Tommy Sopwith was born in 1888. He became the second person to fly the English Channel, and he established the Sopwith Aviation Company in 1912. His first successful aircraft design was the Sopwith Tabloid. This was a very modern aircraft when introduced in 1913. With its top speed of 92-MPH the Tabloid won the 1914 Schneider Trophy race. Two other early Sopwith designs were the Bat Boat, one of the first flying boats flown by the Naval Wing, and the Three-Seater, a large observation aircraft. Sopwith proliferated many other designs during the Great War, including the Snipe, Pup, Dolphin, Salamander, Strutter, and Camel. Sopwiths triplane was introduced in 1917. It evolved from the need for an aircraft with a superior rate of climb. By reducing the length and width of the wings, and by adding a third wing, the desired results were achieved. The triplane was a sound design with good rate of climb and very good maneuverability. It was somewhat underpowered when compared with its German .........
With Europe occupied by Nazi forces, Great Britain was the last obstacle in Hitlers plan to rule Europe. Hitlers invasion plan called for his Luftwaffe to gain control of the air over Britain in the first few weeks of attack, which would be followed by pulverizing bombing attacks on the British coastline, and finally by a blitzkrieg style invasion spearheaded by Panzer Divisions supported by fighters and dive bombers. The Germans had assembled over 100 well-equipped divisions by the Summer of 1940 for its invasion of Britain, and on August 8 the Luftwaffe attacks commenced. The Germans had underestimated the capability of the British air defense and both the will and skill of its pilots. In the first ten days of German attacks RAF Hurricanes and Spitfires shot down 697 German aircraft, while losing only 153 aircraft and 93 flight personnel of their own. By months end the German strategists shifted to all out attacks on British airfields, aircraft plants, and munitions factories. Effec.........
Thomas Sopwith was a distinguished British aviator who organized the Sopwith Aviation Company. Sopwith produced an aircraft which won the coveted Schneider Trophy race. With the start of WW I, Sopwith Aviation shifted its focus to military aircraft, and was to become one the major suppliers to both the Royal Air Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. In October of 1914 two Sopwith Tabloids flew a 200-mile round trip strike against the airship sheds at Dusseldorf and Cologne. The Sopwith Strutter firmly entrenched Sopwith as a producer of quality-built aircraft. The Strutter was a precursor of the Sopwith Pup, which would serve as the Royal Navys first carrier aircraft. The first production Pup was delivered to the Royal Navy in 1916. Most Pups were powered by a 80-HP Le Rhone radial engine, which gave the Pup a top speed of 115-MPH and an endurance of three hours. Many Navy Pups were modified to utilize a tripod mounted Lewis gun which could be fired forward or upwards through a cutou.........
Print size 16 inches x 11.5 inches (41cm x 30cm) Supplied with signed and numbered certificate of authenticity.
Artist : Stan Stokes
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Defiant but Doomed by Stan Stokes.
Jagdeschwader 26, or JG 26, was one of the Lufwaffes elite fighter forces. Nicknamed the Abbeville Boys, or the Abbeville Kids,JG 26 gained tremendous notoriety early in the War while operating out of Abbeville in Northern France. Although JG 26 never operated with more than 124 fighter aircraft, the unit dominated its airspace over Northern France and Belgium for more than a two year period. Adolf Galland was one of Germanys top fighter aces of the War, with more than 100 confirmed victories. For most of his flying career Galland was associated with JG 26. By year-end 1940 he had attained 57 victories, and was awarded the Oak Leaves, the highest award of the time. Galland took over command of JG 26 in August 1940 during the Battle of Britain. In Stan Stokes painting, entitled Defiant, But Doomed, Galland is depicted during a mission with the Abbeville Kids on August 28, 1940. Flying low cover for a formation of Heinkel bombers Galland was shocked to see a squadron of 12 Royal Air For.........
William Avery Bishop, the top scoring RFC ace of WW I, was born in Ontario Canada on February 8, 1894. He entered the Royal Military College in 1911 and after War broke out in Europe he was assigned to the 14th Battalion of the Canadian Mounted Rifles. Bishop applied for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps in 1915. Following a few months of training he was made an observer and was sent to France to fly with No. 21 squadron. He was hospitalized for frostbite and later from injuries sustained in a bad landing. In late 1916 he began pilot training and in March of 1917 Bishop was posted to No. 60 squadron flying Nieuport Scouts. On March 25 he experienced his first air combat, downing an Albatros single-seater. Bishop scored thirteen victories during Bloody April, and another seven-and-a-half in May. He was awarded the DSO at this point. In early June Bishop attacked a German airfield at dawn, and shot down three Albatros aircraft taking off to challenge him. For this fete he received th.........
