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| CLICK HERE FOR A FULL LIST OF ALL NICOLAS TRUDGIAN PRINTS BY TITLE |
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First Lt Wayne E Downing
A pilot, Wayne Downing flew Douglas A20 Havoc light bombers with the 416th Bomb Group, the first Group to fly the A20 in Europe. On D-Day the 416th BG targeted Argentan, a major German troop crossroads, and later in the day a second mission to hit a major marshalling yard. Moving to France in September 1944, in October he converted over to flying the more advanced A26 Invader. Wayne Downing flew a total of 86 combat missions. Post-war he stayed with the Air Force flying the B-47 and B-52 until 1962, becoming a maths teacher after leaving the service. He died on 4th August 2018.
| First Lt Wayne E Downing - Signed Nicolas Trudgian Aviation Art Prints Pilot and Aircrew Signatures |
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| Text for the above items : |
Raising Havoc in the Ardennes by Nicolas Trudgian. It is January 1945, and its cold. The German advance in the Ardennes is nearly over, but the Panzer Army is desperately throwing more troops into the breach who try to keep their momentum going in The Battle of the Bulge. Tasked with preventing German reinforcements from reaching the battle front, the Ninth Air Force launched a series of low-level attacks on enemy ground forces as they wind their way through the Ardennes. Flying conditions were not easy, cloud bases were low, and snow was in the air. Nicolas Trudgians new painting recreates an attack on January 23, 1945, by Douglas A-20 Havocs of the 410th Bomb Group. Locating an enemy convoy in open space near the German town of Blankenheim, the Havoc pilots make a swift attack diving from 8000 feet, catching the German force by surprise: Hurtling down the line of vehicles at 320mph they release their parafrag bombs from 300 feet then, dropping just above the roofs of the army trucks continue down the column blasting everything in sight with their forward-firing .50mm caliber machine guns. In the space of a few minutes the attack is completed and the convoy decimated. With ammunition expended and fuel running low the A-20 Havocs climb out of the zone and head for base in France. A 20mm shell has hit the lead aircraft wounding the Bombardier/Navigator Gordon Jones, which will seriously hamper their return through a blizzard, but all aircraft make it safely home - the lead aircraft, on landing, counting over 100 holes of various sizes. For their part in leading the successful attack the Lead Pilot Russell Fellers and Bombardier/Navigator Gordon G. Jones received the Silver Star. Published 2001. Signed by A-20 Havoc combat aircrews, including two Silver Star recipients, from World War Two. |
D-Day Armada by Nicolas Trudgian. There was never a greater concentration of air power deployed in an active theater of war as over the English Channel in May and June 1944. As D-Day approached, the USAAFs Ninth Air Force had assembled over 3500 aircraft a day, they were pounding enemy positions all the way from Pas de Calais to the coast of Normandy. 6 June 1944, arguably the most decisive single day in modern military history, saw the sky filled with waves of troop carrying aircraft towing gliders, dropping over 20,000 highly trained men in support of the massed sea-borne landings on the beaches below. Grabbing all the airspace they could find, the combat wings of the Ninth Air Force were creating havoc among the German ground forces as they scrambled to get troops and armor to the battlefront. |
V.E. Day - Heading Home by Nicolas Trudgian. Only 50 copies available. |
| First Lt Wayne E Downing Squadron details |
| First Lt Wayne E Downing Aircraft details |
 Havoc Manufacturer : Douglas | Havoc A-20 |
 Invader | Invader A-26 |
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