A Mk I Spitfire and a PR Mk XIX silver Spitfire: my latest Flight Artworks

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"Up against it": F/Sgt Charles Sydney of 92 Squadron

Colchester, 15 September 2015

The house and office move mentioned in the Preface to my first book was completed relatively painlessly as these things go, although the unpacking and decluttering took longer than I had imagined.

I then spent a delightful few weeks in the US this summer, and have only recently got back into the groove. Consequently it has been a while since I have written anything, so this is by way of  a catch-up.

My first priority on return from holiday was a commission for the RAF Memorial Flight (BBMF). This came about because one of their Spitfires – PR Mk XIX no. PS915, is being repainted to represent another of its kind that achieved a certain amount of fame in the early 1950s.

Spitfire PS852 of 81 Squadron, RAF, was used by Flt Lt Ted Powles AFC to make unofficial daring spy flights over Chinese territory during the Korean War, pushing it to the extreme limit of its fuel range.

Silver Spitfire

He also took it to a world altitude record for piston engine aircraft of 51,550 ft (almost 16 kms high!) on 5 February 1952. When the cabin pressurisation malfunctioned he then made an extremely fast descent, although the actual speed he attained is disputed.

The Memorial Flight repaint is going to be in the colours PS852 wore when it was based at RAF Kai Tak, Hong Kong. The exact date of the original colour scheme is uncertain, but there is a blurry photo from 1954/55 that shows how it looked: overall 'silver', which was actually RAF Aluminium.

Spitfire-PS852-at-altitude-Gary-Eason-SMThe Memorial Flight Spitfire's repaint has not been done yet but they need pictures for their publicity materials – and that is where I came in, with my depiction of the original. Here's a small version (right): look out for it if you are visiting RAF Coningsby.

I love the way this picture has turned out. When you see it full size the Spitfire seems to leap out of the frame.

Incidentally, while researching this I came across a delightful book by Valerie Ann Penlington called Winged Dragon: the History of the Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force. It features that blurry photo of PS852 on page 100, as well as lots of colour ones of aircraft and pilots, and a string of flying anecdotes. There is an enthusiastic review of it on this website. 

Unsung hero

At the head of this article is my next project, produced for the man who maintains a memorial in south-west London to one of The Few – unsung hero Spitfire pilot Flt/Sgt Charles Sydney of 92 Squadron, who was killed in one of the many engagements between RAF Fighter Command and the Luftwaffe on 27 September 1940.

A ceremony is being held, along with many others this year, to mark the 75th anniversary. I was asked to depict his aircraft, Spitfire R6767, coded QJ-N, and here you see the result.

According to the squadron's operations record book in the National Archives, Sydney had already made one short sortie from Biggin Hill that morning, from 0710 to 0740. He was one of nine pilots ordered up again at about 0845. It is a bleak record: he is marked "Missing" and two of the others "Crashed".

At the time, the fighting on the 27th was regarded as having been very intense. The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was moved to send a message the following day to the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, which read in part: “The scale and intensity of the fighting and the heavy losses of the enemy … make 27 September rank with 15 September and 15 August as the third great and victorious day of the Fighter Command during the course of the Battle of Britain."

Mailly-le-Camp

Understandably there has been a heavy focus recently on the Battle of Britain, with numerous magazine specials, TV programmes and social media comment. Indeed I am writing this on 'Battle of Britain Day' (15 September) and a flock of WWII fighters has just gone past within earshot of my office, part of the mass flypasts that began at Goodwood.

Next however I am going to be turning to a very different phase of World War II, featuring the memorable attack by RAF Bomber Command near the village of Mailly-le-Camp in the Aube area of north central France.

To set the context, if you do not know it: as part of the build-up to D-Day, 346 Lancaster bombers and 14 Mosquitoes were sent out on the night of 3/4 May to bomb the German military barracks near the village.

Communication difficulties forced a delay before they could bomb. It gave the defenders time to get organised. While circling the target under clear skies and a bright three quarters moon, and on the way back, the Lancasters fell prey to numerous German night fighters. A total of 42, almost 12% of the attacking force, were shot down: a loss of some 300 men.

'Milk run' (not)

Despite the heavy RAF losses that night the attack itself was very successful.

