|
|
Aircraft Index |
Squadron Index |
Aviation Art by Country |
Aviation Signatures Index |
Aviation Artists Index |
Aviation Art Offers |
|
Military-Art.com Nicolas Trudgian Royal Air Force Lancaster |
[UP] - Spitfire - Hurricane - Lancaster - Mosquito - Vulcan - Typhoon - Hunter - Kittyhawk - Sopwith Camel - Dakota - SE5 - Gladiator - Bristol - Royal Air Force Print List |
|
|
|
|
|
Text for the above items : |
Homeward Bound by Nicolas Trudgian. No single raid during World War Two has attracted more discussion, analysis, features, books, interviews, or been the subject of more films, documentaries, and TV programmes than the famous attack mounted by the RAFs 617 Squadron upon the mighty hydroelectric dams in Westphalia, on the night of 16/17 May, 1943. Led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, nineteen specially adapted Lancaster bombers, manned by 133 aircrew, culminated months of secret training when they made one of the most audacious raids of the war. Flying at tree-top height in darkness, and doing their best to avoid electricity pylons and other obstructions, they navigated their way deep into occupied territory. Their targets were the huge Mohne, Sorpe, Ennepe, and Eder Dams that powered Germanys huge industrial factories in the heartland of the Rhur. Each bomber had to avoid enemy flak and fighters en route, locate their target, descend to precisely 60 feet above the water then, in the face of a barrage of anti-aircraft fire, release their single unique 10,000 lb hydrostatic bomb at exactly the right moment. There was no margin for error, and there was no place for faint hearts. Eight of the crews that left RAF Scampton that night were never to return. Of the fifty-six aircrew on board only two survived. Though nearly half the skilled crews that made up 617 squadron were lost, they recorded one of the most successful and daring air raids of the war- a costly endeavour, but one that has become legend in the annals of aerial warfare. Nicolas Trudgians emotive painting Homeward Bound depicts Dave Shannons Lancaster AJ-L, dodging the searchlights low over the Dutch landscape, as he returns from the Eder Dam following the part he and his crew played in the famous raid on that moonlight night in May, 1943. Published 2000. |
Safely Home by Nicolas Trudgian. An Avro Lancaster bomber of Bomber Command is escorted back over the English coast by two Spitfires after a night bombing mission. |
Bomber Force by Nicolas Trudgian. The tension is electric; slowly they climb to circle the airfield while the entire squadron gets airborne. Below, the countryside reverberates with the sound of roaring Merlin engines. RAF Lancaster bombers of 617 Squadron. |
Mynarskis Lanc by Nicolas Trudgian. Lancaster V-RA, with its young Canadian crew, flew just a handful of operations. On the night of June 12, 1944, it was set afire by a JU88, forcing the crew to bale out. Seeing the rear gunner trapped Pilot Officer Andrew Mynarski vainly braved the inferno to help, losing his parachute to the flames. He was forced to jump without it. Miraculously the burning Lancaster pancaked, and the rear gunner survived. Andrew Mynarski was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously. Mynarskis Lancaster is depicted setting out on that fateful night. Four of the crew members: Brophy, navigator Robert Bodie, radio operator James Kelly and pilot de Breyne were hidden by the French and, except for Brophy, returned to England shortly after the crash. Vigars and the wounded bomb aimer Friday were captured by the Germans and interned until they could be liberated by American troops. Pat Brophy joined French Resistance fighters and, after waging war on the ground behind enemy lines, made it back to London in September, 1944 where he learned of Mynarskis death. It was not until 1945 when Pat Brophy was reunited with Art de Breyne and the rest of the crew, that the details of his final moments on the aircraft were revealed. He related the story of the valiant efforts made by Mynarski to save him. |
