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| More Pages : Mirage 2000 - Spad S.VII - BRE693 - Breguet V - Curtiss Hawk 75 - D520 - Farman F.40 - MB210 - Morane Saulnier Type L - Nieuport 17 - Nieuport_11 - Nieuport 23 - Puma - Spad - Tempest - Voisin III |
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| Text for the above items : |
Tribute to Pierre Dufaur de Gavardie by Ivan Berryman. French Ace Pierre Dufaur de Gavardie claimed a total of six victories - four aircraft and two observation balloons between March and November 1916. He was badly wounded in early 1917 and despite recovering, would not fly in the war again. Pictured here in his Nieuport 11, he flew with Escadrille 12 and was awarded the Croix de Guerre, Legion d'honneur and Medal Militaire. He died aged 76 in 1966. |
Tanks on the Marne - France, 18th July 1918 by David Pentland. Schneider CA1 Tanks of the French tenth army spearhead the successful counter offensive against the German army on the river Marne. Overhead a tenacious Junkers JI artillery spotter dogs their tracks. The Second Battle of the Marne, though not an overwhelming victory, spelt the end of German successes on the Western front, and a turning point for the allies. |
Farman F.40 by Ivan Berryman. Designed the brothers Henri and Maurice Farman, the F.40 embodied many of the features of contemporary designs comprising a crew nacelle with pusher propeller and a tail supported by narrow booms and struts. Forty French squadrons were equipped with the type which first entered service in 1915 but, just one year later, they were being withdrawn as rapid developments in fighter design rendered them obsolete. One such example is shown here having surprised a single-seat Taube observation aircraft, which is spotting above some abandoned trenches near a crashed Albatros C.III. The F.40s prominent position for the gunner / observer was one of its qualities and, it is said, inspired the German AGO company when designing their C.1. |
Mustering of Storks, Bonnemaison, France, 4th July 1917 by David Pentland. French Spad VIIs of the famous Groupe de Combat 12 Les Cigognes (The Storks) during a relative lull on the front. Shown here are some of the famous names of Escadrille N3, Capitaine Georges Guynemer (No.2) , Capitaine Alfred Auger (No.6) , Sous Lt. Georges Raymond (No.9) and Adjutant Rene Guilliaumot (No.13) |
Sous-Lieutenant Charles Nungesser by Ivan Berryman. Surely one of the most irrepressible aces of World War 1, Frenchman Charles Nungessers victory total of 43 confirmed kills and a further 11 probables was achieved despite surviving a number of crashes and accidents from which he always bounced back in defiance of his quite severe injuries. His fame and prowess brought him a personal challenge from his German adversaries to take part in a one-on-one combat. Accepting the challenge, the lone Nungesser encountered not one, but six, enemy aircraft and promptly sent two of them down in flames. In this picture, his Emblems of Mortality personal motif is clearly seen on the side of his Nieuport 23 as he sees off an Albatross toward the end of the war. Nungesser survived the Great War, only to be lost over the Atlantic when attempting a flight to New York in 1927. |
Stuck in the Mud by Stan Stokes. The Lafayette Escadrille was a French air service squadron which was manned by American volunteers during WW I. Thirty-eight Americans served with the squadron during the war. Nine were killed in action and one was accidentally killed in a fall from a horse. The squadron had four French officers, and only one, Captain Georges Thenault, survived the war. The Lafayette Escadrille accounted for a total of thirty-eight victories during its service. Nearly half of these victories were accounted for by Raoul Lufbery. Born in France, Lufbery was a soldier of fortune, having joined the U.S. Army and barnstormed in the Orient. Lufbery joined the aviation service initially as a mechanic but was attached to the Lafayette Escadrille because of his prior service with the U.S. Army. Lufbery achieved 17 confirmed victories, and prior to his being killed in action in 1918, he gave instruction to some of Americas top aces of the war, including Eddie Rickenbacker. The Lafayette Escadrille used a Seminole Indian insignia until April 1917, and a Sioux Indian insignia thereafter. The squadron initially flew the famous Nieuport fighting scouts, and was equipped with the heavier and stronger Spad later in the conflict. Many of the pilots preferred to fly the Nieuport because of its tremendous maneuverability. The Nieuport 17 was one of the