Last Updated:   2/6/06
 

 

The War Years

 

"High Flight" by Keith Ferris

Inspired by the world renowned aviator’s poem by John Gillespie Magee, this painting displays the joy of flight epitomized in his poem "High Flight";. In the Spitfire in which he died on December 11, 1941, Magee dances among the clouds "On Laughter Silvered Wings". This painting was selected especially to honor the late J. Kenneth Haviland, Professor Emeritus of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, the last living American of those who fly for the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain.

By the summer of 1940, Hitler had but one remaining active enemy - Britain, under its new prime minister, Winston Churchill. Hitler could not risk an invasion across the Channel unless the British air force could be put out of action first. He began daylight raids against ports and airfields, but the installation of radar on British aircraft increased their effectiveness and the Germans had to switch to night bombing. The damage they were able to inflict was significant, but not decisive, and in September the invasion of England was postponed indefinitely. In tribute to the flyers of the RAF, Winston Churchill said in the House of Commons "The gratitude of every home in our island, in our Empire, and indeed, throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British Airmen, who, undaunted by the odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few!"


 

"Last One Home" by Paul Rendel

 

At Pensacola's Correy Field, in 1942, an SNJ-3 cadet pilot finds home base and his anxious instructor at the end of a stormy day.

Built as a private venture by North American Aircraft in 1935, the SNJ became the Navy’s advanced trainer from 1936 through the forties and its primary trainer during much of the fifties. Of the approximately 16,000 models produced, the majority saw service with the Army Air Corps as the T-6 Texan and numerous foreign countries while the Navy accounted for 4,800 of them. The SNJ/T-6 is considered the most successful training aircraft every produced, having been used to train several hundred thousand pilots of 34 countries. It was also used as a forward air control aircraft during the Korean Conflict.
 
 
 
 

 

"First Strike at Midway" by Paul Rendel

 

June 4th 1942, 10 a.m. - Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers are about to attack Japanese aircraft carriers in the Battle of Midway. A few days earlier American reconnaissance planes had observed an armada of about 185 Japanese ships approaching the Midway Islands. U.S. fighters and bombers sent from Midway and several aircraft carriers, attacked the fleet. By the end of the day on June 6, the Japanese had lost four aircraft carriers, two cruisers and three destroyers. The U.S. had lost the carrier Yorktown and a destroyer. The victory at Midway ended a major Japanese effort to capture the islands as a possible prelude to invading Hawaii and was a major turning point in the war in the Pacific.

 

 

 

First Military Helicopter Rescue by Andrew C. Whyte

Only five years after Igor Sikorsky’s first tethered flight and three years after his machine could fly forward safely, the R-4 shown here, performed the first casualty rescue by helicopter. Whyte’s painting records that event in Burma in April 1944 in which a stranded pilot and three wounded were lifted one at a time from behind Japanese lines.

Much had happened since the first vertical takeoff of a helicopter in the Western Hemisphere in September 1939; indeed, the VS300 went through some 18 modifications. In its final form in December 1941 it had a three-bladed main rotor and a single anti-torque rotor at the rear, plus its fuselage had been enclosed. By January 1941 the military version, the R-4, had been designed.  When delivered by air with Sikorsky as a passenger in 1942, the pilot hovered to read highway signs and asked surprised motorists for directions! A batch of 27, including the one depicted here, was ordered for use by the USAAF, U.S.Navy and the RAF in 1943. They were tested under brutal conditions from Alaska to Burma. The R-4 was the first U.S. helicopter to be put into production; the German "Hummingbird" was the first in the world.

 
 

"Fortresses Engaged" by Keith Ferris

At noon on 6 March 1944, 21,000 feet over Haseleunne in the west of Germany. Messerschmitt 109G’s of IIIrd Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 54, part of an attack formation of more than a hundred German fighters, make a series of devastating head-on attacks on B-17s of the 100th Bomb Group on their way to Berlin. This painting shows a segment of the action around the 351st Bomb Squadron. Lieutenant Helmick’s aircraft "M" in the forground escaped damage but many of his comrades were not so fortunate. Lieutenant Brannan’s aircraft, letter "D", has both starboard engines on fire and is about to fall out of the formation; eight men would parachute clear before the bomber exploded. Lieutenant Merril Rish’s aircraft, letter "R", had also been hit; seven crewmen would bail out before it smashed into the ground. The two Messerschmitts in the painting were hit and would be forced to make emergency landings, their pilots injured: Feldwebel Friedrich Unger in "6" and Unteroffizier Erwin Muller in "4". 

Mission 250 on 6 March 1944 was the first all-out attack on the German capital by the US Army Air Forces, and during the action both sides suffered heavily. Of the 702 bomber and 832 fighter sorties which crossed into enemy territory, 69 US heavy bombers and 11 fighters failed to return. A further 317 bombers and 4 fighters returned with damage. For the 100th Bomb Group it was the worst day of the war; fourteen B-17s destroyed, one seriously damaged and forced to land in Sweden, twelve others made it back to England with lesser damage. The German Luftwaffe put up 528 fighter sorties against the raiders and lost 68 aircraft destroyed or damaged beyond repair; 16 others returned with less serious damage.*

  Based on a scene from the book Target Berlin, Mission 250: 6 March 1944 by Jeffrey Ethell and Alfred Price.
 
 

"Two Down, One to Go" by William S. Phillips

Of the nearly 1,000 African-American aviators who trained at an isolated and segregated complex in Tuskegee, Alabama, nearly half flew combat missions in North Africa, Sicily and Italy. They were called the "Schwartze Vogelmenshen" (Black Birdmen) by the German pilots who feared them and "Black Redtail Angels" by the white American bomber pilots who relied on their protection. Indeed, not one friendly bomber was lost to enemy attack while under escort by a Tuskegee Airman. Three of them, including Clarence Lester shown here in his P-51 Mustang, scored three aerial victories on a single mission. The magnificent war record of the Tuskegee Airmen and the thousands of associated ground support personnel led to a review of the War Department’s racial policies and President Truman’s executive order in 1948 desegregating the armed forces.


 
 
 
 
 

"Nowotny's Final Encounter" by Keith Ferris

 The Green Heart insignia on the side of the inverted Messerschmitt 262, "White 8", identifies this doomed airman as the Luftwaffe’s famed 258 victory ace, Major Walter Nowotny. He was the commander of the world's first operational jet fighter squadron which was tasked with test and evaluation of the Me 262 under combat conditions and with development of fighter tactics for use with this revolutionary aircraft. It is said that he so valued his service with his eastern front fighter unit JG 54 that he adapted that unit’s Green Heart insignia as his own personal mark for his Me 262.

At 12:45 P.M., November 8, 1944, 1st Lt. Edward R. Haydon, flying his P-51D "Lady Nelda" of the 357th Fighter Group, joined P-51s of the 20th Fighter Group in the chase of a crippled Me 262 towards its airfield at Achmer, Germany. The German fighter pilot dragged his pursuers into a barrage of flak put up by the airfield defenses. All 20th Fighter Group P-51s broke away to the right. Lt. Haydon broke to the left, alone, to find the Me 262 on the downwind leg for landing. As Haydon continued his turn towards firing position, the German pilot caught sight of him and reacted violently, snapping inverted, diving into the ground right under the P-51’s nose. Haydon had not fired a shot. He was awarded the victory, though it was shared with Capt. Ernest C. Fiebelkorn of the 20th Fighter Group, who had fired at Nowotny during the chase.*


Several generations of Virginia engineers will recognize this chalkdust-covered relic as a Junkers Jumo engine that powered the Me 262. It was recently donated to the Virginia Air and Space Center at the Richmond Airport.