Mailly-le-Camp marked a turning point however. Until then there had been a perception that the long hauls to Germany and back were far more perilous operations than the softening up of enemy positions in France prior to D-Day, which sometimes were even characterised as "milk runs".

This extended to the official view of how many successfully completed operations a crew should have to make to complete a tour of duty. Ordinarily this was 30 but the shorter trips to France were being counted as only one third of an op – until several of them, and notably Mailly-le-Camp, showed just how deadly they could be. The policy was changed.

One thing is certain: anyone who was there would never forget it. But – spoiler alert: I will say no more at this stage about the picture I am making. Watch this space. 

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 TO BUY PRINTS  of any of my works please visit www.flightartworks.com.

I do private commissions, for individual aircraft or bigger scenes. Publishers' enquiries are also welcome: many images are available already to license through the Alamy agency.

To get in touch visit the Contact page on my website. Find Flight Artworks on Facebook, and on Twitter @flightartworks.

 

Continue ReadingA Mk I Spitfire and a PR Mk XIX silver Spitfire: my latest Flight Artworks

Flight Artworks pictures published in RAF Memorial Flight Yearbook

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 Colchester, 2 Jun 2015 

As prefigured in a previous post, the Battle of Britain Day 'big picture' I was working on in February has duly appeared across two full pages in the Official Royal Air Force Memorial Flight Club Yearbook 2015, which has now gone to club members. 

I won't reproduce that picture again here but you can find it, and order prints, here on my website. One of the articles inside the yearbook is 'Spitfire or Hurricane? (… or Me Bf 109?)' – which was the best fighter? This features two more of my pictures.

The one at the head of this blog post, 'Headlong Attack' – which itself is quite a big scene, about events over Weymouth on 25 August 1940, which I have written about before – and this one below, illustrating the shooting down of a 109 on 8 October 1940 by Ronald 'Ras' Berry of 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Airforce:

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It's a thoughtful article from the perspective of a former fighter pilot, Clive Rowley. I think the pictures look great, and I am delighted to have had them chosen for such a prestigious publication. 

And if you have any interest at all in the historic aircraft so superbly maintained by the Flight, then I recommend joining the Official Royal Air Force Memorial Flight Club.

If nothing else, you get a copy of the Yearbook!

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 TO BUY PRINTS  of any of my works please visit www.flightartworks.com.

I do private commissions, for individual aircraft or bigger scenes. Publishers' enquiries are also welcome: many images are available already to license through the Alamy agency.

To get in touch visit the Contact page on my website. Find Flight Artworks on Facebook, and on Twitter @flightartworks.

Continue ReadingFlight Artworks pictures published in RAF Memorial Flight Yearbook

First Flight Artworks book published

 

 

 

Flight Artworks Volume 1 by Gary Eason
High Wycombe, 12 May 2015

I am delighted to present my first book drawn from my growing collection of Flight Artworks​: 32 pages, available now in printed and e-book versions.

It contains captions, commentary and points of note – but the focus is on the images and they occupy most of the space. You can see some sample pages above and below. 

To preview or purchase the books please visit the Blurb bookshop.

I built it using their self-publishing software BookWright in 'standard landscape' size (25x20cm / 10x8in), in three formats from £19.99.

The production was straightforward if time-consuming. I lost count of how many times I thought it was done, then spotted something that was not quite right – which I suspect could become an endless process if you are not careful.

In fact it turned out that their existing software cannot properly reproduce it as an ebook without divine intervention by the Blurb support staff, so that is an ongoing project. 

Screen Shot 2015-05-12 at 00.27.55Am I pleased with the book though? Yes very. It was launched this morning, and when I went to look in my account for something a few hours later, I had already sold two. 

I'm afraid I can't do anything about the price: the fixed costs imposed by Blurb, including shipping, mean I barely get the price of a pint from each copy and I would have to sell a very large number indeed to cover the time invested in its creation. 

My son works in the book selling business and he will tell you (if only when he sees his pay slip) that for the vast majority of us, publishing and selling books is rarely ever going to be a get rich quick scheme.

The pictures I have used are not new, apart from a few I have adapted to fit the book design. In fact many people have prints of them hanging on their walls. And as regular followers of this blog will know, a number of others have appeared in print already in magazines and elsewhere. 

Also, as an aside, I am increasingly licensing them through my Alamy account – although I do not usually know where they will end up, because sales are reported to us contributors simply in terms of "Editorial magazine" or the like, and maybe not in a country or language I am likely to see. 