On July 2, 1900 Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin piloted his first rigid-framed, lighter-than-air ship over Lake Constance in Germany. Seventeen years later, on June 16, 1917, Zepellins latest creation, the L-48, was readied at Nordholz, Germany for its first combat mission. The huge L-48 was one of the newest and most technically advanced German airships. Powered by five 250 HP Maybach engines, the great airship could carry 6,000 pounds in bombs, and was manned by a crew of nineteen. For this maiden mission the commodore of the North Sea Airship Division, Victor Schutze, would be joining the L-48s skipper Kapitain-lieutenant Franz George Eichler. Early in the afternoon the L-48 commenced its mission along with several other airships from the Nordholz base. The great Zeppelin would cruise at 60 MPH at 5,000 to 10,000 feet and would ascend to approximately 20,000 feet when approaching its target. This altitude would provide an effective defense against both anti-aircraft or British fighter.........
Some of those most dangerous missions of WW II were the low level shipping attacks by Bristol Blenheims carried out against Axis shipping. These missions were important in the early stages of the War in the Mediterranean in terms of disrupting supply lines to Rommels troops fighting in North Africa. It was not uncommon for the RAF to lose 10-30% of the aircraft it sent on such missions. One of the most successful of the RAFs Blenheim pilots was Sir Ivor Broom, who rose from the rank of Sergeant Pilot, completing three combat tours, including thirty-one low level attacks while based on the island of Malta. With all the officer pilots in his squadron either killed or missing in action, Broom received his commission. Allied interdiction efforts had become so successful that in October and November of 1941 only 25% of the supplies destined to supply Rommels armies in North Africa were getting through. The Germans decided to reroute their supply ships, opting for taking a longer route, bu.........
The Handley Page H.P. 42 biplane airliner had a reputation unmatched in its day for reliability, safety, and passenger comfort. Imperial Airways, the British flag carrier during the between war period, was one of aviations pioneers when it came to establishing long range commercial air services. With the British Empire spanning the globe, effective long distance air service was important in linking both former and current colonies. In 1928 Imperial solicited proposals for a long distance airplane capable of flying the London to India air mail route. Handley Page won the bid for a total of eight new airliners. The large bi-plane design which was agreed upon had four radial engines, with two mounted on the upper wing and two on the lower wings on each side of the fuselage. With its triple finned tail assembly, this huge biplane was quite something to see. Despite its antiquated appearance the H.P. 42 had a very impressive passenger compartment which was quite luxurious. Inlaid wood pane.........
Marmaduke St. John Pattle, known as Pat to his friends, was born in South Africa in 1913. Pattle came from a family with a military tradition, and upon graduation from Graemian College he joined the South African Air Force. Pattle, unfortunately, was not accepted for air crew training, and he returned to civilian life for a time. In 1936 Pattle went to England where he joined the RAF, graduating near the top of his class in pilot training. He was assigned to No. 80 Squadron which flew the Gloster Gladiator. In 1938 the squadron was moved to Egypt. When war broke out in 1939, Paddle had been promoted to Flight Commander. For the first several months of the war Pattle saw little action as his missions were routine patrols of the Suez Canal. When Italy entered the War in 1940, the situation changed dramatically, as the British were vastly outnumbered in North Africa by both Italian troops and aircraft. Pattles first victory, in a Gladiator, came on July 24, 1940. When Italy attacked Gre.........
On April 6, 1916 the RFC formed several new squadrons, including the No. 56 Squadron - Scouts. In March of 1917 the unit received the first of its new SE5s. The aircraft was disappointing to the pilots, being slower than expected, and its new Vickers machine gun with interrupter gear was next to useless. Many modifications ensued in the field, and many SE5s were fitted with Lewis guns located atop the upper wing, and in some cases an additional Lewis was installed which could be fired downward through the cockpit. In early April of 1917 No. 56 was ready to see its first combat action, and the unit headed off to France. About nine months earlier the pendulum of air superiority had swung back to the Germans. The Fokker scourge of 1915 had previously been negated by the deployment of DH2 and FE8 aircraft, but the newer German Albatros and Halberstadt fighters had regained the upper hand. The RFC was once again suffering unsustainable casualties. No. 56 Squadron was immediately pressed in.........
Print size 16 inches x 11.5 inches (41cm x 30cm) Supplied with signed and numbered certificate of authenticity.
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Double Trouble by Stan Stokes.
