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Cranston Fine Arts Aviation Art and Artists World War Two Veteran Signatures UK and Commonwealth H Heal, Dudley

Sergeant Dudley P Heal

Sergeant Dudley Heal Navigator AJ-F, born 1916 Hampshire.
RAF 1940
Uxbridge 29.3.1940
Reserve 30.3.1940
Uxbridge 8.5.1940
4 RC 14.5.1940
Wyton 1.6.1940
Southampton 20.6.1940
53 OTU 10.3.1941
1 RW 10.5.1941
8 ITW 17.5.1941
PTC,Toronto,Canada 19.7.1941
31 PD 18.11.1941
Moncton
31 PD 9.5.1942
3 PDC 18.5.1942
3 (O) AFU 20.6.1942
19 OTU 18.8.1942
434 Squadron 22.12.1942
44 Squadron 4.2.1943 (6 ops)
617 Squadron 25.3.1943
navigator
award DFM (28.5.1943) (Dams)
29 OTU 26.3.1944
214 Squadron 8.2.1945
2 Embarkation Unit,Southampton 11.9.1945
released 11.3.1946
worked at Southampton Docks in the 1970's. Is thought to have passed away in Southampton around February 1999.

Sergeant Dudley P Heal - Signed Aviation Art

On Course for the Möhne Dam by Richard Taylor. 6 editions. 5 of the 6 editions feature up to 6 additional signatures. £2.00 - £1125.00

Breaching the Dams by Nicolas Trudgian. One of 4 editions available. All 4 editions feature up to 10 additional signatures. £300.00

The Dambusters - Last Moments of the Möhne Dam by Robert Taylor. 3 of 6 editions available. All 6 editions feature up to 13 additional signatures. £215.00 - £375.00

Text for the above items :

On Course for the Möhne Dam by Richard Taylor. Guy Gibson leads the first wave of 617 Squadron's Lancaster bombers towards the German border and on to the Mőhne dam. After crossing the coast a fraction off course, Gibson adjusts his compass heading slightly and, as the unmistakable thunder of 12 cylinder Merlin engines at full throttle shatters the night, follows the course of a large canal where the owner of an ancient windmill, hearing the noise, hurries outside to witness the event. Nobody expected it to be easy. Nothing that the men of the recently formed 617 Squadron had faced before had ever been easy but, as Wing Commander Guy Gibson stood in front of them on the afternoon of 16th May 1943, they soon realised that the mission facing them would be the hardest - and most dangerous - they had ever faced. Their task that night was to destroy the mighty dams of Germany. For weeks they had been honing their skills of low-level flying, but until that final briefing in the operations room, only Gibson and a few top brass knew the objective. Tonight all their training would be put to the test. To evade enemy radar they would have to fly all the way to the Ruhr at tree-top height, and they must do so in complete radio silence. Once at the target they must launch their radical bouncing bombs - designed by Barnes Wallis - from a height of 60ft at exactly 230 mph. But to get there would require exceptional navigational skills and courage of the highest order. The breathtaking skill and courage displayed by the crews of 617 Squadron on the moonlit night of 16th / 17th May 1943 created a legend that remains undiminished.

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.

The Dambusters - Last Moments of the Möhne Dam by Robert Taylor. As they cleared the surrounding hills the valley unfolded to reveal the black waters of the lake glistening in the crystal clear moonlight. And then, away in the distance, they saw the target they had come to destroy - the Möhne Dam. The largest dam in Europe, the fortress-like walls of Möhne held back nearly 140 million cubic metres of water essential to the industry and factories of the Ruhr. The Air Ministry had long ago decided that if the Möhne dam, and the two other major Ruhr dams - the Eder and Sorpe - were destroyed, it could deliver a massive blow to the Nazi war machine. But cracking open the mighty dams would require exceptional flying skills; and so, on 21 March 1943, a new squadron was formed specifically for the task, the only time this ever happened in Bomber Command. Known as 617 Squadron and led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, it was not only the squadron that was unique, so was the weapon they would be using - Upkeep - a cylindrical, hydrostatic 'bouncing' bomb. The brainchild of Barnes Wallis, Upkeep was designed to skip across the surface of the water, sink against the dam's massive wall, and explode with enormous force at a precise depth. In Robert Taylor's sensational new painting Guy Gibson and Mick Martin draw the enemy's fire as 'Dinghy' Young clears the dam's parapet seconds after releasing his bomb. A few moments later Young's bomb will successfully detonate against the dam leaving it mortally wounded allowing David Maltby in AJ-J to finish the task. With the Möhne Dam breached Gibson, with the remaining crews, will turn south to repeat the operation at the Eder Dam.