most distinctive single-seat fighters of the War. This French-built aircraft was utilized by British, Belgian, Italian, American, and Russian airmen. Two of the most famous British aces, Billy Bishop and Albert Ball, flew Nieuports for much of their service. The design of the Nieuport is attributed to Franz Schneider who had suggested that a good compromise between a monoplane and a biplane would be a design utilizing a large upper wing and a much smaller lower wing. The resulting aircraft was much stronger than the early monoplane designs which suffered from frequent structural failures. The Nieuport 17 was initially powered by a 130 HP Clerget or a smaller 110 HP Le Rhone engine. The Nieuport 17 entered service in May 1916. Its performance at that time was superior to any fighting aircraft. It was about 10 percent faster than any other aircraft in service and could climb to 10,000 feet in approximately ten minutes. The Germans thought enough of this aircraft that they produced an improved copy of the 13-metre Nieuport Type-11 Baby. Aviation artist Stan Stokes, in his outstanding painting entitled Stuck in the Mud, shows a Nieuport of the Lafayette Escadrille in the process of being extricated from the mud following an aborted takeoff. The Lafayette Escadrille was absorbed into the 103rd Aero Squadron USAS in 1918 with Americas official entry into the War. |
Tribute to Flt Lt Pierre Clostermann by Ivan Berryman. One of the most notable pilots of 3 Squadron was the Frenchman Pierre Clostermann who enjoyed much success flying Spitfires with the Free French 341 Alsace Squadron before moving to 602 and 274 Squadrons RAF. Once on the strength of 3 Squadron, however, he quickly got to grips with the mighty Hawker Tempest V in which he downed two Focke-Wulf Fw.190D-9s on 20th April 1945, just two of the confirmed 12 aircraft destroyed whilst flying the Tempest, plus 6 shared and two probables. He is shown here flying Tempest V NV724, bearing the legend Le Grand Charles and the Squadron badge on the tailfin. |
Against the Tide by Stan Stokes. As dawn broke on the morning of May 10, 1940, an irresistible tide of German armored and aerial might crashed across the frontiers of Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. A combination of paratroopers, fast moving panzer units, truck born infantry, and mobile artillery smashed its way through the dazed and outnumbered defenders. Leading the Luftwaffe assault were waves of fast fighter aircraft, twin-engine bombers, and screaming Stukka dive bombers. Blitzkrieg had arrived. Within four short weeks Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg had all capitulated to the victorious Wermacht, and the British Expeditionary Force had been forced to evacuate at Dunkirk. By the middle of June the battered and demoralized French Army was in full retreat and falling back towards Paris. In desperate attempts to stem the tide, valiant but outnumbered units of the Armee de lAir struck back with great courage against advancing German Panzer divisions, vainly trying to save their beloved capital city. In Stan Stokes painting entitled Against the Tide, French warplanes of two generations rendezvous over Paris before the battle begins. The Detwoitine D.520 was undoubtedly the best French fighter of WW II. Had the armistice not taken place the D.520s career would have paralleled that of its contemporaries in Germany and Britain. Production was slated to reach more than 2,000 aircraft in 1940, and plans had been put in place to have this aircraft produced in America by the Ford Motor Company. In comparative tests with the Bf-109E, the Detwoitine showed superior maneuverability, and plans were adopted for upgrading the power of its engine to provide comparable speed and rates of climb to the 109. Armed with a 20mm nose mounted cannon and four 7.5mm wing-mounted machine guns, the D.520 could obtain a top speed of 332-mph with its 910-HP Hispano-Suiza 12Y45 engine. Among Frances highest scoring fighter pilots who flew the D.520 was Sous-Lieutenanat Pierre Le Gloan. Le Gloan destroyed 11 opposing German and Italian aircraft during the Battle of France and later would fight against the British during the campaign in Vichy-controlled Syria. His final total reached 18 before his death is a flying accident in 1943. Indicative of the dramatic changes in the Armee de lAir at the start of WW II are the obsolescent Bloch MB 210 medium bombers and the Breguet Bre.693 assault aircraft. The MB 210 (numerically the most important French bomber in late 1939) with its severe angularity, slab-sided fuselage, glass-house nose, and birdcage-like turrets was a typical French bomber of the 1930s. With a crew of 5, and a maximum bomb load of 3,500 lbs the 210 had a top speed of only 210-MPH. In contrast, the Bre.693 was a sleek and modern attack aircraft with fighter-like performance. With twin 700-HP radials this heavily armed aircraft was capable of 301-MPH. Many of these aircraft were lost during the Battle of France in low level attacks on German armour. |