The Bristol Beaufighter was one of the most successful twin-engine fighters utilized by the RAF during WW II. The forerunner of the Beaufighter was the Bristol Beaufort, which was the first modern torpedo bomber to enter service. The Beaufort, known officially as the Type-152 was derived from the earlier Type-150, which in turn had been influenced by the Bristol Blenheim. About the time the first Beauforts were being flight tested, the aircrafts chief designer, Leslie Frise, commenced a study to see if the Beauforts airframe could be adapted to create a twin engine fighter design. The modified design (Type-156) incorporated a narrower fuselage, a shorter nose section utilizing a single-seat cockpit, and a dorsal observers position. The prototype Beaufighter made its first flight in July of 1939. A year of flight testing and refinement followed. Only Hercules III engines were available for the first production models. This gave the first marks performance roughly comparable to a Hawker.........
Twenty-four hours prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Japanese fighters near the Gulf of Siam shot down a RAF Catalina flying boat. The RAF aircraft had stumbled across the Japanese Southern Expeditionary Fleet proceeding to Malaya with a powerful invasion force. With many of its carriers approaching Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invasion force was dependent on land-based air cover. The Japanese Navys 22nd Air Flotilla had relocated to bases in French Indochina. Also within range were Army aircraft flying out of the Saigon area. The Japanese had several hundred aircraft at their disposal. On the British side there was a collection of approximately 150 mostly obsolete and poorly maintained aircraft including Brewster Buffalos, Vildebeast torpedo bombers, Blenheim light bombers, and Hudson patrol aircraft. The British had reinforced their naval forces in the area in November with the arrival of Force Z. Force Z included the old battle cruiser Repulse and the new state-of-the-art b.........
During WW I Germany made very effective use of its U-boat fleet in a campaign which almost resulted in Englands defeat. As a result, the Versailles Treaty prohibited Germany from possessing submarines. By the late 1920s Germany had circumvented these restrictions and by the time WW II began, they had several dozen U-boats in service. The period between July of 1940 and December of 1941 was known as the fat years for the U-boat fleet. During this period, aided by the use of French Atlantic ports, and the effective use of wolfpack hunting techniques, German U-boats wreaked havoc on convoys in the Atlantic. By the spring of 1941 the Nazi U-boat fleet numbered 120, and later in the war would exceed 350 in number. The tide began to turn in favor of the Allies in late 1941 when the Royal Navy acquired fifty old destroyers from the U.S., and began an effective campaign against German weather and supply surface ships which supported the undersea hunters. The RAF was also involved, and the Sho.........
Anxious to retaliate against German bombing raids on Great Britain, the RAF devised a strategic bombing strategy of its own. Sir Arthur Harris, Chief of the RAFs Bomber Command, stated: The Nazis entered this war with the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone, and nobody was going to bomb them...they sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind. The Avro Lancaster Mk. B.I. heavy bomber, certainly one of the most important aircraft of World War II, played a major role in the British retaliation. The 7,366 Lancasters which were produced completed 156,000 missions, and because of their large payload dropped a total of 608,612 tons of bombs. The Lancaster evolved from the twin engine Manchester medium bomber which was modified to accept four engines. The Lancasters success stemmed partially from its large payload. Specially modified Lancasters were capable of carrying the 22,000 pound Grand Slam bomb. The Lancaster was operated by a crew of seven o.........
The Axis attack on the British controlled island of Malta commenced in 1940 only one day after Mussolini committed Italy's forces on the side of the Germans during WW II. This strategically located island was a thorn in the side of Axis plans to dominate the Mediterranean and win control of North Africa. Malta would be attacked thousands of times by waves of both Italian and German bombers during the course of the War. On a per acre basis it may be one of the most bombed targets of WW II. In the early phases of the defense of the island a handful of Gloster Gladiators which were supplemented eventually by RAF Hurricanes carried on the brunt of the islands defense. Spitfires were sorely needed. The first Fifteen Spitfires arrived in Malta on March 7, 1942, and a second group of Spits arrived on March 29. In both cases they were launched from the HMS Eagle, and had to fly more than 600 miles over the Mediterranean to reach the island. In April of 1942, Churchill asked Roosevelt for.........
The Battle of Britain in 1940 was the biggest air battle ever fought in the history of armed conflict. After the fall of France Hitler hoped to sign a peace treaty with Britain allowing the Germans to dominate Europe, and ultimately attack Russia in the East. Being rebuffed by the British, Hitler and his senior military advisors formulated Operation Sea Lion. This was to involve an invasion of Britain after the Luftwaffe had attained total domination over the RAF. As plans evolved for knocking out the RAF, the Germans began assembling a large number of airfields in Holland, France, and Belgium to be used for the attack. In their arsenal the Germans had more than 800 medium range bombers including the Heinkel He-111, the Junker Ju-88, and the Dornier Do-17. They also had more than 200 Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers, and more than 900 Bf-109 and Bf-110 fighters to escort their attacking forces. The British had far less than 1000 defensive aircraft at their disposal with Hawker Hurricanes outn.........
