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Cranston Fine Arts Aviation Art and Artists World War Two Veteran Signatures United States R Rubien, Bernard

Lt Col Bernard Rubien

After enlisting in the Army Air Corps in September 1940, he arrived at Pearl Harbor on December 10th, 1940.

Lt Col Bernard Rubien - Signed Aviation Art

The Sleeping Giant Awakes by Richard Taylor. 3 editions. All 3 editions feature up to 3 additional signature(s). £110.00 - £395.00

Text for the above items :

The Sleeping Giant Awakes by Richard Taylor. Pearl Harbor - Monday December 8th, 1941. On Sunday December 7th, 1941, the free world had been stunned into disbelief by the treacherous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Giving no formal declaration of war, the devastating Japanese assault on the headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet had left over two thousand American servicemen dead, most of her battleships destroyed or damaged, and the remains of nearly 200 American aircraft lay in tatters. America reeled from the shock and sheer incredulity. But for Admiral Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the success of victory left a bitter taste. The main targets of his carefully orchestrated plan had been the US carriers but, as fate would have it, they were all at sea. Yamamoto knew in his heart that he would have to face those carriers one day, and when he did they would be the platform upon which America would unleash the brunt of her power against him. At 12.30 the following day President Roosevelt began his address to Congress, calling for the declaration of war on Japan. By 4.10pm America was formally at war, and five thousand miles away the first of the carriers, USS Enterprise, was returning to Pearl Harbor. Richard Taylor's painting depicts the Enterprise as she approaches Ford Island and the smoldering ruins that had been the Pacific Fleet. As ships still burn and the thick smoke hangs in the air, ever alert F4F-3A Wildcats of VF-6 fly an overhead patrol. Throughout the night the carrier will refuel and re-arm, and at dawn she will return to sea with a steel resolve and a new mission, to avenge Pearl Harbor. The Japanese failure to destroy the US carriers was a fateful mistake and, six months later, the Enterprise finally got her chance at the Battle of Midway, as the US carriers delivered one of the most decisive victories in the history of naval warfare, paving the way for victory in the Pacific.

I arrived in Honolulu on December 10th, 1940 and was stationed at Hickham Field assigned first to the 72nd Bomb Squadron and then to Headquarters, where I was on duty on December 7th, 1941. I was awakened that morning by horrendous noise and ran outside the barracks where we were being strafed by low flying Zeros.

I remained at Hickham until late 1942 when after officer training returned to the Pacific and spent the war on a couple of islands called Kwajalein and Saipan where we were visited nightly by our Japanese friends flying down from Iwo Jima and dropping a few friendly bombs! That stopped when the marines captured the island.