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| Text for the above items : |
A Day for Heroes by Ivan Berryman. The afternoon of 25th July 1940 was a desperate one for the already exhausted fighter pilots of the RAF defending the South coast of England. As convoy CW8 made its way through the English Channel, sixty JU.87 Stukas and forty JU.88 bombers launched a brutal attack on the ships below, backed up by fighter cover of over 50 Messerscmitt Bf.109s. Eight Spitfires of 64 Sqn (Kenley) were scrambled, together with twelve Spitfires of 54 Sqn (Hornchurch) and Hurricanes of 111 Sqn from Croydon. The British pilots found themselves massively outnumbered, but nevertheless put up a spirited fight against the teeming enemy. This painting shows Spitfires of 54 Sqn entering the fray, the pilots scattering as they choose their targets and go after the JU.87s. To the right of this, Bf.109Es of JG.26 are roaring in to join battle, whilst Adolf Galland's aircraft engages a Hurricane of 111 Sqn. |
Fields of Glory by Richard Taylor. September 1940 and they came in their hundreds, the black crosses under their wings clearly visible to those on the ground who listened in silence as the menacing drone of a thousand engines filled the clear blue summer sky. As Goering's Luftwaffe attempted to deal the killer blow to British defences, huge formations of Heinkel, Dornier and Junker bombers lumbered over sleepy English fields towards London. Surrounding them were their escorts, the formidable Messerschmitt Bf109 fighters. Diving our of the sun, 11 Group's fighter squadrons pounced, with the Spitfires going for the Bf109s while the Hurricanes fell on the slower moving bombers. Looking up on the swirling melee above, onlookers below could only watch in awe as the sky was filled with criss-cross patterns of creamy white vapour and spiralling trails of ominous, darker smoke. A parachute here and there caught the eye as the white silk drifted slowly down to the fields below. Hugely outnumbered, the men of RAF Fighter Command were supported by volunteer airmen from fifteen nations, and as more squadrons joined the fray the battle raged towards the capital until the Bf109s turned for home. The Few were finally turning the tide of the Battle of Britain. |
Gallant Ohio by Robert Taylor Spitfires of 126 and 185 Squadrons successfully fend off a last desperate attempt by enemy aircraft to sink the crippled American tanker Ohio, still some 80 miles short of the beleaguered island of Malta. Badly damaged and barely afloat the Ohio, assisted by Royal Navy destroyers Penn, (foreground), Bramham (lashed to Ohios port side) and Ledbury, limped into port to a tumultuous welcome, on August 15, 1942. Her vital cargo of fuel kept the islands air defences alive, and ultimately made the island secure. |
Victory Over Malta by Ivan Berryman. George Beurling in Spitfire VC BR301 in action against a Macchi 202 over Malta in 1942. |
Head to Head by Nicolas Trudgian A classic head-to-head combat between Squadron Leader Sandy Johnstone in his Spitfire and an Me109 over the south coast of England on 25th August, 1940. With 602 Squadron scrambled to intercept an approaching raid. The Commanding Officer notches up his second victory of the day. Published 2000. |
Fleeting Moments by Philip West. Few people become a legend in their own lifetime. Douglas Bader was one such person. An exceptional pilot and leader, t the age of 21, as a young RAF officer, he had both legs amputated after he crashed his aircraft. Through sheer guts and determination he learnt not only to walk again, but also fly, subsequently becoming the RAFs most famous WW2 fighter pilot. Flying his Spitfire with the unmistakable DB markings, Wing Commander Bader with his wingman close by, heads home to Tangmere after another successful, action-packed day, taking on swarms of enemy aircraft intent on wreaking havoc over the south of England. |
