Pilot Signed Prints : Brigadier General Robin Olds
After leaving West Point in June 1943, Robin Olds was posted to the 479th Fighter Group in England, joining 434 Squadron. Based at Wattisham in East Anglia, and flying P-38s, he was involved in heavy bomber escort duties and fighter sweeps until the Normandy invasion, soon after which his Squadron converted to P51 Mustangs. by early 1945 Robin Olds was in command of 434 Squadron taking part in the Battle of the Bulge, flying escort missions, and providing air support to the airborne attack across the Rhine. At the end of World War II Robin Olds had 24.5 victories, of which 13 were in the air. Later in Vietnam Robin Olds gained four more victories, flying F4 Phantoms and flew with the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing. Sadly, Robin Olds passed away on 14th June 2007.
Phantom Raiders by Simon Atack.
Just 50 miles north west of Hanoi in North Vietnam, lies the long and winding valley of the infamous Red River - a name that was to become bitterly familiar to the F4U Phantom pilots of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing. Flowing for miles through the countrys deep interior, the waters of the Red River fed the strategically important steel mills at Thai Nguyen, and the power stations at Viet Tri; they also irrigated the rice and shrimp paddy fields that fed the armies of the North Vietnamese and Vietcong, distributed to the combat areas through a sophisticated network of hidden trails and tracks, bridges and railways. Defending these vitally important targets was a vast array of anti-aircraft systems of every conceivable type and calibre; at Yen Bai the North Vietnamese even established a secret fighter airfield where their Mig jet fighters were hidden in hangars dug by hand deep into the surrounding hills - in short it was one of the most heavily defended and awesome places on Earth. Bu.........
Big Brothers and Little Friends : the enduring bond between the bomber crews and fighter pilots of the USAAF Eighth Air Force in their prolonged and hotly contested air war against Hitlers Nazi Germany, 1942-1945.
Item Code : DHM2303
Top Cover by Gerald Coulson. - Editions Available
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Limited edition of 400 prints, with three signatures. Full Item Details
P-51 Mustangs of the 20th Fighter Group make a low pass over B-17s of the 401st Bomb Group at Deenethorpe, as they return to their base at Kingscliffe in late 1944.
Item Code : DHM2680
Teamwork by Nicolas Trudgian. - Editions Available
With the morning sun glinting on their fuselages, P-51 Mustangs of the 78th Fighter Group cross the Dutch coastline far below, as they head back towards their base at Duxford, England at the end of a long sweep east of the Rhine crossing, Spring 1945. The final months of the war in Europe lie ahead, and for the P-51 pilots victory is within sight. Finally, after years of toil, the sky was theirs.
Item Code : DHM1845
Opening Sky by Robert Taylor. - Editions Available
Part of a small print series of six American WW2 aircraft, signed by some of the great American pilots, some no longer with us. Cranston Fine Arts have purchased the last remaining stocks of this aviation series.
Item Code : DHM2652
P-51 Mustang by Nicolas Trudgian. - Editions Available
Typical of the aggressive fighter pilots led by the great Hub Zemke was Robin Olds. Having completed his training on the P-38 in America, Olds arrived at RAF Wattisham, England in May 1944, assigned to fly the remarkable twin-boomed fighter with the 434th Squadron. It didnt take long for the novice pilot to make his mark. After flying interdiction missions over France and Germany, with the 479th Olds took part in the D-Day operations, then on August 13 opened his score by jumping two Fw190s at ground level. After a brief but hectic fight, he brought both down. A couple of weeks later he bagged three Me109s – his wingman got another two – when attacking a group of some fifty enemy fighters while escorting bombers high over Muritz Zee. Converting to P-51D Mustangs, Olds completed two combat tours, flying deep penetration missions, engagements with the Luftwaffes new Me262 jet fighter, and strafing attacks on German facilities and airfields. By the end of the war, at 23 years of age with.........
Though some 1400 of Germanys remarkable Me262 jet aircraft were built, fewer than 300 ever saw action during its short 10 month combat career, the 550 mph fighter-bomber arriving in service too late to make any impression on the course of the war. Most famous of all Me262 units was Jagdverband 44, commanded by General Adolf Galland. Instructed by Hitler to set up a small defensive fighter unit to make the most of the new Me262, Gallands JV44 attracted other top-scoring pilots, including top aces Macky Steinhoff and Walter Krupinski, and the unit soon became dubbed Gallands Squadron of Experts. Though doing their best to repel daylight attacks on jet production plants in Southern Germany, JV44 were fighting a losing battle. During a raid on 9 April 1945 the unit lost nine aircraft – a pattern that was to continue. Also, American fighter pilots, unable to catch the 262 in the air, found success taking the jets out as they took off or landed, catching them while at their most vulnerabl.........
