Description
357th Fighter Group aces Chuck Yeager and Bud Anderson guide their P-51 Mustangs, Glamorous Glen III and Old Crow through the Swiss Alps, on January 14th 1945. Flying as wingmen on an uneventful bomber escort – the last mission of their second tour – the two left formation and took off for some aerial sight seeing. Having dropped their wing tanks on Mont Blanc and buzzed Lake Annecy, they returned low level to their base at Leiston, having flown over a thousand miles.
Fighter pilots are, by nature, free spirits. Give them a fast airplane to play with and they will. There were never two freer spirits than “Bud” Anderson and “Chuck” Yeager of the 357th Fighter Group.
Both of these P-51 Mustang pilots were always itching to be where the action was and setting off for what was the last mission of their second tour of combat duty with the Eighth Air Force, they wanted to make it memorable. With the war drawing to a close and little chance of contact with the Luftwaffe, the two pilots left the formation and went sight-seeing!
However on returning to Leiston they discovered that the 357th had just been involved in the most successful air combat of it’s history, claiming 56 ½ enemy aircraft destroyed.
Over the years Bud Anderson has spoken about this day:
” I’m taxiing up to my hardstand and I see all these people standing there. Holy Smokes, how’d they find out about this already? Oh no, they’re here to wish me well after my last mission. I swung around and shut the engine down. The prop hadn’t stopped before Heino jumped on the wing and said “Andy the group shot down 57 airplanes today. How many did you and Chuck get?’ And that’s the story of how Chuck Yeager and Bud Anderson missed the biggest air battle of World War Two.”
In a majestic painting which combines his love of landscape with aviation, Gerald Coulson depicts Bud Anderson and Chuck Yeager racing their Mustangs at low level through an Alpine landscape, oblivious to the record-breaking air battle that they were missing.
THE LIMITED EDITION
Joining artist Gerald Coulson, each print in the entire edition is signed by:
Colonel CLARENCE E “BUD” ANDERSON –357th Fighter Group / 16 ¼ victories
THE 357TH TRIBUTE EDITION
Every print in these editions is additionally signed by Colonel Chuck Yeager, together with three P-51 pilots who flew in Europe with the 357th Fighter Group. There are a total of FIVE signatures in this edition.
Brigadier General CHARLES E. “CHUCK” YEAGER – 357th FG Ace & first to break the sound barrier in level flight / 12 ½ victories
First Lieutenant JOHN SKARA – 357th FG Mustang pilot / Wingman to Bud Anderson
First Lieutenant RAYMOND T CONLIN – 357th Fighter Group / 1 victory
Captain ROBERT P WINKS– 357th FG Mustang Ace / 5 ½ victories
PRESENTATION COPIES
A small number of copies were issued for the Yeager Foundation which are personally signed by the two iconic Aces depicted in the scene:
Colonel CLARENCE E “BUD” ANDERSON
Brigadier General CHARLES E. “CHUCK” YEAGER
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