Operation Bodenplatte by Nicolas Trudgian. The success of Operation Bodenplatte, on January 1, 1945, was to be achieved by mass surprise attacks on British and American bases in France, Belgium and Holland. It was a battle fought at great cost to the Luftwaffe. During the battles some 300 Luftwaffe aircraft were lost. Though 200 Allied aircraft were destroyed, most on the ground, pilot losses were light. Nicolas Trudgians brilliant painting takes us right into the action above the Allied air base at Eindhoven. Me262 jets join a concentration of Me109s and Fw190s of JG-3 fighter wing, as they hurtle across the airfield in an assault that lasted 23 minutes, while Spitfires from 414 Sqn RCAF do their best to repel the attack. On the ground Typhoon fighters of 439 Sqn take a hammering. Signed by four top Luftwaffe pilots who flew in Operation Bodenplatte. Published in 1998, this great art print sold steadily through the following 12 years and now very few are available. Due to the outstanding signatures sadly none of whom are with us anymore the value has increased from the issue price to nearly double in the first 14 years . This is certainly one to add to your collection. Nicolas Trudgian's early releases were very under priced and many had fantastic signatures. Many collectors recognised this fact in the early years and wisely took advantage of these great initial offer prices, meaning many of these sought after editions soon became hard to find. |
Mayhem at St Trond by Ivan Berryman. Whilst on a strafing sortie over German occupied St Trond airfield on 25th February 1944, Spitfires of 331 Sqn launched an attack on the Heinkel He.177 bombers that were stationed there. Among those taking part was Norwegian ace Lieutenant Frederick Arild Sverdrup Fearnley, flying Spitfire Mk IX MJ354 (FN-W). Fearnley shared in the destruction of a Heinkel He.177 as it tried to take off, but his Spitfire was immediately hit by ground fire, the young Norwegian losing his life in the ensuing crash. Fearnley was credited with a possible 7 victories in his short career. |
The Chain by Ivan Berryman. (PC) Spitfire Mk.1 over a trio of Chain radar masts on the south coast of England. This Spitfire is from No.603 Sqn based at RAF Hornchurch from 27th August 1940, the height of the Battle of Britain. |
A Time for Heroes by Robert Taylor Royal Air Force and Royal Navy fighter aircrews flew combat throughout the six long years of World War Two. At the outbreak of war in 1939 four RAF Hurricane squadrons and two equipped with Gladiators went immediately to France where in short time New Zealander Cobber Kain became the first Allied Ace of the war. In April 1940 Hurricanes and Gladiators saw in action in Norway, when Rhodesian Caesar Hull of 263 Squadron became the second air Ace. By the fall of France the new Spitfire joined in the great air battles over the Channel as the British Expeditionary Force evacuated Dunkirk. Bob Stanford -Tuck, Douglas Bader, Peter Townsend, Sailor Malan, and many other great Aces gained their first victories, but with German forces massing on the French coast, the invasion of Britain looked imminent. Only RAF Fighter Command stood in Hitlers way. By July, the most famous of all air battles had begun. The next three months, under glorious summer skies, saw the most decisive and continual aerial fighting in history. The British victory in the Battle of Britain was to fundamentally change the course of the war and, ultimately, the course of history. But there