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Trudgian, Nicolas
Home At Dawn
When No 49 Squadron Lancasters bombed the S.S. barracks at Berchtesgaden on 25th of April 1945, its aircrews completed a campaign that had begun 5 1/2 years earlier in September, 1939. From the very beginning, a 49 Squardon were in the thick of the action with one of their pilots, Roderick Learoyd, winning Bomber Command's first Victoria Cross.
In 1942 it was Lancasters of 49 Sqn that led the epic raid on the Schneider armament and locomotive works at Le Creusot. In 1943, they flew the "shuttle-bombing" raids to Friedrichshafen and Spezia, attacked the heavily defended rocket sites at Peenemunde, and in prepration for D-Day, bombarded the coastal batteries in Normandy and the V-1 sites in the cages by the river Loire, north of Paris. Later in 1944 the squadron notably took part in the raid on the German Baltic Fleet, continuing to fly important bombing missions against the Nazi war machine until the final collapse of the Third Reich. So it was fitting that an RAF squadron whose history went right back to 1916, should make the coupe de grace at Berchtesgaden.
Northern Europe's short summer nights, with darkness lasting but a few hours, often saw the RAF bomber crews returnin to Enlgand at dawn, and it is one such scene which is caught on canvas at Nicolas Trudgian's new painting. As the sun comes up over the river Orwelll at Pin Mill, Lancasters of No. 49 Squadron descend low over Sufolk, heading towards their base Fiskerton. The night raid on Hamburg is almost completed. Spitfires from No. 129 Squadron, based at Hornchurch, having made an early morning attack on German installations in Holland, have picked up the bombers and escorted them home.
Overall Size: 30 3/4"w x 23 1/2"h
Edition Size: 500 Signed and numbered
Signed by: Flight Lieutenant Eric Jones, Flight Lieutenant Leslie Hay, Flight Lieutenant Robert Souter, Flight Lieutenant Ernest Webb DFC