So what's the point of producing the book? Is it all vanity? 

Oh, come on – can anything beat sitting down with a cup of coffee on your most comfortable sofa, savouring turning the pages in a book of your favourite things? 

So when I say "first" Flight Artworks book published, will there be more? Oh yes.  

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 TO BUY PRINTS  of any of my works please visit www.flightartworks.com.

I do private commissions, for individual aircraft or bigger scenes. Publishers' enquiries are also welcome: many images are available already to license through the Alamy agency.

To get in touch visit the Contact page on my website. Find Flight Artworks on Facebook, and on Twitter @flightartworks.

Continue ReadingFirst Flight Artworks book published

Battle of Britain Spitfire for magazine

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Picture © Gary Eason. Licensing is via Alamy; for prints see www.flightartworks.com

High Wycombe, 10 May 2015 

Apart from all that spring stuff the month of May brought with it issue 16 of History Revealed magazine - whose cover features one of my Flight Artworks aircraft.

The Spitfire was commissioned by them to fit a rather precise slot in that front page, as you can see if you click on the link – after attempts to source a ready-made one had taken them to my Alamy account. There, they found things they liked but they were not quite at the right angle.

Creditably they were also anxious to be sure the details were authentic for the period. So I worked with them to get just what they wanted – which was as near to a "standard" Battle of Britain Spitfire as they could. 

I chose Spitfire R6891, DW-Q of No 610 Squadron, based at Biggin Hill, as flown by Sgt (later Wing Commander) Ronald Fairfax Hamlyn DFM. This was in part because there were some reasonable (for the time!) old pictures around of his aircraft, so I knew it was just the ticket. 

Hamlyn – "The Pied Piper of Harrogate" – became the RAF’s first 'Ace in a Day' of World War II, shooting down five enemy aircraft during three sorties on 24 August 1940. 

I also subsequently adapted this for my own purposes in the picture you see at the top of this page.

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 TO BUY PRINTS  of any of my works please visit www.flightartworks.com.

I do private commissions, for individual aircraft or bigger scenes. Publishers' enquiries are also welcome: many images are available already to license through the Alamy agency.

To get in touch visit the Contact page on my website. Find Flight Artworks on Facebook, and on Twitter @flightartworks.

Related articles
Turning point: Battle of Britain Day, 15 September 1940
Continue ReadingBattle of Britain Spitfire for magazine

Lest we forget: F for Freddy remembered

Just a quick update that follows on from the picture I wrote about in January. It was commissioned by Kev Ruane to take to the unveiling of a memorial in a small town in Austria, Adnet, where 619 Squadron Lancaster "F for Freddy" crashed in flames in the last days of World War II.

The unveiling of the memorial took place in a moving ceremony in glorious weather towards the end of April, the 70th anniversary of the loss. It was a tremendous coming together of relatives, friends, dignataries and others with an interest, from multiple countries. 

You can read more about that on the website Kev maintains, and there was a rather fine piece broadcast on CBC – four of the Lanc's seven crew were Canadian. I don't know how long CBC keep their archive active but as I write this is the link to it. 

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 TO BUY PRINTS  of any of my works please visit www.flightartworks.com.

I do private commissions, for individual aircraft or bigger scenes. Publishers' enquiries are also welcome: many images are available already to license through the Alamy agency.

To get in touch visit the Contact page on my website. Find Flight Artworks on Facebook, and on Twitter @flightartworks.

Related articles
Canadian pilot who bombed Hitler's mountain retreat to be honoured in Austria
Remembering Berchtesgaden Lancaster "F for Freddy"
Continue ReadingLest we forget: F for Freddy remembered

Turning point: Battle of Britain Day, 15 September 1940

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The Luftwaffe's afternoon attack on a day that changed the course of the war. Picture © Gary Eason. Licensing is via Alamy; for prints see www.flightartworks.com

High Wycombe, 16 Feb 2015

My latest picture portrays some 128 separate aircraft on what we now know was a decisive day: 15 September 1940.