were four and a half more years of air battles still to be fought and won -from the English Channel Front to the North African desert, from the Mediterranean to Far East Asia. It fell to Fleet Air Arm pilots to see the last air fighting for British and Commonwealth pilots, by then equipped with Seafires and American Corsairs and Hellcats, as they took part in the final assaults on the Japanese mainland. As the last embers of hostilities faded into history the centuries old doctrine of maritime supremacy had gone. Now the aircraft ruled. In his masterful painting A Time For Heroes Robert Taylor pays tribute to the World War II fighter aircrews of the RAF and Fleet Air Arm. A panoramic scene from the era of the Battle of Britain shows Mk I Spitfires of 234 Squadron, 10 Groups top scoring squadron, returning to St. Eval after intercepting heavy raids on south coast ports during the heaviest fighting, in September 1940. St. Michaels Mount, the castle built on the site of a 14th Century monastery to defend Britains shores from earlier enemies, provides a symbolic backdrop as once again a band of brothers is called upon to defend their Sceptred Isle. Sadly, since the passing of Mahinder Pujji in September 2010, all of the great pilots who signed any of the editions of this print have now passed away. |
Safely Home by Nicolas Trudgian. An Avro Lancaster bomber of Bomber Command is escorted back over the English coast by two Spitfires after a night bombing mission. |
Bader Bus (MKV Spitfire) by Colin Walker. No text for this item |
Teamwork by Geoff Lea. A solo Hurricane flies over the remains of a downed German bomber during the Battle of Britain. Also shown in the painting are the early warning radar towers which played a significant part in the detection of German aircraft and their number, helping the RAF win the Battle of Britain. |
Tribute to Allan Scott by Ivan Berryman. A legend of Malta, Allan Scott had already claimed a shared Ju88 with No.124 Sqn by the time he flew his Spitfire to the island from HMS Eagle in July 1942. He soon joined No.1435 Sqn and claimed an Italian bomber. With a campaign of Axis bombing that October, his claims of damaged and probable victories increased and he is credited with at least 5 destroyed during his time on Malta, including the Me109 depicted here with Grand Harbour in the background. Awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal, he went on to fly Spitfires and Mustangs in the build-up to and aftermath of D-Day. He died in 2020. |
Midwinter Dawn by Robert Taylor. The engineers at Rolls-Royce had worked their magic. They had somehow managed to squeeze every available ounce of power out of the current Merlin engine and by D-Day on 6 June 1944 the sleek Mk.IX Spitfires of Fighter Command reigned supreme in the skies over Normandy. The magnificent Mk.IXs were, by far, the most numerous variant of Spitfires that fought from D-Day to the threshold of the Reich. In the great drive from Normandy across northern France, Belgium and into Holland the Spitfire pilots of Fighter Command threw down the gauntlet to any Luftwaffe pilots brave enough, or foolhardy enough, to tangle with them. Perhaps the greatest pilot to ever fly the Spitfire was the RAF&39;s top fighter Ace Johnnie Johnson. His resolute determination and steadfast leadership came into its own during D-Day and the subsequent advance through Normandy, and he would finish the war as the highest scoring Allied Ace in Europe. The scene captures the moment when, as Wing Leader of 127 Canadian Wing, Johnnie is seen leading Mk.IX Spitfires from 421 Red Indian Squadron RCAF out on patrol from their airfield at Evere near Brussels on a cold December morning in 1944. It is close to the fighting and the German front line so, as the Canadians climb steadily out over the snow clad landscape in the golden light of dawn, they are already alert and on the lookout for the first signs of trouble. |
