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Cranston Fine Arts Aviation Art and Artists World War Two Articles and Collections Battle of Britian |
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Undaunted by Odds by Robert Taylor. On 6th November 1935, a prototype aircraft took to the air for the very first time. As Sydney Camm's sturdy, single-engine monoplane fighter climbed into the sky, few realized that it was destined to become one of the enduring symbols of the greatest air battle ever fought. Its name was the Hawker Hurricane. Undaunted by Odds is a moving tribute to the Hurricane and the gallant pilots who flew it in combat. The painting portrays the Hurricanes of the 303 Polish Squadron RAF during the Battle of Britain as the unit climbs steadily to intercept yet another incoming wave of enemy bombers heading for London in September 1940. Soon the already battle-hardened Polish pilots will once again be in the thick of the action. |
The Battle for Britain by Robert Taylor. A Battle of Britain Spitfire from 610 Squadron takes on a Me109 from I./JG3 in a head-on attack high over the south coast port of Dover, in the late morning of 10 July 1940. |
Scramble by David Pentland. Robrough, Southern England, August 1940. Pilots of 247 Squadron, tasked with defending Plymouth, race to their Gloster Gladiator IIs in response to an intruder alert. Originally stationed in the Shetlands the squadron had been sent south to support the hard pressed units of fighter command during the Battle of Britain. |
A Time for Heroes by Robert Taylor Royal Air Force and Royal Navy fighter aircrews flew combat throughout the six long years of World War Two. At the outbreak of war in 1939 four RAF Hurricane squadrons and two equipped with Gladiators went immediately to France where in short time New Zealander Cobber Kain became the first Allied Ace of the war. In April 1940 Hurricanes and Gladiators saw in action in Norway, when Rhodesian Caesar Hull of 263 Squadron became the second air Ace. By the fall of France the new Spitfire joined in the great air battles over the Channel as the British Expeditionary Force evacuated Dunkirk. Bob Stanford -Tuck, Douglas Bader, Peter Townsend, Sailor Malan, and many other great Aces gained their first victories, but with German forces massing on the French coast, the invasion of Britain looked imminent. Only RAF Fighter Command stood in Hitlers way. By July, the most famous of all air battles had begun. The next three months, under glorious summer skies, saw the most decisive and continual aerial fighting in history. The British victory in the Battle of Britain was to fundamentally change the course of the war and, ultimately, the course of history. But there were four and a half more years of air battles still to be fought and won -from the English Channel Front to the North African desert, from the Mediterranean to Far East Asia. It fell to Fleet Air Arm pilots to see the last air fighting for British and Commonwealth pilots, by then equipped with Seafires and American Corsairs and Hellcats, as they took part in the final assaults on the Japanese mainland. As the last embers of hostilities faded into history the centuries old doctrine of maritime supremacy had gone. Now the aircraft ruled. In his masterful painting A Time For Heroes Robert Taylor pays tribute to the World War II fighter aircrews of the RAF and Fleet Air Arm. A panoramic scene from the era of the Battle of Britain shows Mk I Spitfires of 234 Squadron, 10 Groups top scoring squadron, returning to St. Eval after intercepting heavy raids on south coast ports during the heaviest fighting, in September 1940. St. Michaels Mount, the castle built on the site of a 14th Century monastery to defend Britains shores from earlier enemies, provides a symbolic backdrop as once again a band of brothers is called upon to defend their Sceptred Isle. Sadly, since the passing of Mahinder Pujji in September 2010, all of the great pilots who signed any of the editions of this print have now passed away. |
Fastest Victory by Robert Taylor Taking his Hurricane off from Speke, a raiding JU88 crossed the airfield in front of Denys Gillam, who promptly shot it down. It was the fastest air victory of the war, and probably of all time. |
Spitfires of No.54 squadron during the Battle of Britain by Graeme Lothian. (P) Air Commodore Alan Deere DSO DFC* and other Spitfires of No.54 squadron during the Battle of Britain, attacking He111 bombers which are being escorted across the Channel by Me109 fighters |
Fields of Glory by Richard Taylor. September 1940 and they came in their hundreds, the black crosses under their wings clearly visible to those on the ground who listened in silence as the menacing drone of a thousand engines filled the clear blue summer sky. As Goering's Luftwaffe attempted to deal the killer blow to British defences, huge formations of Heinkel, Dornier and Junker bombers lumbered over sleepy English fields towards London. Surrounding them were their escorts, the formidable Messerschmitt Bf109 fighters. Diving our of the sun, 11 Group's fighter squadrons pounced, with the Spitfires going for the Bf109s while the Hurricanes fell on the slower moving bombers. Looking up on the swirling melee above, onlookers below could only watch in awe as the sky was filled with criss-cross patterns of creamy white vapour and spiralling trails of ominous, darker smoke. A parachute here and there caught the eye as the white silk drifted slowly down to the fields below. Hugely outnumbered, the men of RAF Fighter Command were supported by volunteer airmen from fifteen nations, and as more squadrons joined the fray the battle raged towards the capital until the Bf109s turned for home. The Few were finally turning the tide of the Battle of Britain. |
Spitfire Tally-Ho by Geoff Lea. Depicting Spitfire of 609 squadron during the Battle of Britain. |
