"Clearing Skies"

by Robert Taylor

The winter of 1944 wasn’t the coldest ever recorded in England but it came close. The weather was bitter and, in what would turn out to be the last Christmas of the war, temperatures plunged across the country, bringing ice, freezing fog and deep banks of drifting snow.

Airfields across East Anglia stood bleak and frost-bound, runways kept clear of snow when conditions allowed, whilst the heavy bombers of the US Eighth Air Force remained under wraps, engines oiled, warmed and ready for any break in the banks of murky fog that would allow them to fly. And when those breaks came, the bombers were back in action ready to play their part in the final destruction of Hitler’s Third Reich. The end game was rapidly approaching and both sides knew it.

Bearing all the hallmarks of a classic Robert Taylor masterwork, this outstanding piece portrays one such break in the weather when, with recent heavy snow beginning to thaw, the B-17 Fortresses of the famous 100th Bomb Group at Thorpe Abbotts in Norfolk are being prepared for a new mission to Germany in early 1945.

Earning the nickname ‘The Bloody Hundredth’ due to the heavy losses they suffered, Robert has fittingly chosen the 100th BG to represent all those who flew so heroically with the Eighth Air Force in England during World War II.

The Eighth flew its final bomber operations of the war on 25 April 1945, the last of 968 combat missions involving over 523,000 sorties; they had dropped some 700,000 tons of bombs, inflicting destruction on a scale from which the enemy could never recover. Yet the cost of the victory in which they had played such a major part made for sober reading; they had lost some 6,130 bombers and fighters along with some 47,000 casualties, including more than 26,000 dead - half of the entire US Army Air Force losses during the conflict.

Overall size: 21¼" x 35½"

EDITIONS

• Limited Edition: Signed by three 100th Bomb Group aircrew who flew B-17s on combat missions ~ 350 prints ($275)
• Artist's Proof: Signed by ten 100th Bomb Group aircrew who flew B-17s on combat missions ~ 25 prints ($525)
• Collectors Edition: Signed by ten 100th Bomb Group aircrew who flew B-17s on combat missions ~ 75 prints ($415)
• Remarque: Signed by ten 100th Bomb Group aircrew and one Crew Chief ~ 15 prints ($1,195)
• Double Remarque: As above ~ 10 prints ($1,950)
• Museum Presentation: Limited edition matted with six additional 100th BG pilot signatures and original USAAF wings ~ 1 only (SOLD)

LIMITED EDITION SIGNATURES

• Capt Robert Shoens (Pilot)
• 1st Lt John Clark (Co-Pilot)
• 1st Lt James Rasmussen (Navigator)

COLLECTORS EDITION SIGNATURES

• Capt Robert Shoens (Pilot)
• 1st Lt John Clark (Co-Pilot)
• 1st Lt James Rasmussen (Navigator)
• Maj John ‘Lucky’ Luckadoo (Co-Pilot)
• SSgt Lewis Payne (Waist Gunner)
• SSgt Al Arreola (Ball Turret Gunner)
• SSgt Albert Freitas (Radio Operator)
• SSgt Lewis Herron (Tail Gunner)
• SSgt Joe Urice (Tail Gunner)
• Lt Col Henry ‘Hank’ Cervantes (Co-Pilot of aircraft E-Z Goin’ featured in the print)

REMARQUES

• The remarque and double remarque editions are additionally signed by Crew Chief MSgt Dewey Christopher

Each print in the remarque editions will have a delicately crafted original pencil drawing, skillfully created by Robert Taylor in the lower margin. Every Remarque drawing is different and unique.

The remarque editions are similarly mounted, with the remarque drawing executed on a separate piece of paper which is included in the mat.