The picture, which I have been working on for much of the past couple of weeks, was commissioned as a double-page spread for the Official Royal Air Force Memorial Flight Club Yearbook 2015 – currently in preparation – as part of a series of articles on the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

I was given pretty much a free rein on what to depict by the editor, and settled on the 15th almost inevitably. On that day the Luftwaffe mounted two major attacks on London – as Prime Minister Winston Churchill happened to be watching in RAF Fighter Command's 11 Group Operations Room at RAF Uxbridge. 

In the morning, a relatively small force of Dornier Do 17 bombers, with numerically greater fighter support, tested the defences. This was followed a few hours later by a much bigger operation, involving some 114 bombers, in three main columns, escorted by several hundred fighters. That is what became my focus.

Cloud cover

I have tried to give a realistic snapshot of a moment relatively early on when the afternoon's attackers are approaching London. They are beginning to run into the fighter defences brilliantly orchestrated by 11 Group's commander, Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park.

This involved a good deal of reading to try to get a 3D picture into my head of what was going on. The clouds had built up during the day to between 7/10ths and 9/10ths cumulus, from about 3,000ft base to 12,000ft tops in places. Wind was from the northwest.

The clouds were a factor in the Luftwaffe crews' subsequently failing to find their targets, hitting alternates where there was a gap in the cloud cover, scattering bombs indiscriminately – or giving up and running for home.

I then chose specific actions with enough documentation to be able to portray the actual aircraft involved, cross-referring sources to get as much accuracy as I could.

So the result is a composite, putting us in the thick of the action at roughly 1430 that Sunday afternoon as two dozen Heinkel He 111s of Kampfgeschwader 53 'Legion Condor', forming the central column of bombers, cross Kent heading for London.

Details

Fighter Command begins to break up the formation: Nine Spitfires from No 66 Squadron attack head-on from below. Hurricanes from No 1 (RCAF) Squadron swoop from above. They are being challenged by Messerschmitt Bf109 fighters from JG 3.

Where there are identifiable aircraft I have based them on squadron records and published accounts of the actions. So for example, 66 were led in their upward-sweeping attack on the Heinkels' most vulnerable aspect by Sqn. Ldr. Rupert "Lucky" Leigh in Spitfire R6800 LZ-N (lower right) – closing to point blank range before firing then rolling away for another attempt. 

The foreground Heinkel He 111 is an H-2 of 3/KG 53, coded A1+EL.  As an aside, this had two MG15 machine guns in the nose blister instead of the usual (for the type) single gun. The Luftwaffe progressively beefed up the armament on these aircraft in response to their Battle of Britain losses.

It did not help Ltn Hermann Boeckh and his crew much: after dropping their bombs they were attacked by eight Spitfires. With both engines on fire and the airframe riddled with bullet holes, Boeckh made a forced landing on a farm in Orsett, Essex.

The flight engineer, Friedrich Grotzki, was killed and three of the other four on board were wounded – the pilot reportedly by his own revolver, which discharged after being struck by a machine gun bullet. Nevertheless the crew stuck to military discipline, torching what remained of their aircraft and refusing to give any information when interrogated.

Below them in the picture, another 3/KG53 H-2, A1+GL, is going into a dive after being hit by Spitfire bullets. It will be shot to pieces by up to a dozen Spitfires. Two of its crew died and two were wounded when it crashed on farmland at Sandhurst Cross.

Wounded

The RAF's priority on the day was to knock down the bombers. To get at them they had to run the gauntlet of a fighter escort from the pilots of at least six gruppen, who put up a formidable defence but were rapidly at the limits of their cross-Channel fuel range.

In the forefront in my picture are some of the experienced pilots of Jagdschwader 3 'Udet': the most successful gruppe in the Battle of France and now veterans of the Battle of Britain. Among the yellow-nosed Messerschmitt Bf109s coming in above is an E-4 piloted by Hptm. Hans von Hahn, recently appointed Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 3. Already an ace, he will account for another Spitfire this afternoon.

Above him in another E-4 from Stab I./JG 3, Ltn. Detlev Rohwer's shells are taking chunks out of Hawker Hurricane L1973 of No 1 (RCAF) Squadron and the left shoulder of its pilot, Fg. Off. Arthur Yuile, who later cursed his forgetfulness in not having maintained eyes in the sides and back of his head as he dived to attack the Heinkels. He managed to get the damaged aircraft back safely to RAF Northolt.

