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| Click Here For Full Artist Print Indexes | Aviation History Archive |
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Aviation Art Prints  Aviation Artists More Artists  Wootton, Frank |
| Frank Wootton |
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The late Frank Wootton can be credited with giving aviation art a bold new direction, transforming the genre from illustration to fine art. A gifted young artist when WWII broke out, Wootton volunteered for the Royal Air Force, but was invited by the commander-in-chief of the Allied Air Forces to accept a special duty commission as official war artist to the R.A.F. and Royal Canadian Air Force. Thus, between 1939 and 1945, Wootton painted the conflict from the front lines of France to remote airstrips in Southeast Asia. His aerial scenes brilliantly recreated the threat of enemy fire, the split- second maneuvers of fighter planes and the triumph of victory. After the war, Woottons paintings gained international recognition. His works hang in major aviation museums throughout the world, and he has painted numerous state occasions involving the R.A.F. and the Royal Family. In 1983 some fifty of his paintings were exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Following his death, Wootton remains one the aviation worlds most widely respected artists. |
| Frank Wootton Aviation Art Prints, Paintings and Drawings Aviation Art |
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Rocket Firing Typhoons at the Falaise Gap - Normandy 1944 by Frank Wootton. Perhaps the most historically significant painting by Frank Wootton, painted onthe site of the battle just a few days after it took place. |
Look, No Hands! by Frank Wootton No text for this item |
RAF Tornado- Operation Desert Storm 1991 by Frank Wootton. at 2200 GMT on 16th January 1991 Tornados were launched from Dhahran, Bahrain and Tabuk on the RAFs first combat missions in Operation Desert Storm. Each Tornado was loaded with two JP23s and all were bound for airfields in Iraq. Taking the defences by complete surprise, the Tornados delivered their weapons over runways and taxiways, then made for home without loss, setting a standard of professionalism that was to be maintained throughout the campaign often in the face of far more serious opposition. The air campaign in which the RAF were engaged was crucial to the Allies overall strategy to free Kuwait. Indeed, it is not an exaggeration to say that for the first time in the history of warfare, air power was the determining factor in a major conflict, and that the visions of such men as Trenchard and Harris were at last demonstrated. While the final conclusions must be left to history, the Gulf war remains - as General McPeak, the US Air Force Chief of Staff pointed out - the first time that a field army had been defeated by air power. The plan for the Allied air campaign was divided into a succession of phases, beginning with the obtaining of air superiority and ending with the direct engagement of the enemy ground forces. To carry out this plan the Allies had built up a formidable air power force. By 16th January it numbered some 2430 aircraft based either within the Gulf region or close enough to project air power into it. The RAF contribution was 135 aircraft: 18 Tornado F3 fighters, 46 TornadoGR1 and 1A attack and recce aircraft, 12 Jaguar fighter-bombers, 17 tabkers, 3 Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft, 31 Chinook and Puma support helicopters, one BAe 125 and 7 Hercules transport aircraft. The strength of the Allied air forces continued to grow as the campaign progressed, and by the start of the land attack (G Day) it had reached 2790. RAF reinforcements during this period included 12 Buccaneers and additional Tornado GR1s. |
Lancaster by Frank Wootton. Published to mark the 50th anniversary of the maiden flight of the Avro Lancaster on 9th January 1941. |
Gliders at Caen by Frank Wootton. 6th Airborne Div , D-Day 1944. |
Hawker Typhoon Squadron by Frank Wootton. No text for this item |
Strike Wing Attack - Beaufighter by Frank Wootton. Coastal Command Strike Wings by Neil Wheeler It was not until ten years ago that the first detailed account appeared recording the achievements and sacrifices of the Beaufighter anti-shipping Strike Wings. Surprisingly, these important and, as a whole, very successful activites seemed to have been forgotten in the years immediately after the war. Until 1942 the attack of enemy shipping, particularly that to and from Dutch ports and North German and Scandinavian ports, ahd been carried out in the main by individual attacks by bomber aircraft, at times with considerable losses. The concept of using a Wing of Beaufighters, with two squadrons to suppress enemy anti-aircraft fire and one with torpedoes to sink the ships in the convoy, gradually developed in 1942. Unfortunately, the first strike on 20th November 1942 was disastrous, largely through failure to rendezvous with the fighter escort, the casualties were heavy and the results poor. The Wing was not to operate again until 18th April 1943, and only after a thorough revision of tactics and much training. That strike, which I led, was an unqualified success ans Strike Wings were, so to speak, born. They continued with great success until the end of the war. Initially, the casualties that were suffered were extremely high, particularly in 1943 before the Allies achieved overwhelming air supremacy. But they continued to be high because most were due to the concentrated anti-aircraft fire from the ships in the convoys. I understand that the casualties were about the same as Bomber Command. However, the Strike Wings, as a considerably smaller force in comparison, inflicted far greater losses on the enemy relative to their own. Account of the operation on 21st July 1944 - Philip Brett This was my second operational flight. On my first I had had a three foot hole blown in my tailplane, teaching me that shipping strikes were indeed dangerous. This time I was carrying my first live torpedo and I realised I now