Description
The Desperate siege of Wake Island took place December 8 through 23, 1941. With only several hundred Marines, Naval personnel and civilian American contractors to defend against this concentrated onslaught with marginal weaponry, the spirit of heroism within this group has never been surpassed. Shown here are F4F Wildcats of VMF-211 preparing for battle. In the cockpit of one of the only four flyable aircraft available, Capt. Hank Elrod confers with fellow pilots John Kinney and Frank Tharin, before embarking on a mission December 11, in which he inflicted damage sufficient to sink the enemy destroyer Kisaragi. On this same date the gallant defenders of Wake repulsed a Japanese amphibious landing, the only time such an attempt was thwarted during World War II. Inevitably, the defenders of Wake Island, isolated, out of ammo, and on the brink of starvation, became prisoners-of-war of the Japanese, but only after one of history’s most truly magnificent stands.
The painting The Magnificent Fight: The Battle for Wake Island was created in 1999. It was the first of several of John Shaw’s aviation scenes to be commissioned by Eugene Eisenberg, a well-known collector of military, aviation and maritime oil paintings. Owner of the largest number of original oils by the famous British aviation artist Robert Taylor, Mr. Eisenberg’s collection is one of the finest of its type in the world. With a special interest in the opening days of WWII, Eisenberg had special individuals, aircraft and elements in mind when he commissioned the large 4’ x 8’ oil, and many of the individuals whose faces are depicted are based on wartime photos. A special thanks for help on specific details goes to the remarkable Wake Island pilot, Gen. John F. Kinney (shown over cockpit in t-shirt). Not only was he possibly responsible for Wake’s tiny ‘air force’ lasting as long as it did, due to his engineering ingenuity, but also was able to supply the artist with drawings from memory and based on his diary entries of those weeks at Wake, supplying details such as locations of water towers, positions of wrecked aircraft, tractors, revetments (and even the fuselage numbers to put on the aircraft in them!) It’s no wonder he was one of the few to escape the Japanese during his imprisonment, and make his way back to freedom across war-torn China, go on to become a Marine Corps General, and then nearly 60 years later be able to recall such details with amazing clarity. Such was the stuff of which these amazing defenders of Wake Island were made.
THE PILOTS EDITION
Joining the artist John Shaw, the Limited Edition is countersigned by Three Grumman F4 Wildcat Pilots:
Major ROBERT O. ARTHUR
General JOHN F. KINNEY
Lieutenant DAVID D. KLIEWER
THE MAIN EDITION
Joining the artist John Shaw, the Main Edition is countersigned by 31 Wake Island defenders from the following list:
EARL H. BARNES
ARMAND E. BENJAMIN
EDWIN J. BORNE
WALTER A. BOWSHER
WILLIAM B. BUCKIE
DENNIS C. CONNOR
JAMES H. COX
JOHN R. DALE
JACK E. DAVIS
NORMAN D. ELLIOTT
GENE A. FLEENER
NORMAN N. FRITZSHALL
RICHARD C. GILBERT
FRANKLIN D. GROSS
RALPH J. HOLEWINSKI
GEORGE G HUBLEY
JOHN S. JOHNSON
GUY J. KELNHOFER
WALTER T. KENNEDY
JAMES O. KING
EDWIN E. LAPORTE
WILLIAM H. MANNING
KENNETH L. MELTON
WILLIAM O. PLATE
FENTON R. QUINN
JULIAN K SANDVOLD
LEROY N. SCHNEIDER
IRVING B. SILVERLIEB
WILEY W. SLOMAN
CASSIUS E. SMITH
WILLIAM L. TAYLOR
GLENN E. TRIPP
MACKIE L. WHEELER
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