All the paintings in this book depict aircraft which were designed, built and flown in what for me was the golden age of aviation. I suppose we all look back at things past with some affection, usually conveniently forgetting the unpleasant parts,remembering only the best, and sometimes longing for those days to reappear.

Most of the old aviation photographs that were taken during the period which I cover with my paintings were in monochrome, and were made without any artistic thought, by people who had no purpose beyond recording what they saw. Few depicted combat scenes, for obvious reasons - people shooting and being shot at don’t have much time or inclination to take photographs. My job is to recreate scenes which were not, indeed mostly could not, be recorded by the camera, and to do so using the most colourful medium I know, which is oil paint.

Much goes into trying to recreate a scene from the past, including a great deal of research and planning,and all the imagination which I can muster. Much of the planning is to ensure that what is painted is accurate, because - hoping not to sound too pompous - I try to recreate little cameos from our aviation history. Perhaps what I paint is not all that important in a truly historical sense - I don’t really know; I suppose that only time will reveal the answer to that question. What I do try to do is to avoid becoming too obsessed with all the detail of this huge subject,and to leave the making of out-and-out historical statements to the historians so as to concentrate on trying to recreate the atmosphere of the era and the arena.

The historians and writers of technical literature provide an abundance of facts; photographers and technical illustrators provide a plethora of highly detailed graphics showing the aircraft from the era paint. I try to translate all this information, aided by the help of many friends who were there, into something which I hope gives my audience a realistic feeling for what it was like to live and fly in combat some fifty years ago.

Eagles High

Welcome Sight

Hurricane Force

Summer Victory

Gathering Storm

Broken Silence

Midway - The Turning of the Tide

Early Morning Arrival

Hurricane Scramble

Zero Encounter

Stuka!

Mission Completed

Lightning Strike

Home Run

Return from Schweinfurt

St. Croix-sur-Mer

The Abbeville Boys

Dawn Patrol

Ace of Aces

Low Holding

Combat over London

‘JV-44’

Zemke’s Wolf Pack

Bader’s Bus Company