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The Aircraft : | |
Name | Info |
Horsa | The Airspeed AS 51 Horsa named after Horsa the legendary conqueror of southern Britain in the 5th century was built by Airspeed Ltd during the second world war. The Horsa was a troop carrying glider that also could carry light vehicles. On the 19th / 20th November 1942 the Horsa was used for the first time for Operation Freshman, the unsuccessful attack at Rjukan in Norway on the German heavy water plant. The two Horsa gliders, each carrying 15 sappers, and one of the two Halifax Bombers used to tow the gliders, crashed in Norway due to bad weather. All 23 survivors from the glider crashes were executed on the orders of Adolf Hitler. In preparation for further operational deployment, 30 Horsa gliders were air-towed by Halifax bombers from Great Britain to North Africa but three aircraft were lost in transit. On 10 July 1943, 27 surviving Horsas were used in the invasion of Sicily during Operation Husky. During the Normandy landings over 250 Horsa Gliders were used by British and US Forces. The first units to land in France during the Battle for Normandy were at Pegasus Bridge where 6 Horsas were used in the capture of the bridge over the Caen canal, and a further bridge over the River Orne. In 1944 large numbers were also used for Operation Dragoon and Operation Market Garden, and in March 1945 Horsas again were used during Operation Varsity and the final operation for the Horsa when 440 gliders carried soldiers of the 6th Airborne Division across the Rhine. The Horsa Glider was towed by a variety of aircraft, usually bombers. The Short Stirling, Handley Page Halifax, Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and the Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle and also the Douglas C-47 Dakota. During Operation Market Garden, a total of 1,336 C-47s along with 340 Stirlings were employed to tow 1,205 gliders, and Curtiss C-46 Commando. They were towed with a harness that attached to points on both wings, and also carried a intercom between tug and glider. The glider pilots were usually from the Glider Pilot Regiment, part of the Army Air Corps, although Royal Air Force pilots were used on this occasion. |
Artist Details : Jason Askew |
Click here for a full list of all artwork by Jason Askew |
Jason Askew Jason Askew was born in south africa, went to the Johannesburg school of art ballet,and music, and attended the City and Guilds of London Art College, Kennington. His interest in military history started as a teenager in the history of South Africa, The Zulu and South African wars, where he got his inspiration for his first major epic series of the Zulu war. Everyone doing national service had a choice of going to the army or the police. He was in the police - the police and army training being very similar. In South Africa, the police service was, and is still bearing the brunt of the civil unrest, and the crime wave (average of 19000 murders per year for the last ten years) It is through the experience of the police, and what he had to confront, that motivated him to paint these experiences, and it was very good for somoene with an interest in military history to see the effects of fighting first hand, particularly in the brutal, sometimes hand to hand killing that is the norm in South African situations. He was based at Hillbrow (the bronx of Joburg) and also served with the SAPS flyng squad. All the experiences that he had in the SAPS directly inform the paintings that Jason Askew does. : I never lose sight of the fact that real people are often caught in the middle of conflicts that are created by politicians/governments/reasons beyond the control of individuals, yet it is always individuals that suffer. Jason Askew is often commisisoned by many British and overseas regiments. 2RGR the gurkhas,The Queens Lancashire Regiment, the Coldstream Guards,the Staffordshire Regiment to name a few. He was also an official war artist for the Staffordshire Regiment in Iraq. Cranston Fine Arts are proud to be publishing a majority of art prints by Jason Askew since 2005 and are planning a major series of releases which they have commissioned over the next few months, including an outstanding series of eight First World war battlescenes of many of the major western front battles. This series started in 2007 and will be completed by the end of 2008. Also included is a series of four Battle of Waterloo and four Zulu War limited editions, all specially priced for collectors.
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