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CLICK HERE FOR A FULL LIST OF ALL NICOLAS TRUDGIAN PRINTS BY TITLE |
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Signatures on this item | |
*The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | |
Name | Info |
Feldwebel Richard Schwarzmann (deceased) *Signature Value : £65 | Conscripted in 1939 into the Wehrmacht he served first with Artillery Regiment 45 in the French campaigns of 1940 where he was wounded. Posted to the Panzer division in the East Front in 1941, in 1943 he joined Panzer Division 503. He was top marksman and Kommandant of both Tiger I and II. He was awarded the Iron Cross II. |
Oberstleutnant Alfred Rubbel (deceased) *Signature Value : £60 | Alfred Rubbel was born in Tilsit on June 28, 1921, and volunteered for the Wehrmacht at the age of eighteen. After his basic training in the infantry replacement regiment 21 and his transfer to the armoured weapon, Alfred Rubbel began the Russian campaign on 22nd June 1942 in the 9th Panzer Regiment 29 of the 12th Panzer Division. First as a charge guard in the chief battalion, then as a guardsman, he experienced the rapid advance of the Army Group to the east. In the fighting around Leningrad on September 3rd, 1941, wounded by grenade splinters, he was transferred to the homeland. In January 1942 he returned to his unit, he took part in the fighting at the Volkhov. After refreshing and rebuilding his company in Silesia, he returned to Panzer Regiment 4 with the long-handled cannon to the Eastern Front. As an unofficial and tank commander, his path led him on a long Panzer raid to the West Caucasus, where the battles in Eastern Caucasus were connected between September and December 1942. In December 1942, he and his comrades in Putlos and Paderborn began the conversion to Panzer VI Tiger. Went to 503th Panzer Division 503, and set in the railway transport in the direction of Rostov, he took part in the retreat to the Dnieper and the battle for the Kessel of Cherkassy as a Panzer commander at Operation Zitadelle, the largest tank battle of the Second World War. After officers' training courses in Ohrdruf and Krampnitz in December 1944, he moved to the 3rd Panzer Division 503, he fought in the King (Tiger II) in Hungary and Austria. At the end of the war, lieutenant of the reserve Alfred Rubbel can look back on a total balance of 57 tank victories in 79 Panzer battles on 81 deployments in the tank and 41 months on the front. He was awarded the Iron Cross I and II. Rubbel was a close friend of Kurt Knispel, a fellow tank commander of Pz Abt 503 and top-scoring Panzer Ace. |
Unteroffizier Dr Franz-Wilhelm Lochmann (deceased) *Signature Value : £55 | Franz-Wilhelm Lochmann joined up in 1941, and trained and served as a tank radio operator and machine gunner in I./503 Heavy Tank Division. He fought in 95 tank engagements and finished the war as a Company Commander. He was awarded the Iron Cross I and II. He died on 1st July 2015. |
The Aircraft : | |
Name | Info |
Me109 | Willy Messerschmitt designed the BF109 during the early 1930s. The Bf109 was one of the first all metal monocoque construction fighters with a closed canopy and retractable undercarriage. The engine of the Me109 was a V12 aero engine which was liquid-cooled. The Bf109 first saw operational service during the Spanish Civil War and flew to the end of World War II, during which time it was the backbone of the Luftwaffe fighter squadrons. During the Battle of Britian the Bf109 was used in the role of an escort fighter, a role for which it was not designed for, and it was also used as a fighter bomber. During the last days of May 1940 Robert Stanford-Tuck, the RAF ace, got the chance to fly an Me109 which they had rebuilt after it had crash landed. Stanford-Tuck found out that the Me109 was a wonderful little plane, it was slightly faster than the Spitfire, but lacked the Spitfire manoeuvrability. By testing the Me109, Tuck could put himself inside the Me109 when fighting them, knowing its weak and strong points. With the introduction of the improved Bf109F in the spring of 1941, the type again proved to be an effective fighter during the invasion of Yugoslavia and during the Battle of Crete and the invasion of Russia and it was used during the Siege of the Mediteranean island of Malta. The Bf109 was the main fighter for the Luftwaffe until 1942 when the Fw190 entered service and shared this position, and was partially replaced in Western Europe, but the Me109 continued to serve on the Eastern Front and during the defence of the Reich against the allied bombers. It was also used to good effect in the Mediterranean and North Africa in support of The Africa Korps. The Me109 was also supplied to several German allies, including Finland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Slovakia. The Bf109 scored more kills than any other fighter of any country during the war and was built in greater numbers with a total of over 31,000 aircraft being built. The Bf109 was flown by the three top German aces of the war war. Erich Hartmann with 352 victories, Gerhard Barkhorn with 301 victories and Gunther Rall with 275 kills. Bf109 pilots were credited with the destruction of 100 or more enemy aircraft. Thirteen Luftwaffe Aces scored more than 200 kills. Altogether this group of pilots were credited with a total of nearly 15,000 kills, of which the Messerschmitt Bf109 was credited with over 10,000 of these victories. The Bf109 was the most produced warplane during World War II, with 30,573 examples built during the war, and the most produced fighter aircraft in history, with a total of 33,984 units produced up to April 1945. Bf109s remained in foreign service for many years after World War II. The Swiss used their Bf109Gs well into the 1950s. The Finnish Air Force did not retire their Bf109Gs until March 1954. Romania used its Bf109s until 1955. The Spanish Hispanos flew even longer. Some were still in service in the late 1960s. |
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