Off to the left in the distance, starting to attract 'ack ack' bursts from the anti-aircraft guns below, are the 19 Dorniers of II./KG3 followed by more Heinkels from I. and II./KG 26. They are about to be hit by the first of a string of fighter squadrons, Spitfires in line astern catching the sunlight as they dive from high above.

This pattern was to be repeated throughout the afternoon as wave after wave of RAF aircraft harried the attackers all the way in and all the way out, with increasingly devastating effect on the materiel and morale of Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering's Luftwaffe.

This was a time-consuming but fascinating picture to research and to make. I hope I have done justice to the events and to the bravery of those involved. In the process I have been learning a lot about Luftwaffe units and aircraft. As usual, please let me know if you spot any howling errors.

I heartily recommend membership of the BBMF Club. The Yearbook is due out at the beginning of April.

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 TO BUY PRINTS  of any of my works please visit www.flightartworks.com.

I do private commissions, for individual aircraft or bigger scenes. Publishers' enquiries are also welcome: many images are available already to license through the Alamy agency.

To get in touch visit the Contact page on my website. Find Flight Artworks on Facebook, and on Twitter @flightartworks.

Continue ReadingTurning point: Battle of Britain Day, 15 September 1940

Remembering Berchtesgaden Lancaster “F for Freddy”

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High Wycombe, 30 Jan 2015

There is an interesting story around all the pictures I get asked to make, but it is usually about the original circumstances that are being portrayed. 

In the case of this latest commission however there is also a story behind why the picture itself came to be made, and where it is going.

It depicts the shooting down of Lancaster LM756, PG-F of No 619 Squadron RAF, during a daylight operation against Hitler's Eagle's Nest retreat at Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps on 25 April 1945  - almost at the end of the war in Europe, 70 years ago.

The operation involved 359 Lancasters and 16 Mosquitos from RAF Bomber Command's 1, 5 and 8 Groups. LM756 was one of six Lancasters from 619 Squadron, based at RAF Strubby in Lincolnshire, which went in ahead of the main force to check the wind speed and direction, and disrupt the German radar defences by dropping metal foil 'Window'.

According to survivors' accounts they had a clear run at about 22,000ft over their designated bombing target – the SS barracks – but then were coned in anti-aircraft fire and shot down in flames.

Three men bailed out and were prisoners of war briefly until liberated by the Americans: flight engineer Fred Cole, bomb aimer Art Sharman and wireless operator Jack Speers. Four of the crew died with the aircraft: Wilf DeMarco (Pilot), Norman Johnston (Navigator), Gordon Walker (Rear Gunner) – all Canadians – and Edward Norman (Mid-upper Gunner).

Austrian memorial

I heard about the story when I was contacted by Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service Watch Manager Kevin (Kev) Ruane MBE. He had seen my work and wanted to know if I could make a picture about F for Freddy.

In 2013 Kevin's role in the Fire Service International Youth Leaders Commission had taken him to a small town called Adnet in Austria, a few miles from Berchtesgaden, where he met the mayor, Wolfgang Auer.

Kevin speaks German fluently, having lived in Germany for nine years after serving there in the Army. Burgermeister Auer told him about the Lancaster that had crashed near his town and said he was keen to have a suitable memorial built, inviting members of the crew's families and of the 619 Squadron Association to its unveiling.

At the time neither of them knew that one of the crew - the bomb aimer, Arthur (Art) Sharman – was still alive. He died shortly after, aged 93. 

Kevin followed up the conversation by using the 619 Squadron Facebook page to pursue the mayor's  idea and now, two years later, on the 70th anniversary of the operation, it is all about to become a reality. He approached me because he wanted to be able to present a framed print to Herr Auer. 

Details

From what I can tell the Lancaster must have been a fireball as it went down onto the mountainside outside Adnet. I chose to portray it part way through the drama, before the starboard wing also burst into flames, so that the squadron codes were still visible.

At this point Art Sharman is descending by parachute in the distance. Flight engineer Fred Cole hangs limply from his: he passed out after being pushed from the 'plane  clutching his bundled parachute, which had inadvertently been opened inside the cockpit. 

The man who helped him to get out, wireless operator Jack Speers, is still inside the burning Lanc but is also about to make a successful exit. He was the third and last survivor – the other crew having been killed outright or fatally wounded by the flak shrapnel. 

