Aviation artist
Robert Taylor. Aviation art print 'The Homecoming' by Robert Taylor.After
the fall of France the German Kriegsmarine were quick to seize control of
the ports in the north west, and from the summer of 1940 onwards they
enjoyed free access to the busy merchant shipping lanes of the
Atlantic. Brest provided an important naval dockyard and arsenal for
the German Navy, and together with Lorient and St Nazaire, became base to
the U-boat submarine fleets that roamed the Atlantic. The importance
of the naval facilities in the region made the occupied French ports a
favourite target for RAF and USAAF bombers, requiring the area of north
west France to become one of the most heavily defended until neutralised
by the Allied invasion in 1944. In 1942 the Focke Wulf Fw190s of
III./JG2, under the command of Major Łassi" Hahn, formed part of the
massive aerial defences. Based at Morlaix 40 miles north east of
Brest, the JG2 pilots were inconstant action against raiding bomber and
fighter forces based in England.