Hard to be Humble by Robert Tomlin. During the summer of 1999 Robert Tomlin was specially commissioned by the French Air Force to paint the Mirage 2000s of EC/12, the Tiger squadron from Cambrai. Here is the resultant picture entitled in which two Mirages intercept two MiG 29s over the French coast, the storm clouds just passing over. |
Capitaine Georges Guynemer by Ivan Berryman. One of Frances most venerated pilots in World War 1 was Capitaine Georges Guynemer whose final victory tally has never been fully established, although he has been officially credited with 53 kills. It is more likely, however, that his actual total was nearer to 88! He is shown here in his Spad S.VII having just claimed his 31st victim, a Gotha bomber. |
Capitaine Rene Fonck by Ivan Berryman. The highest scoring allied ace of World War 1, Rene Fonck was born on 27th March 1894 and spent his early military service with the 11th Regiment of Engineers before being sent for flying instruction in the spring of 1915. Almost as soon as he had been assigned to combat duties, he began to score and was posted to Groupe de Combat No12, the famous Storks where a combination of superb airmanship and deadly accurate gunnery ensured that his victory tally continued to grow. By the end of the war, Fonck was credited with a commendable 75 confirmed victories, but it is likely that he may have been responsible for a further possible 69 kills, which would have taken his total score to 144 - 64 more than Manfred von Richthofen, the notorious Red Baron. Capitaine Rene Fonck is shown in one of his Spad S.XIIIs chasing down a DFW C-Type. |
The Air Pirate by Stan Stokes. The Societe Anonyme dAeroplanes Morane-Saulnier first showed its aircraft at the Salon Aeronautique in Paris in 1911. With the famous French airman Roland Garos as its test pilot, the company received a lot of interest in the products it displayed. The first production models were delivered in 1913. The Type L was a parasol monoplane, and orders were received from the French Air Corps. The Type L was the forerunner of the first true family of fighters, the Fokker Eindeckers. When War began the Type L was one of the fastest reconnaissance aircraft available. With its high speed and excellent maneuverability, the Type L was a natural to take on the role of interceptor, once it became evident that aircraft were going to be utilized for more than just reconnaissance. The Type N debuted in mid-1914. Its most characteristic feature was its incorporation of a large prop spinner which completely covered the engine. With no ailerons, all lateral control was made by warping the wings through a complex system of control wires. In early 1916 the Type I was introduced. It utilized a more powerful 110-HP rotary engine. The Type I was capable of 176-MPH, with an operational ceiling of 3,500 feet. The large prop spinner was reshaped, and the undercarriage was strengthened. These aircraft were not without their faults. Flying was exceptionally difficult in bad weather, and the wing design was modified several times to reduce the tendency of the Moraine-Saulnier to go into an uncontrollable tail spin. A number of these aircraft were flown by the Russians on the Romanian and Southwestern Fronts. The Moraine-Saulnier monoplane of Lt. Ivan W Smirnoff is depicted in action in Stan Stokes painting entitled The Air Pirate. While the vast majority of the air combat in WW I took place on the Western Front, air combat was not uncommon on the other fronts. Smirnoff, an ex-infantryman, joined XIX Squadron in 1915 as a Sergeant. He attained his first victory piloting a two-seater. His last victory, which was recorded in November of 1917, was his twelfth. Fearing that he would be executed by the Bolsheviks, Smirnoff fled Russia and served briefly with the Royal Flying Corps. In 1922 he joined the Dutch airline KLM. He flew for KLM for many years. In 1942, during WW II, Smirnoff was Captain of a KLM DC-2 which was shot down by Imperial Japanese fighters over the East Indies. Smirnoff survived this disaster, and he died in October, 1956. Smirnoff is generally acknowledged to be the top scoring Russian ace of WW I. |
