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London Pride by Nicolas Trudgian - Aviation Art

$135.00 $175.00

Edition

Basil Stapleton Limited Edition

Giclee Edition

Quantity

Product Specs

Variant: Basil Stapleton Limited Edition
In Stock: 3
Brand: Wings Fine Arts
Collection: The Me109 (Bf109)

London Pride

By Nicolas Trudgian

For one hundred years the Royal Air Force has provided outstanding service in the defense of the United Kingdom. Never was this more so than towards the end of the Battle of Britain when London became the focus of aerial attacks by the Luftwaffe.

Daily, from the streets of the city, onlookers witnessed the deadly conflict. In one of those battles, between a German Me109E and the 603 Squadron Spitfire of Pilot Officer Basil ‘Stapme’ Stapleton, the aircraft were engaged in a particularly frenzied dogfight over Tower Bridge - ‘London Pride' depicts that real event. The fate of the German aircraft is unknown. Stapme, low on fuel and ammunition, stayed at chimney pot height in order to follow roads he recognized all the way back to his airfield at Hornchurch.

On one of the many occasions that ’Stapme’ and Nicolas met, they thought up the idea of depicting Basil’s memorable dogfight over the Thames. The sheets of paper that now form the Basil Stapleton Editions were signed by Stapleton so that they would one day be published on a special anniversary such as this.

Overall size: 20" x 28½"

EDITIONS:

THE BASIL STAPLETON LIMITED EDITION: 200 PRINTS ($135)

Signed by the Artist and Squadron Leader Basil ‘Stapme’ Stapleton DFC (Dutch) 1920 – 2010

GICLEE EDITION: 15 PRINTS ($425)

Giclée on canvas. Image size: 22" x 36" (ships rolled)

The Signatory

Basil Stapleton - Squadron Leader Basil ‘Stapme’ Stapleton DFC, DFC (Dutch) 1920 – 2010

Thrown into the thick of the Battle of Britain from August 1940, flying in No. 603 Spitfire Squadron based at RAF Hornchurch in Essex, Basil ‘Stapme’ Stapleton became one of the outstanding fighter pilots of that period, accounting for nearly twenty enemy aircraft destroyed or damaged. He was consequently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on 15 November 1940.

One of the German aircraft that he downed was the Bf109E of Franz von Weera, the only German pilot to subsequently escape from captivity and return to Germany. In another combat, Stapme was lucky to make it home, his aircraft having been badly damaged in a dogfight over the Channel. From April 1941. Stapme served in various units including those operating ‘Hurricats’; Hurricane fighters converted to be launched by catapults from convoy-escort ships. In February 1942, he was made Flight Commander of No. 257 Squadron, before becoming gunnery instructor at Kenley and then the Central Gunnery School.

Stapme returned to operations in August 1944 to command No. 247 Squadron’s Typhoons and for his part in the Battle of Arnhem he received the Dutch Flying Cross. Whilst attacking a train in Germany his aircraft sustained damage from flying debris and he had to force land, becoming a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft 1 until the war’s end.

Always known to his many friends and admirers as ‘Stapme’, from a phrase in his favorite cartoon ‘Just Jake’, he was a very likable character and looked every bit the classic image of an RAF fighter pilot; tall, blonde and with his characteristic handlebar mustache.