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Japanese (various)
Legend Of Colin Kelly, The by Taylor.
In the dark days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, American forces fought back against an overwhelming Japanese onslaught, with obsolete aircraft and equipment. With minimal resources and no hope of reinforcement, they fought a desperate, losing battle, hoping to buy a little time for the United States and her allies in the Pacific. As the Japanese advanced through the Philippines, U.S. airmen and soldiers fought until they surrendered or were destroyed. Their valiant sacrifice is still remembered today.
Representative of their valor was a young B-17 pilot, Captain Colin Kelly, who, with a handful of others, flew the first American bombing missions of World War II. Three days after Pearl Harbor, with Clark Field under air attack, he made an emergency takeoff with three 600-pound bombs aboard. He located several Japanese cruisers shelling a landing area near Aparri. Kelly's plane bombed from 22,000 feet, amazingly, hitting a cruiser. On the way back to Clark, he and his crew were attacked by a squadron of Japanese Zeros led by top ace Saburo Sakai. They raked the Fortress from the rear in a running battle for several dozen miles, killing the waist gunner and injuring others. As the crippled ship began to fall to earth, Kelly held the controls steady while the others bailed out. As the sixth man left the ship, it blew up. His was the first B-17 lost in combat; Kelly was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Robert Taylor has painted a masterpiece of this event; the resulting print edition is the only one by a major aviation artist and the only one signed by the surviving members of Kelly's crew. It comes with a free color companion print personally signed by Saburo Sakai.
Signed by:
Master Sergeant James E. Halkyard - James Halkyard was right waist gunner on Kelly's B-17 that day in December, 1941. he joined the service back in January 1937 and the outbreak of war found him in the Philippines with the 14th Bomb Squadron, 19th Bomb Group. After being shot down, he was picked up and served for a time with the local Philippine guerillas. Evading capture, he rejoined U.S. forces and later served at Bataan.
Staff Sergeant Robert Altman - Robert Altman had joined up in October, 1939, serving with the 42nd Bomb Squadron in Hawaii. December '41 found him at Clark Field in the Philippines with the 14th Bomb Squadron, 19th Bomb Group. He was Radio Operator and belly gunner on Kelly's B-17. Captured by the Japanese after bailing out, he served the rest of the war as a POW. He was taken to Japan and spent 36 months in captivity in Tokyo.
Also included is RISING SUN - A beautiful print of Saburo Sakai in his Zero
Saburo Sakai - This legendary Zero fighter pilot was a descendent of the Samurai warrior class. Raised in a poor family on the southern main island of Kyushu, he enlisted in the Navy in 1933 at age 16. Passing the flight training entrance exam after some difficulty in 1936, he graduated with honors in 1937 and the next year was assigned to the 12th Kokutai, based on Formosa.(Taiwan) He won his first aerial victory on a combat air patrol over Hankow in a Type-96 fighter. he was later based at Hankow and transitioned there into the Zero fighter which he flew against Russian-made 1-16 fighters of the Chinese Air Force.
On December 8, 1941, Sakai participated in the raid on Clark Field, claiming one P-40 in the air and two B-17s destroyed on the ground. On December 10, he encountered and shot down Colin Kelly's B-17. He fought over Java against American and Dutch pilots and in New Guinea against P-40 pilots from the U.S. 8th Fighter Group, B-26s of the 22nd Bomb Group and Australians of 75 Squadron, RAAF.
Badly wounded on August 7, 1942 over Guadalcanal, by U.S. Navy SBD gunners, he struggled back to base at Rabaul with serious head wounds. Hospitalized, he lost the sight in his right eye, but as the war became desperate for Japan, he was pressed into service again. Even with only one eye, he was still an effective fighter pilot and achieved several more victories late in the war. In over 200 aerial combats, Sakai never lost a wingman. He is credited with at least 64 confirmed aerial victories, though the exact total number is not known. In 1957 his book of war memoirs was published under the title of "Samurai". He has visited the U.S. several times and met with many of his former adversaries.
Print size: 33 1/4"w X 25 1/2"h
Limited edition of: 750 signed and numbered