Muscateer by Robert Tomlin. Squadron Leader John Plagis, Commanding Officer of 126 Squadron, in his Spitfire LFIX, returns from France on 24th July 1944 after shooting down an Me109. Plagis went on to score 15 aerial victories before the end of World War II. |
Height of the Battle by Robert Taylor. (GS) Continuing his popular series of Giclee Studio Proofs on canvas, Robert Taylor portrays Squadron Leader 'Sailor' Malan DFC, Commanding Officer of 74 Squadron and one of the great Battle of Britain Aces, in his famous painting Height of the Battle. Having already made one diving attack into the force of Luftwaffe He111 bombers approaching London with their fighter escort, 'Sailor' peels his Spitfire over for a second attack. Another top Ace, Pilot Officer Harbourne Stephen DFC, is hard on his heels. Below them, typifying the scene as it was on the afternoon of Wednesday 11 September 1940, Mk.I Hurricanes from 17 and 56 Squadrons have already joined the fray. |
Polish Spitfire by Graeme Lothian. (P) Spitfire Z-FA of No.308 Sqn (Polish) thunders over a picturesque village in April 1941. |
In Them We Trust by Ivan Berryman. Two Spitfire Mk1Bs of 92 Squadron patrol the south coast from their temporary base at Ford, here passing over the Needles rocks, Isle of Wight, in the Spring of 1942. |
Borrowed Sky by Peter Westacott. Squadron Leader Jan Zumbach V.M., K.W., D.F.C & Bar in his Spitfire Vb of the Polish 303 (Kosciuszko) Squadron patrolling the English Channel during 1942. |
The Thoroughbred by Ivan Berryman. Allied fighters encountering Focke-Wulfs potent Fw190 were to find themselves alarmingly outclassed when first the Luftwaffes new fighter appeared in the skies above France in 1941. Even the Spitfire MkV struggled to match the Butcher Birds outstanding performance. However, the inception of the Spitfire MkIX was to rapidly redress the balance and represented, in many ways, the coming of age for this classic British fighter, final production of this mark alone totalling 5665 machines. |
Spitfire Royal Air Force fighter aircraft, maximum speed for mark I Supermarine Spitfire, 362mph up to The Seafire 47 with a top speed of 452mph. maximum ceiling for Mk I 34,000feet up to 44,500 for the mark XIV. Maximum range for MK I 575 miles . up to 1475 miles for the Seafire 47. Armament for the various Marks of Spitfire. for MK I, and II . eight fixed .303 browning Machine guns, for MKs V-IX and XVI two 20mm Hispano cannons and four .303 browning machine guns. and on later Marks, six to eight Rockets under the wings or a maximum bomb load of 1,000 lbs. Designed by R J Mitchell, The proto type Spitfire first flew on the 5th March 1936. and entered service with the Royal Air Force in August 1938, with 19 squadron based and RAF Duxford. by the outbreak of World war two, there were twelve squadrons with a total of 187 spitfires, with another 83 in store. Between 1939 and 1945, a large variety of modifications and developments produced a variety of MK,s from I to XVI. The mark II came into service in late 1940, and in March 1941, the Mk,V came into service. To counter the Improvements in fighters of the Luftwaffe especially the FW190, the MK,XII was introduced with its Griffin engine. The Fleet Air Arm used the Mk,I and II and were named Seafires. By the end of production in 1948 a total of 20,351 spitfires had been made and 2408 Seafires. The most produced variant was the Spitfire Mark V, with a total of 6479 spitfires produced. The Royal Air Force kept Spitfires in front line use until April 1954. |