had to do in anger what I had done a hundred times in enjoyable practice runs. I was expected to fly at a height of 150 feet and a speed of 180 knots, keeping straight and level until I was within about half a mile of an enemy ship, with cameras recording what I was actually doing when I made my drop. To add to my nervousness we were told that the convoy consisted of nine merchantmen guarded by no less than 31 escort vessels. Fear was forgotten in the concentration needed to fly very low across the North Sea in close squadron formation but it reasserted itself sharply enough immediately the ships appeared. The convoy was as big as promised. The anti-flak squadrons, 455 (Australian) 489 (New Zealand) and 404 (Canadian) began their climb. Our leader, Squadron Leader Robin Burwell, held 144 back, aiming to brings us in to the ships just as the anti-flak aircraft completed their work. On his order - Attack, Attack - we spread out as briefed, choosing individually the biggest targets we could find and setting our travelling light torpedo sights accordingly. The other squadrons had caused havoc. There was smoke everywhere on the sea and in the sky. Explosions were occurring along the whole length of the convoy. I came in like a good new boy, doing just what I had been told. I was aware of a sort of sparkling curtain between me and my target and the pretty tracer curving gracefully towards us, but I was concerned only with speed and height and the need to wait until the ship grew large. My torpedo gone, I could at last ram open the throttles and take violent evasive action as I climbed through the flak from my target and the surrounding escort vessels into the safer sky beyond. As we circled the scene of the attack there were still bursts of heavy flak everywhere above the convoy. Some of the aircraft seemed to be having a second go. Many of the ships below were enveloped in smoke and steam and several were blazing - Bill Boorer, my navigator, thought our merchantman was one of them. We set course for our base, Strubby, in Lincolnshire, and landed in the dark, unscathed. At debriefing everyone told of the severe damage that had been inflicted but no-one could be really sure of who had done what. The next day I heard that, from my aircraft cameras and all the other evidence, my torpedo had been assessed as a hit. |
Peenemunde by Frank Wootton. August 17th - 18th 1943 - German fighers and British bombers battle above the research station at Peenemunde to decide the fate of the Nazi V weapons. |
Bader Bale Out by Frank Wootton. On the 9th of August 1941, Group Captain Douglas Bader was leading his Wing of Spitfires from Tangmere over France just south of Le Touquet at 28,000 feet, when he sighted twelve Messerschmitts ahead and below. Being in the ideal position, he dived to the attack, but his excessive speed carried him right through the German formation. Pulling out at 24,000 feet, he encountered six more Messerschmitts and shot one of them down, but the rest turned on him furiously. He felt something hit his aircraft, which slewed violently round and began to spiral down at frightening speed. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that the entire rear part of his Spitfire behind the cockpit had been shorn away. He jettisoned the canopy and began to bale out. At this critical moment, his artificial right leg became trapped, and the upper half of his body was pinned against the fuselage by the fierce slipstream. After a struggle, he succeeded in tearing himself free, leaving his right leg behind as he left the cockpit. A moment later, at 4,00 feet, his parachute cracked open and he began to float safely down. |
Mosquito by Frank Wootton. No text for this item |
The Sinking of the Tirpitz by Frank Wootton. A first-hand account of the sinking of the Tirpitz by Bob Knights. - The early morning of 12th November 1944 was clear and very cold, and the wings of the Lancasters of 617 Squadron, parked on the airfield at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, were coated with ice. This ice had to be removed before the aircraft could take off for the final attack on the Tirpitz, the Lancasters were already overloaded with a 12,00lb Tallboy, full petrol tanks, and a reserve fuel tank in the fuselage. The aircraft had been fitted with more powerful engines, the Rolls-Royce Merlin 24, and take-off performance was surprisingly good. After turning out over the Moray Firth, we set course north east for the Norwegian sea at 1500 feet. We saw the Shetland Islands pass by on our left, and when we reached 64 degrees north we turned eastwards towards the Norwegian coast at low level. We crossed the coast, climbing rapidly to clear mountains, and flew over the Swedish border. We then turned north and, keeping on the Swedish side of the border, proceeded to our assembly point, a narrow lake about 100 miles south east of Tromso. At zero hour, Wing Commander Willie Tait, Officer Commanding 617 Squadron, set course on the long run-in to the target, accompanied by the first wave of 617 Squadron aircraft. As we topped the last mountain before reaching Tromso, we saw the Tirpitz clearly from about thirty miles. She looked very vulnerable lying there with no cloud or smoke to protect her, and forunately there was no sign of the fighters, which were stationed at Bardafoss. The anti-aircraft guns opened up as we approached, and there were enormous shell bursts from Tirpitz herself. We had a good straight bombing run, and both my bomb aimer and my flight engineer followed our Tallboy right down to the ship. They reported two direct hits and three bombs very close to the sides of the ship. After taking our aiming point photograph, we circled the ship to observe the subsequent bombing. We stayed in the vicinity for about another fifteen minutes and before we left the ship was beginning to capsize. Then followed the long flight back to Scotland. When we arrived, bad weather had affected Lossiemouth and we were diverted to Peterhead, where we eventually landed after a flight of 12 hours 35 minutes. |
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