Available as a small edition print: 200 copies
Overall size: 24” X 36” (it’s big)
Image size: 19.5” X 31.5 “
Media: Epson Ultra Smooth fine art paper
Color: Epson Ultra Chrome K-3 pigment-based eight color ink array
Signed, annotated, numbered
color-profiled, and printed by the artist, Jack Fellows, ASAA
Copyright: 2005
* Prints come with a certificate of authenticity
Limited Edition Price: $200 + S&H $14 U.S. / $45 International
Ten copies available on canvas: $350 + S&H $14 U.S. / $45 International
Original:
Height:
24”
Width: 36”
Framed/Unframed:
Medium: oil
Support: stretched canvas
Copyright Date: 2001
Price: Sold |
LIGHTNING STRIKE
Those
who have chronicled the history of the air war in Western
Europe have paid less attention to the history of the Ninth
USAAF than is warranted by events. The unsung heroes of the
air after the Normandy invasion, the first week in June, 1944,
are the pilots of the fighter-bombers of the Ninth….facing
down the formidable, defensive firepower of the German anti-aircraft
batteries at minimum altitude, point-blank range. During the
eleven-month period between Normandy and V-E Day, the 405th
Fighter Group lost 125 aircraft, the equivalent of an entire
fighter group (100% loss!), mostly to the murderous Flak that
filled the air. The attrition rate on pilots was extremely
high, for most contact with anti-aircraft artillery was made
at an altitude insufficient for parachute escape.
Breakout
from the Normandy beachheads was dependent upon interdiction
of German armored divisions and supplies by airpower, attacking
well defended German logistical supply-lines on roads, in
towns and, particularly in rail marshalling yards throughout
France. It is reasonable to assert that the Allied success
in moving off the beachheads and their rapid advance across
France, and into Germany was due to the spectacular results
of the Ninth Air Force’s close air-support operations.
In the
painting, elements of the 402nd Fighter Squadron, 370th Fighter
Group attack German supply trains in a French rail yard in
July, 1944. The P-38 nearest the viewer is “Peg O’
My Heart II”, flown by Captain Cy B. Coenen, who named
his P-38 after a popular song title of the period. Immediately
behind Coenen is Major James E. Tucker, Commanding Officer
of the 402nd Sqdn. Maj. Tucker was killed in action on August
10, 1944, when he was brought down by defensive ground fire
while attacking a train. Coenen, luckily, survived the war.
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