Home at Dawn by Nicolas Trudgian. When No 49 Squadron Lancasters bombed the S.S. barracks at Berchtesgaden on 25th April 1945, its aircrews completed a campaign that had begun 5 and a half years earlier in September, 1939. From the very beginning, 49 Squadron were in the thick of the action with one of their pilots, Roderick Learoyd, winning Bomber Commands first Victoria Cross. In 1942 it was Lancasters of 49 Squadron that led the epic raid on Schneider armament and locomotive works at Le Creusot. In 1943 they flew the shuttle-bombing raids to Friedrichshafen and Spezia, attacked the heavily defended rocket sites at Peenemunde, and in preparation for D-Day, bombarded the coastal batteries in Normandy and the V-1 sites in the caves by the river Loire, north of Paris. Later in 1944 the squadron notably took part in the raid on German Baltic Fleet, continuing to fly important bombing missions against the Nazi war machine until the final collapse of the Third Reich. So it was fitting that an RAF squadron whose history went right back to 1916, should make the coupe de grace at Berchtesgarden. Northern Europes short summer nights, with darkness lasting but a few hours, often saw the RAF bomber crews returning to England at dawn, and it is one such scene which is caught up over the river Orwell at Pin Mill, Lancasters of No. 49 Squadron descend low over Suffolk, heading towards their base at Fiskerton. The night raid on Hamburg is almost completed. Spitfires from No. 129 Squadron, based at Hornchurch, having made an early morning attack on German installations in Holland, have picked up the bombers and escorted them home. |
Breaching the Dams by Nicolas Trudgian. The Mohne Dam gives way as David Maltbys Lancaster releases its bomb to deliver the coup de grace on the night of 16th / 17th May 1943. Guy Gibson, nearest, and Mick Martin, having already dropped their bombs, make dummy runs with lights on to draw enemy fire. |
Moonlight Hunter by Nicolas Trudgian. As the air war raged over Berlin and other German cities, night-fighter units such as NJG100, the original Eastern front night fighter Geschwader, were redeployed nearer home in the final desperate defence of Germany. By late 1944 the Luftwaffes night fighting aircraft were being flown by experienced crews using sophisticated electronic equipment and, though fighting a losing battle, had become the scourge of the RAFs night raiders. A Junkers Ju88 G-6, piloted by major Paul Zorner, Gruppenkommandeur III./NJG100, based at Stubendorf, intercepts and badly damages a four-engined Lancaster of R.A.F. Bomber Command over Germany in late 1944. Shedding debris and trailing flames, there may just be time for the crew to bale out before the mightly bomber falls away into the dark abyss. With the aid of his FuG220 and upward firing Schrage Musik armament, Zorner has stalked his prey, and attacked from beneath unseen. The crew of this Lancaster didn't stand a chance, and with the moonlight briefly glinting on his aircraft, the accomplished Ju88 pilot slips away into the darkness of the night. |
Sinking the Tirpitz by Nicolas Trudgian. Throughout four long years of war Allied air and naval forces endeavoured to sink the German battleship Tirpitz. The mighty warship was a constant threat to Allied shipping, even while lying at anchor in her lair among the fjords of Norway. Her very presence demanded constant attention and hampered all naval decision making till she was sunk at the end of 1944. Without so much as weighing anchor, Tirpitz could disrupt the north Atlantic convoys by tying up urgently needed escort vessels in readiness in case she made a run for the open sea. Churchill was exasperated and called upon RAF Bomber Command to make a decisive bid to finish her off once and for all. On November 12, 1944 Lancasters of Number 9 and 617 Squadrons set forth towards the Norwegian fjord of Tromso where Tirpitz lay at anchor surrounded by a web of protective submarine nets. Armed with the 12,000lb Tallboy bomb devised by Barnes Wallis, the Lancaster crews arrived in clear skies overhead the fjord to see the great battleship sharply contrasted against the still deep waters some 10,000ft below. As flak from the ships heavy armament burst all around them, one by one the 31 Lancasters rolled in for the attack. In a matter of three minutes the devastating aerial bombardment was completed, and eleven minutes later, her port side ripped open, the Tirpitz capsized and sank. The Coup de Grace was complete. Published 2000. |
Contact Details |
Sign Up To Our Newsletter!
This website is owned by Cranston Fine Arts. Torwood House, Torwoodhill Road, Rhu, Helensburgh, Scotland, G848LE Contact: Tel: (+44) (0) 1436 820269. Email: cranstonorders -at- outlook.com |
|