The Final Show by Robert Taylor. In May 1944 Wing Commander Roland 'Bee' Beamont led three squadrons of Hawker Tempests into operations for the first time. Flying from RAF Newchurch in Kent, one of the advanced landing grounds constructed in preparation for the invasion of France, they formed 150 Wing RAF. The far-sighted Beamont had almost single-handedly overseen the transformation of the Hawker Typhoon into the most potent ground attack aircraft of its day before turning his attention to its successor - the Tempest. With thinner wings, greater range, improved ailerons, a redesigned windscreen and all-round 'rear vision' canopy it was a significant improvement on the Typhoon. Through the last year of the war the unwavering pilots who flew these two mighty aircraft became the scourge of the German Army, blasting their way through armoured formations, destroying airfields, shipping, barges, bridges, trains, marshalling yards, rail hubs, anything to support the advancing British and Canadian armies as they battled their way through Belgium and the Netherlands towards the Rhine. And, as an increasingly desperate enemy fought back with V-1 'Doodlebug' flying bombs, the Typhoon and Tempest pilots destroyed those too - 150 Wing alone accounting for 638 V-1s destroyed. As the remnants of Hitler's once-fabled army collapsed under the onslaught, many high-ranking Nazis were faced with a choice - go down fighting or cut and run. Many chose to run, heading north to the Baltic coast with one aim in mind - a last-chance passage to neutral Sweden. The Tempest pilots of 150 Wing were amongst those tasked with stopping their escape. Some of the greatest pilots of the RAF flew this iconic aircraft and this painting depicts the final combat of the war for one such pilot - the legendary fighter Ace Pierre Clostermann. A Flight Commander with 3 Squadron, Clostermann is at the controls of his distinctive Tempest Le Grand Charles during a strafing raid against the heavily defended seaplane base at Grossenbrode, on the coast to the north of Lübeck. Having just destroyed two Dornier Do18 flying boats on the water, he now helps finish off a Bf109 and a Fw190 that have tried to pounce from above. |
Czech - Mate by David Pentland. French Armee de L air Curtiss Hawk 75As flown by Czech ace Frantisele Pevina and his squadron Commander Captaine Jean Accaut, dive on unsuspecting Junker Ju87Bs (Stukas) during the Battle of France 1940. |
Fill Up at Kiseljak by Robert Tomlin. Throughout the crisis in Bosnia helicopters of various nations provided logistic support to the ground forces, especially in the times when movement along dangerous roads was impossible. Here Puma Helicopters of the French detachment drop into a forward base to refuel before going on to their final destination. These Pumas operated out of their base in Split, Croatia, together with British and Norwegian helicopters; indeed it was common to see aircraft of several nations operating together. As the first machine UN 128, serial number 1128, comes into land at the forward refuelling base at Kiseljak, only 20km west of Sarajevo, a second, the radar equipped UN 126, serial number 1662 turns on to finals. The machines will be re-supplied in this instance by British Ground Forces, two of whom crouch against the billowing dust ready to go into action to minimise time on the ground |
Tribute to Georges Lachmann by Ivan Berryman. Georges Lachmann was a French Ace pilot credited with a total of 9 victories during World War One. He is shown here in his Spad S.VII armed with Le Prieur rockets lining up to claim one of four balloon victories, this being one of the three balloons he claimed in Russia in late 1917. Notable for becoming an Ace while surviving as a serving pilot from the beginning to the end of the war, he lived into his 70s and died in 1961. |
The First Victory by Ivan Berryman. Pilot Joseph Frantz and his observer Louis Quénault have the unique distinction of recording the first ever aerial victory by an aircraft using weaponry. On 5th October 1914, Quénault used magazines of ammunition of the machine gun mounted on their Voisin III craft, with its incredibly primitive appearance, and continued with rifle fire once it had failed. Their prey, an Aviatik returned fire, but was observed to crash into trees following the combat - the first recorded aircraft to be shot down by another. |
Millennium Mirage by Robert Tomlin. Robert Tomlin has created this superb small print showing the gleaming Mirage 2000 taking off during typical Northern European display weather at Orange. |
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