Battle Above Dover by Adrian Rigby. On July 29th 1940, the Luftwaffe launched what they believed was a surprise attack on the port of Dover and the shipping in the area. RAF controllers, however, were quick to react and Spitfires from Manston along with twelve Hurricanes from Hawkinge intercepted nearly fifty Stukas and no less than eighty fighter escorts. The battle was intense, and made even more dangerous for the RAF by the heavy flak which the gunners of Dover used to some success, shooting two Stukas out of the sky. At the end of the action, seven German aircraft were lost to just one Spitfire. More significantly, Dover was spared serious damage and no ships were lost. The painting depicts a Hurricane of 501 Squadron caught up in close combat with Stukas and Me109s above the port, whilst in the background, many more aircraft can be seen joining the fray. |
Enemy Approaching by David Pentland. (P) Hurricanes of No.605 Squadron, October 1940. Aircraft pictured are P3308 UP-A of A A McKellar and N2471 of P Parrott. |
Gauntlet by Anthony Saunders. Portsmouth August 26th 1940, the lone spitfire of Squadron Leader Sandy Johnstone breaks the ranks and picks off one of the menacing Heinkels only to encounter an equally determined attack from a BF109. We were brought to readiness in the middle of lunch and scrambled to intercept mixed bag of 100+ Heinkel IIIs and DO 17s approaching Portsmouth from the South. The controller did a first class job and positioned us one thousand feet above the target. with the sun behind us, allowing us to spot the raiders from a long way off. No escorting Messchersmitts were in sight at the time, although a sizable force was to turn up soon after. then something strange happened. I was about to give a ticking off to our chaps for misusing the R/T when I realised I was listening to German voices. It appeared we were both using the same frequency and, although having no knowledge of the language it sounded from the monotonous flow of the conversation that they were unaware of our presence. as soon as we dived towards the leading formation, however we were assailed immediately to loud shouts of Achtung Spitfuern Spitfuern! as our bullets began to take their toll. In spite of having taken jerry by surprise our bag was only six, with others claimed as damaged, before the remainder dived for cloud cover and turned for home. In the meantime the escorting fighters were amongst us when two of our fellows were badly shot up. Hector Maclean stopped a cannon shell on his cockpit, blowing his foot off above the ankle although, in spite of his grave injuries, he managed to fly his spitfire back to Tangmere to land with wheels retracted. Cyril Babbages aircraft was also badly damaged in the action. forcing him to abandon it and take to his parachute. He was ultimately picked up by a rescue launch and put ashore at Bognor, having suffered only minor injuries. I personally accounted for one Heinkel III in the action (Sandy Johnson) . No. 602 City of Glasgow auxiliary squadron was a household name long before WWII began. It had been the first auxiliary squadron to get into the air in 1925, two of its members, Lord Clydeside and David McIntyre were the first to fly over Mount Everest in 1933: the squadron sweeped the board in gunnery and bombing in 1935, beating the regular squadrons at their own game. It was the first auxiliary Squadron to be equipped with Spitfire Fighters as far back as March 1939 and it was the first squadron to shoot down the first enemy aircraft on British soil. The squadron moved south from Drem airfield in East Lothian on August 14th 1940 to relieve the already battered no. 145 squadron at Westhampnett, Tangmeres satelitte station in Sussex. The squadron suffered 5 casualties during the battle. The squadron remained at Westhampnett until December 1940 to be replaced by no. 610 auxiliary airforce squadron. No 602 squadron itself remained active up until 1957 when it was put into mothballs. |
Total Commitment by Ivan Berryman. On the afternoon of 5th September 1940, Spitfires of 41 Sqn intercepted a large formation of Heinkel 111 bombers and their escorts over the Thames estuary, en route for London. Flying N3162 as Red 2, Flight Lieutenant Eric Lock attacked the bombers head on as they began to turn north. In a fraught combat, Lock was to destroy two He.111s and a Bf.109 on that single mission, setting him on course to become the highest scoring ace in the RAF during the Battle of Britain with sixteen confirmed victories and one shared. His final total at the end of the war was twenty six kills confirmed and eight probables. |
Stukas over England, South Coast, July 1940 by David Pentland. Junker Ju87B-1s of 7 Staffel, Stg 77 swoop down to attack coastal targets. This opening phase of the Battle of Britain was to prove very costly for the Stuka squadrons as they found they could no longer operate unescorted against the RAF. |
Close Call by Robert Taylor. A Spitfire of 610 Squadron narrowly misses colliding with an Me109 while in close combat, low over the south of England, during the late summer of 1940. |
Low Level Encounter by Gerald Coulson. A Spitfire and an Me109 locked in battle pass a downed He111 low over the English countryside. |
One to One by Ivan Berryman. A Messerschmitt BF109 E of JG27 closes on a 501 squadron Hawker Hurricane during the typical combat in the skies over southern England during the Battle of Britain, in the summer of 1940. |
Mk.I Blenheims of No.141 Sqn by Ivan Berryman. Royal Air Force Blenheim Mk.I aircraft of No.141 Squadron. |
Hammer Blow by David Pritchard Having expended all his ammunition, Sgt Pilot Ronnie Fokes of 92 Squadron shadows the stricken Yellow 7 and its pilot Uffz R Hammer moments before their participation in the Battle of Britain was to end. Having sustained major damage to it's cooling system, Yellow 7 crash-landed on 30th September 1940, at Pelsham House, Peasmarsh Sussex. |
Dogfight - Battle of Britain by Graeme Lothian. (P) No text for this item |
September Victory by Nicolas Trudgian. (B) Spitfires pass above a downed Me110 as they return to base at Biggin Hill in September 1940, the most intense and crucial phase of the Battle of Britain. |
Uneven Odds by Robert Taylor In August 1940, Frank Carey let No 43 Squadrons A Flight into Schwarms of JU87s, escorted by Me109s. Though hopelessly outnumbered, Carey accounted for 4 JU87s before running out of ammunition. |
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