruppe operated from airfields in the Stuttgart and Ruhr regions before relocating north to Jever on 16 December 1939.

[9] There, on 18 December 1939, Gollob claimed his second aerial victory over a Royal Air Force (RAF) Vickers Wellington bomber in what became known as the Battle of the Heligoland Bight.

[Note 3] That same day at 17:20, Gollob, together with Oberfeldwebel (Staff Sergeant) Herbert Schob and Oberleutnant Gerhard Böhmel, shot down a patrolling Lockheed Hudson reconnaissance aircraft "J" (N7377) from No.

These air elements supported Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) Gerd von Rundstedt's Army Group South, with the objective of capturing Ukraine and its capital Kiev.

Gruppe flew its first missions on the Eastern Front shortly before 04:00, flying low attacks against Soviet airfields in the vicinity of Lvov in Ukraine.

Gruppe flew missions over the combat areas along the Dnieper in support of the main German attack to encircle Soviet forces near Uman, approximately 200 km (120 mi) south of Kiev.

Gruppe missions were subsequently in the greater Kiev area and to the north near Malyn, where Soviet forces were still holding onto the west bank of the Dnieper.

The Gruppe was then subordinated to the 2nd Air Corps under the command of General der Flieger Bruno Loerzer and was part of the preparations for Operation Typhoon, the planned assault on Moscow.

All available German forces were concentrated under the command of Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock's Army Group Centre for the attack which began on 2 October 1941.

[35] Predominantly flying escort missions for Ju 87 dive bombers and combat air patrols over the battle zone east of Desna, Gollob claimed one enemy aircraft shot down on 4 October and two more the following day, including his 50th aerial victory over a I-61.

Gruppe detached a Schwärme—two pairs of two fighter aircraft—to a forward airfield at Syevsk, approximately 100 km (62 mi) south of Bryansk.

Orders had been received to transfer the air element and a small technical ground crew detachment, which was airlifted by several Ju 52s to Chaplynka.

[43] At Rechlin, he flew numerous test and comparison flights with the latest version of the Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter aircraft, as well as a variety of types which never went beyond a prototype variant.

[51] On 7 June 1942, German and Romanian forces began Operation Störfang, the final assault in the siege of Sevastopol, which resulted in the city's capture on 4 July 1942.

[2] On 22 July 1942, the Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52—52nd Fighter Wing), Major Herbert Ihlefeld, was severely injured in a flight accident and had to surrender command during his convalescence.

[58] By the time Gollob joined the Geschwader in late July 1942, the offensive had been renamed Operation Braunschweig and JG 52 was located at Rostov-on-Don.

Gollob was then posted to the Stab of Jagdfliegerführer 3 (Jafü 3—3rd Fighter Pilot Leader) at Brest-Guipavas on the English Channel Front.

He was interested only in the purely technical aspects, neglecting ground organization, the training of air- and groundcrews, setting up a communications network and the information of operational units.

"[68] In April 1944, Gollob was transferred to the personal staff of General der Jagdflieger Galland, to advise on the development of the Me 262 jet and Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket aircraft projects.

Gollob quarrelled with Galland in September and was transferred to Kommando der Erprobungstellen (headquarters of test units), which two years previously had been put under the command of Oberst Edgar Petersen.

One aspect of this was to put jet fighter units under control of the SS and later, Göring ordered Galland to prepare a report on Gollob.

News of Galland's dismissal soon spread, leading to the failed Fighter Pilots' Revolt, an insurrection of a small group of high-ranking Luftwaffe pilots, including Oberst Johannes Steinhoff who after the war became Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, aimed at re-instating Galland as General der Jagdflieger.

Gollob underwent surgery by Prof. Dr. Burghard Breitner at a hospital in Igls, in the present-day a borough of Innsbruck, eight days after his departure from Berlin.

At Kitzbühel, Gollob was taken prisoner of war by elements of the 36th Infantry Division of the United States Army under the command of General John E. Dahlquist.

[81] In 1948, Gollob became General Secretary of the Federation of Independents (German: Verband der Unabhängigen, VdU), a right-wing political party in Austria.

There, from November 1951, he started working in a sales role for the Klöckner Humboldt Deutz AG, a company making motors and vehicles.