Description
From their first inauspicious raid on German airfields on 4th July, 1942, to their ultimate air supremacy over the skies of Europe in 1945, the men of the U.S Air Forces never wavered in their determination nor flinched from the frightening odds they faced. The vindication of their policy of high altitude daylight precision bombing came with the ultimate victory of the Allied forces in 1945.
In three years of continual combat, the bomber crews of the USAAF overcame the worst odds. They often flew in atrocious weather, they ran the gauntlet of the Luftwaffe fighter Aces, and they pressed on through all the flak that anti-aircraft gunners could throw up at them. They paid the heavy price of war, but in so doing carved out a niche in history, and created a legend that will live so long as man takes to the skies.
Released in 1992 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the arrival in Europe of the men and machines of the Mighty Eighth, Robert Taylor portrays the valiant bombers of the Eighth Air Force coming home from a mission. Set in a majestic panorama of evening sunlight, a battle-weary bomber force approaches the coast of Belgium. A B-17 Fortress sheds debris as it struggles to stay with the group, while three B-24 liberators have joined the formation for the North Sea crossing. A lone P-51, low on fuel, flies close escort.
THE SIGNATURES
This print is signed by 6 distinguished pilots who flew Bombers with the Mighty Eighth:
Major General BOB LANDRY
Colonel WILLIAM LAWLEY Medal of Honor
Colonel EDWARD MICHAEL Medal of Honor
Colonel ROBERT MORGAN – Pilot of the Memphis Belle
Major CLIFF PETERSON
Colonel ALBERT SHOWER
50th ANNIVERSARY PUBLISHER’S PROOF
A specially published set of proofs issued to commemorate the Golden Anniversary of the arrival in Europe of the USAAF in 1942, and the Campaigns fought by the 8th, 9th, 12th and 15th Air Force during World War II.
Each Publisher Proof is issued with a matching numbered companion print:
FOUL WEATHER MISSION
A B-26 Marauder of the 379th Bomb Group encounters heavy weather
returning from an attack on the German V-1 rocket sites in the Pas de
Calais.
The B-26 operated with the 8th and 9th Air Forces out of England and
the 12th Air Force in the Mediterranean. A good-looking medium
bomber, the B-26 carried a useful bomb load but was a handful to fly.
The companion print was additionally signed by B-26 pilot:
ROBERT PEELOS
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