Kevin runs a website about F for Freddy which has considerable detail about the operation, including accounts by the crew who survived. I also had a useful chat about certain technical details with the secretary of the 619 Association, Joe Dutton, who was also a bomb aimer on the squadron at the time. Indefatigable at the age of 91, he was in the process of organising their next reunion, set for this April. 

619 Squadron was in existence only from April 1943 to July 1945. It apparently does not even have a squadron crest in the RAF Club and is sometimes referred to as the "forgotten squadron". 

Well, not entirely, and I am pleased to have had a small part in honouring the memory of some of the men who did not return. Gone – but not forgotten. 

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 TO BUY PRINTS  of any of my works please visit www.flightartworks.com.

I do private commissions, for individual aircraft or bigger scenes. Publishers' enquiries are also welcome: many images are available already to license through the Alamy agency.

To get in touch visit the Contact page on my website. Find Flight Artworks on Facebook, and on Twitter @flightartworks.

Continue ReadingRemembering Berchtesgaden Lancaster “F for Freddy”

A close-up look at the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight

Lancaster PA474 mid-upper turret Gary Eason _DSC3309

Lancaster PA474's mid-upper turret. Soft toys dot the airframe

High Wycombe, 2 Dec 2014

I was standing next to a World War Two Spitfire while one of the few modern pilots lucky enough to have flown it recounted how the engine had emptied of oil while he was doing an airshow display.

We were in the spacious and spotlessly clean hangar given over to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire.

Outside, their engines a crackling roar, Eurofighter Typhoon jets periodically hurtled off runway 25 and up through the lingering morning fog. Inside, the hangar was a haven of methodical maintenance.

Seeing the memorial flight's vintage aircraft up close I can only marvel again at the courage of those who originally flew them in combat.

Hurricane LF363 Gary Eason _DSC3230

With the outer fuselage skin removed it is all too apparent why the fuel tanks of a Hawker Hurricane fighter presented such a lethal fire hazard to the pilot's legs, stuck forward inside the skeletal tubular framework.

The aluminium alloy skin of the C-47 Dakota looks paper thin to be flown, unarmed, at low altitude over hostile territory with two dozen paratroops and their kit on board. The flight's ZA947 is currently fitted out with the basic metal bucket seats they used.

The rear gun turret of an Avro Lancaster looks impossibly cramped and claustrophobic even for someone in normal clothing, let alone a bulky flying suit and the boots and gloves made essential by freezing temperatures at altitude. I cannot imagine being stuck in there for hours on end in the dark with hostile forces making a point of trying to kill you. 

Dakota Kwicherbichen Gary Eason _DSC3214

My host for this VIP guided tour was Squadron Leader Clive Rowley MBE RAF (Ret'd), former officer commanding the BBMF. Clive was a Hunter, Lightning, Hawk and Tornado F3 pilot who joined the flight in 1996.

As we looked at the Mk PR XIX Spitfire PM631, its Griffon engine out on a stand and various other components neatly stacked on the floor, Clive pointed to a hose protruding from the forward bulkhead.

He recalled how he had been flying in a display at Southend Airshow in May 2004 when people in the other aircraft alongside and on the ground began telling him over the radio that the Spitfire was trailing oil.

He checked the instruments: all seemed well, oil pressure OK. Thinking "a little oil goes a long way" he was not unduly concerned but decided it wise to make an unscheduled landing on the airfield as a precaution.

Spitfire-PR-oil-leak-Gary-Eason-sm

Good call. As he was about to cross the runway threshold on his final approach, the oil pressure gauge went from normal to zero.

It turned out that a rubber hose connecting two bits of pipework had parted and the engine had lost almost all its lubrication. It would not have run for much longer when he touched down safely.

This was only one of several occasions in his career as a pilot that he was in a potentially disastrous situation, Clive tells me over lunch at the Lea Gate Inn. On a wall at home he has a souvenir piece of English Electric Lightning fuselage with the hole in it made by an exploding engine.

Just Jane Gary Eason _DSC3405

As well as being skilful and brave you also have to be lucky. So "lucky enough to have flown it" is rather double edged.

If you didn't know already, the BBMF hangar is open to the public for guided tours: more information via this link.

You might even get Clive Rowley as your guide – if you're lucky. 

And why not make a day of it, as I did, and pop up the road to see Just Jane - Lancaster NX611 – and friends at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Museum, where restoration work continues apace. 

