Description

Limited Edition of 450

Overall Print Size – 33″ x 25.25″

The print is part one of the ‘Hardest Days’ trilogy commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.  Hornchurch Scramble and Valiant Response are the other prints in the series.

Air Armada – The Hardest Days I

In just six weeks Hitler’s forces had overrun Western Europe as once-proud armies swiftly fell before the might of the German ‘Blitzkrieg’. It was a devastating defeat, and now only Britain stood alone. Few thought she could survive. As Churchill pledged that Britain would never surrender, a German invasion seemed inevitable. But before any invasion could take place the Luftwaffe must neutralise the RAF and win control of the skies over southern England. Awaiting them was a small, but resilient band of young men, the pilots of RAF Fighter Command. On 12 August, the Germans turned their full attention to the forward fighter bases and radar stations, hoping to obliterate them once and for all. From Norway in the north, through the Low Countries and northern France to Brittany in the west, the Luftwaffe threw every available aircraft into the attack. For the young men of Fighter Command the next seven days of fighting would leave them exhausted and all but spent: They were to be the hardest days of the Battle of Britain, culminating on Sunday 18 August

‘Air Armada’ recreates a moment on that day as Heinz Bär, the Luftwaffe’s top-scoring NCO Ace of the Battle of Britain and one of the greatest Aces in history, climbs away from his airfield near Calais with the other pilots of 1./JG51 to escort the Do17s of KG76 for yet another attack on the RAF. Away in the distance, Me110s from EPRG 210 also prepare to join the encounters that lie ahead.

Each print is signed by artist Robert Taylor, and individually hand-numbered; together with two Luftwaffe fighter Aces who flew and fought in the Battle of Britain:
Oberst Hajo Herrmann
Major Hans-Ekkehard Bob