Return to Gallery > 06 - WWII - Americans In Europe
06 - WWII - Americans In Europe
Return To Rattlesden by Nicolas Trudgian
With their crews, the 447th Bomb Group B-17 Fortresses arrived at Rattlesden in late 1943, the East Anglian base from which the group flew all its missions until the end of the war. Entering combat on December 24, the 447th targeted submarine pens, naval installations, ports and missile sites, airfields and marshaling yards in France, Belgium and Germany in preparation for the Normandy invasion.
In the thick of the bomber offensive, the 447th took part in the Big-Weed raids, supported the D-day landings, aided the breakthrough at St Lo, pounded enemy positions during the airborne invasion of Holland, and dropped supplies to the Free French forces fighting behind enemy lines. During the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944—January 1945, the group attacked marshaling yards, railroad bridges and communications centers in the combat Zone, later resuming their offensive against targets deep inside Germany. When the war ended the 447th had flown over 257 individual missions, with one of their aircrew, Robert Femoyer, being awarded the Medal of Honor. Theirs was typical of the action-packed campaigns flown by the American Eighth Air Force bomb groups in Europe during W.W.II.
The print shows a battle-damaged B-17G of the 447th on final approach to Rattlesden, returning from a strike against road and rail communications in northern Germany in February, 1945. A P-51 pilot from the 359th Fighter Group, having escorted the injured bomber all the way home, sees his charge safely back to base. The beautifully painted Suffolk winter landscape, lightly dusted with snow, provides a fascinating contrast to awesome warbirds as then thunder homeward from battle.
Each print in the edition individually signed by eight combat crew veterans flying B-17 Flying Fortresses for the 447th BG out of Rattlesden, England, during World War II.
Print size: 36 3/4"w x 22 1/2"h
Edition size: 500
Signed by: John Bitzer, Norman Bussel, Edward Dingivan, Frank Frision, John Osbahr, Orlando Petrillo, Byron Schlag and Don Sherman.