 

Continue ReadingA close-up look at the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight

Spitfires escorting Lancasters? In daylight?

Spits and Lancs FB

Picture © Gary Eason. Licensing is via Alamy; for prints see www.flightartworks.com

High Wycombe, 6 Nov 2014

Ever jump to conclusions?

What do you make of the picture above: Spitfires escorting Lancasters? (available via this link).

A typical first response from people who see it is "Cool picture – but of course it never happened". 

We all know that it was the American bombers that flew the daylight operations on the Western Front in WWII – supported increasingly by long range fighters when they became available. The RAF's Bomber Command sent its 'heavies' over at night, and they were unaccompanied.

But let's spool back a bit and see how I came to make this picture. Essentially, three things came together.

The first (below left) was a photograph which I made at the Flying Legends airshow at IWM Duxford in 2013. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's much loved Lancaster bomber and Hawker Hurricane LF363 in formation. Experimenting with a composition one day I multiplied them and thought the result was rather appealing. Maybe – but completely implausible, so it remained undeveloped in my Sketches folder:

Bomber-escorts-development-blog-Gary-Eason

 

(Click to enlarge)

Then I was asked to contribute a number of pictures to a special publication marking the RAF's involvement in D-Day, for the anniversary last June. As part of my research I was reading about how – in light of the Allies' air superiority – Bomber Command dipped its toe back into the daylight operations pool.

Thirdly, in Leo McInstrey's superb book Lancaster I read more about this and how "as the number of daylight raids increased, the Lancasters received fighter cover from the RAF for the first time in the war. 'The Spitfires were a very welcome sight and would accompany you to the target,' said Bob Knights of 617 Squadron. 'They would hang around and see you were all right. …'."

Well fancy that. My sketch was not so fanciful after all – except that this was not a role the old Hurricane was going to be doing by this time. It had to be Spitfires.

So I realised I was onto something, and it was not something I had seen portrayed elsewhere.

Following the publication of the D-Day bookazine, I heard from the editor that a former Spitfire pilot [update, 2017: the late Tony Cooper, RIP] had said my picture was "just like the real thing", as he had actually done it. 

So, the moral of this for me was, keep an open mind – and do the research.

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 TO BUY PRINTS  of any of my works please visit www.flightartworks.com.

I do private commissions, for individual aircraft or bigger scenes. Publishers' enquiries are also welcome: many images are available already to license through the Alamy agency.

To get in touch visit the Contact page on my website. Find Flight Artworks on Facebook, and on Twitter @flightartworks.

Continue ReadingSpitfires escorting Lancasters? In daylight?

Thanks for the memories

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Arnhem Dakota drop © Gary Eason

High Wycombe, 24 Apr 2014

When I am making pictures I  need to know what various details of an aircraft look like in order to portray it correctly, and for that nothing beats being able to go and see one.

I spent an enjoyable time the other day poking around in the lovely little De Havilland Aircraft Museum, being able to pore over every rivet and glued joint of their Mosquitos – my chief interest.

And I had the great privilege recently of being able to clamber around inside and sit in the cockpit of a 1942 Douglas Dakota at North Weald airfield, thanks to David Petters of Dakotair / the RAF Transport Command Memorial. 

They are aiming to have three of these venerable aircraft in D-Day livery carrying passengers, and commissioned me to make the picture you see above as part of the fund-raising effort. If you would like to support them by buying a print, click here. 

The picture depicts Dakota KG374, YS-DM of No 271 Squadron, flown by Flt Lt David Lord, who was posthumously awarded a Victoria Cross, the UK's highest military award for valour, for his efforts to resupply the British forces at Arnhem in 1944.

I have read about how rugged the Dakota supposedly was and how it could survive a remarkable amount of battle damage. But standing next to one in a dimly-lit hangar, then clambering inside (using the 'flashlight' apps on our mobile phones as torches), I was struck by the sheer lightweight flimsiness of its largely aluminium alloy construction.

It makes me marvel all the more at the bravery of those who flew them into combat zones loaded with men and materiel  - let alone jumped out of them.

Those of us who love old 'planes are  hugely indebted to the people who maintain some of them in flying condition or – next best thing – in museum condition. So here's to them all. 

 

Continue ReadingThanks for the memories

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