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Cranston Fine Arts  Aviation Art and Artists Aviation Artists Anthony Saunders  Original Paintings |
[UP] - British Aviation - American Aviation - Battle of Britain - Original Paintings - Postcards |
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Dawn Return by Anthony Saunders (P) A Wellington returns low over the calm, dawn water of the North Sea, vainly struggling to maintain both height and speed. |
Head for Home by Anthony Saunders (P) When a fighter escort with a bombers range first appeared over Berlin, Goering knew the end of the war was only a matter of time. when that particular fighter escort turned out to be the Mustang, perhaps the most outstanding of all WWII fighters, the time was all too short. Unlike the RAFs Spitfire and Hurricane, that had succeeded in the Battle of Britain, Goerings Luftwaffe failed to protect its own air space, leaving allied air forces unhampered to bomb Germany by both day and night. Two battle weary Mustangs of 357th Fighter Group, with ammunition spent and fuel low, have broken away from the main bomber force to head across the Channel for home. |
Guardian Angel by Anthony Saunders. (P) Depicting Mustang aircraft escorting Flying Fortresses on a bombing raid over Germany. |
Sopwith Camel by Anthony Saunders. (P) The Sopwith Camel was with the mainstay of the Royal Flying Corps. It is shown here downing an Albatros over the Western Front. |
Gauntlet by Anthony Saunders (P) 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. |
Last Long Shadow by Anthony Saunders (P) Lancaster CF-X (LM384) of 625 Squadron. On the Leipzig raid on the evening of 19th/20th February 1944 approx 47 Lancasters were shot down or failed to return, that is over 300 airmen. Lancaster CF-X (LM384) was taking part in the bombing raids that were a build up to the D-Day landings of June 1944. Leipzig was seen as a high value target due to its oil and synthetic fuel production. The Lancaster took off from Kelstern in Lincolnshire just before midnight. Unfortunately LM384 did not come back as was the case with many others - the aircraft was lost and crashed just outside the tiny village of Bledeln in Germany. The Pastor of the village, Herr Duncker, kept a diary throughout the war and has an account of the plane crash and the subsequent burial of the crew. All of the crew died in the crash except one - bomb aimer George Paterson who was interned in Stalag 357 Kopernikus. The rest of the crew were given a Christian burial and stayed there until the end of the war, when the war graves commission disinterred the crew and reburied them in the Hannover war cemetery. |
Maltese Falcons by Anthony Saunders (P) Depicting Spitfires of No.229 squadron as they pass over Malta in 1942, a tribute to the young pilots, regarded as the saviour of an Island. |
Raid on Taranto by Anthony Saunders (P) The balance of maritime power in the Mediterranean was transformed at a stroke by the British air attack which disabled three Italian battleships in a few minutes. The target was the core of Mussolinis fleet, tucked away in Taranto Harbour, in southern Italy. The attack, codenamed Operation Judgement, took place in bright moonlight by twenty-one Swordfish from the British carrier HMS Illustrious. In the confined space of the harbour, their torpedoes had a devastating impact, at least nine torpedoes struck their targets. In all, seven ships were severely damaged, including the battleship Caio Duilio (left), Littorio (right) and Conte Di Cavour. |
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