On November 2, 1936 the keel was laid for a new German 35,000 ton-class battleship. On April 1, 1939 the new ship was christened the Tirpitz, and by February of 1941 the giant ship had entered service. The hull of the Tirpitz was 90% welded, and the battleship was very heavily armored, rendering it almost unsinkable in the minds of German naval strategists. In service the Tirpitz actually displaced closer to 53,000 tons. With a crew slightly in excess of 2,000 the ship was capable of making 29 knots. With a range of more than 9,000 miles at a speed of 16 knots, the Tirpitz was certain to take a heavy toll on Allied shipping in the North Atlantic. The Royal Navy and RAF determined that the Tirpitz must never be allowed to become an effective convoy buster, and a multi-year campaign of harassment of the huge German warship was undertaken. In July of 1940, while the ship was still being outfitted, an air attack was launched with little significant damage. After completing its sea trials .........
Print size 16 inches x 11.5 inches (41cm x 30cm) Supplied with signed and numbered certificate of authenticity.
Artist : Stan Stokes
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The Exterminator by Stan Stokes.
By mid-1941 it was clear that Hitlers plans to invade Britain were in disarray. The RAF had fought the Luftwaffe to a standoff, and many of Germanys top pilots had been killed or captured. Not willing to admit defeat in his campaign against Britain, Hitler approved the development of a pilotless terror weapon, the VF-1 Vergeltungswaffe (retaliation weapon). Designed by the Feiseler Company, the small pilotless Fi-103 was at times referred to in Britain as the doodlebug, buzz bomb, or farting fury. These flying bombs were inexpensive to build and were capable of carrying an 1870-pound warhead. The Fi-103 was powered by a ram-jet engine, and utilized three air driven gyroscopes to orient the aircraft. A rudimentary pre-set propeller device was utilized to determine when the VF-1 would land. Lacking the accuracy necessary to make it an effective weapon against military targets these doodlebugs were primarily targeted at large population centers. Therefore, they were primarily used as ci.........
During WW I there were two successful designers of flying boats; the American Glen Hammond Curtiss and the Englishman John Cyril Porte. A flying boat differs from a seaplane in that a seaplane is a modified land-based aircraft, whereas a flying boat has the hull of a boat. Glen Curtiss had built the first U.S. designed seaplane and had introduced a flying boat in 1912. John Porte, who was born in 1883, had served with the Royal Navy for several years prior to dedicating himself to aviation. He went to America in 1913 to work with Curtiss. In 1913 a British publisher and aviation enthusiast, Lord Northcliffe, had established a $50,000 prize for the first to cross the Atlantic in a hydroaeroplane. Curtiss built an aircraft, the twin-engine America, for Rodman Wanamaker, the wealthy American department store owner that was supposed to challenge for the big prize. However, the design was ineffective, and a frustrating period of modifications was undertaken. When the Great War started Port.........
James Edgar (Johnnie) Johnson was the Royal Air Forces top fighter ace in Europe with 38 confirmed victories during the War. Johnson was called up in 1939 following his training with the RAF Volunteer Reserve. Having been hospitalized for much of the Battle of Britain, Johnsons first serious action was in mid-1941 when he often flew with Douglas Baders section. Johnson was promoted quickly and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross following his fifth victory in 1941. In early 1943 Johnson was put in command of a wing of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Flying the high-performance Supermarine Spitfire Mark IX, Johnson achieved 18 victories in seven months of flying. Many of Johnsons victories were achieved against the Messersmitt Bf-109. Promoted to Group Captain in early 1945, Johnson was put in command of the 125 Wing for the duration of the War. The Supermarine Spitfire is the only Allied fighter to have been continuously produced from before 1939 to after 1945. In total more than.........
With Italys entry into WW II on June 10, 1940, the epic two-and-one-half-year siege of Malta began. Symbolizing the defiant resistance of the people and defenders of that tiny island, the legend of Faith, Hope, and Charity grew from a handful of Gloster Sea Gladiators which initially comprised Maltas sole aerial defense. Until the arrival of the more modern Hawker Hurricanes, these obsolescent biplanes fought the Regia Aeronautica alone in the skies above Malta. Only six or seven Gladiators were assembled from the shipment of eighteen crated aircraft which had been delivered by the HMS Glorious. Others were utilized for spare parts, and three had been dispatched, still crated, to Egypt. Though hugely outnumbered, the defenders fought on, raising the morale of the citizens of Malta, and denying the Italians mastery of the sky. Suffering from a constant shortage of spare parts, tools and equipment, the devoted ground support crews were never able to keep more than three Gladiators opera.........