| Top Aces for : Spitfire | |
| A list of all Aces from our database who are known to have flown this aircraft. | |
| Name | Victories |
| Johnnie Johnson | 36.91 |
| Paddy Finucane | 32.00 |
| Robert Stanford-Tuck | 29.00 |
| James Lacey | 28.00 |
| Neville Duke | 28.00 |
| Eric Lock | 26.50 |
| Douglas Bader | 23.00 |
| Don Kingaby | 23.00 |
| Harbourne Stephen | 22.50 |
| Archie McKellar | 21.00 |
| James Rankin | 21.00 |
| Raymond Harries | 20.00 |
| John Cunningham | 20.00 |
| Ronald Berry | 16.00 |
| Ian Gleed | 15.00 |
| Peter Brothers | 15.00 |
| Bob Doe | 15.00 |
| John Freeborn | 13.50 |
| Ben Bennions | 11.00 |
| Hugh Dundas | 11.00 |
| George Unwin | 10.00 |
| Clive Caldwell | 28.50 |
| Tony Gaze | 12.50 |
| Bobby Gibbes | 10.50 |
| Colin Gray | 27.50 |
| Alan Deere | 22.00 |
| Evan Mackie | 21.50 |
| Brian Carbury | 15.50 |
| John Rae | 13.00 |
| Keith Lawrence | 5.00 |
| George Beurling | 31.50 |
| James Edwards | 16.50 |
| Roderick Smith | 13.20 |
| Richard Audet | 10.50 |
| Albert Houle | 10.00 |
| James Lindsay | 7.00 |
| Adolf Malam | 35.00 |
| Marmaduke Pattle | 34.00 |
| Pierre Closterman | 26.00 |
| Francis Gabreski | 28.00 |
| Lance Wade | 25.00 |
| Dominic Gentile | 19.83 |
| Duane Beeson | 19.33 |
| James Varnell | 17.00 |
| Donald Blakeslee | 15.50 |
| James Goodson | 15.00 |
| Samuel Brown | 15.00 |
| Archie Donahue | 14.00 |
| Robert Curtis | 14.00 |
| Claude Weaver | 13.50 |
| George Carpenter | 13.33 |
| James Brooks | 13.00 |
| John Lynch | 13.00 |
| David Fairbanks | 12.50 |
| Howard Hively | 12.00 |
| Pierce McKennon | 12.00 |
| James Clark | 11.50 |
| Charles McCorkle | 11.00 |
| John Lawler | 11.00 |
| Leland Molland | 11.00 |
| Norman McDonald | 11.00 |
| Robert Goebel | 11.00 |
| Michael Gladych | 10.00 |
| Spiros Pisanos | 10.00 |
| Sylvan Feld | 9.00 |
| Arthur Johnson | 8.50 |
| Carroll McColpin | 8.00 |
| Dale Shafer | 8.00 |
| James Tyler | 8.00 |
| MacArthur Powers | 7.50 |
| Arnold Vinson | 7.00 |
| Carl Payne | 7.00 |
| Chesley Peterson | 7.00 |
| Daniel Zoerb | 7.00 |
| Frank Hill | 7.00 |
| Gregory Daymond | 7.00 |
| John Curry | 7.00 |
| Murry McLaughlin | 7.00 |
| Reade Tilley | 7.00 |
| Ripley Jones | 7.00 |
| Richard Hurd | 6.09 |
| Fred Ohr | 6.00 |
| Henry Mills | 6.00 |
| James Peck | 6.00 |
| J Collinsworth | 6.00 |
| Lewis Chick | 6.00 |
| Merriwell Vineyard | 6.00 |
| Raymond Care | 6.00 |
| Raymond Harmeyer | 6.00 |
| Roy Evans | 6.00 |
| William Dillard | 6.00 |
| William Dunn | 6.00 |
| Frederick Trafton | 5.50 |
| Joseph Lynch | 5.50 |
| Oscar Coen | 5.50 |
| Harrison Thyng | 5.00 |
| Arthur Cleaveland | 5.00 |
| Charles Fischette | 5.00 |
| David Wilhelm | 5.00 |
| Edward Gimbel | 5.00 |
| George Loving | 5.00 |
| Jackson Mahon | 5.00 |
| James Peck | 5.00 |
| James Empey | 5.00 |
| John White | 5.00 |
| Kenneth Smith | 5.00 |
| Richard Faxon | 5.00 |
| Richard Alexander | 5.00 |
| Selden Edner | 5.00 |
| Virgil Fields | 5.00 |
| Francis Dawson-Paul | 7.50 |
| D Pieri | 6.00 |
| V Cabas | 5.00 |
| P Johnson | 5.00 |
| H Zary | 5.00 |
| J Carey | 4.50 |
| R Davenport | 4.50 |
| M Fletcher | 4.50 |
| J Butler | 4.50 |
| W Daley | 2.50 |
| J Adams | 4.50 |
| J Ainley | 8.00 |
| J Aitken | 4.50 |
| R Baker | 16.50 |
| R Burnett | 5.00 |
| J Jacobs | 4.50 |
| M McPharlin | 3.00 |
| J Thorne | 5.00 |
| V Wynn | 4.00 |
| V France | 4.50 |
| Agorastos Plagis | 16.00 |
| John Bisdee | 8.00 |
| Bob Foster | 7.00 |
| Tom Neil | 14.00 |
| Basil Stapleton | 6.00 |
| Walter Lawson | 6.00 |
| Paul Farnes | 8.00 |
| Wallace Cunningham | 8.00 |
| Wilf Sizer | 7.00 |
| W Duncan-Smith | 17.00 |
| Alan Page | 12.50 |
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