SUMMARY: This offering is a Robert Taylor signed print commemerating
the 50th Anniversary of the D-Day landing. Price:$595.00
SOLD
A Robert Taylor Special Edition**
Signed Limited Edition Lithograph entitled D-Day - The Airborne
Assault, commemorating
the 50th anniversary of D-Day, 1994, showing P-51B Mustangs escort
C-47 Dakotas towing CG-4 Waco gliders, over the Normandy beaches
on D-Day. Signed by Taylor and by 6 pilots who participated in
the assault- P-51 pilots; Warren Emerson, Clayton Gross,
William King and Maurice Long; C-47 pilot Sid Harwell and glider
pilot Miles Wagner. The print is numbered and signed
in pencil as indicated.
It began in pitch darkness. June
6, 1944 was only a few minutes old when the Airborne Pathfinders
drifted silently down from the sky above the fields of Normandy.
At first their seemed nothing untoward about the drone of aircraft
in the night sky. The German garrisons in Northern France were
used to the noise of aircraft overhead after dark, but this night
seemed particularly busy.Looking skyward a German sentry caught
sight of parachutes floating down, clearly visible as the moon
fleetingly broke through the clouds. For an instant he thought
it was the crew jumping from a damaged bomber, but when he saw
the mass of canopies floating earth wards, he knew it was no
ordinary event. Within moments of raising the alarm the crackle
of automatic gunfire confirmed his worst fears: The Invasion
of France had begun.The first assault upon Hitler's 'Fortress
Europe' came from the sky. Shortly after midnight waves of aircraft
and gliders delivered three Divisions of elite airborne troops
into Normandy, their crucial objectives to seize vital bridges,
secure strategic positions and clear the way for the coming aerial
armada.
As the first streaks of dawn
came over the horizon on that historic day, and with American
and British paratroops already engaged in furious fire fights,
the mighty amphibious armada began landing on the beaches of
Normandy.
Above them waves of troop-carrying
aircraft towing gliders stretched from the coast of France all
the way back to England. Closely escorted by fighters, they delivered
over 20,000 highly trained men into the battlefield of Northern
France.
By nightfall the first phase
of the greatest military invasion in history was complete. Five
Divisions were were ashore and the Allies had established a toehold
in occupied Europe. For the Third Reich it was the beginning
of the end.
Without the advanced airborne
assault, and the air supremacy achieved by the escort fighters,
the amphibious landings could have been a disaster. It was therefore
an appropriate choice for artist Robert Taylor to depict the
airborne troop carriers and escort fighters of the ninth Air
Force in his remarkable aviation painting commemorating the 50th
Anniversary of the Normandy Invasion. Already hailed by D-Day
luminaries as the most realistic portrayed rendered by an artist
depicting events of June 6, 1944, the world's premier aviation
artist has undoubtedly painted a masterpiece.
This print shows the C-47 Dakotas
of the 438th Troop Carrier Group towing CG-4 Waco gliders, closely
escorted by P-51Bs of the 354 Fighter Group as they cross the
Normandy beaches. Below, landing craft swarm ashore putting men
and equipment on the beaches, and everything about this spectacular
print brings alive the events of that historic day a half a century
ago. A superb collectors piece with which to remember D-Day,
1944. The piece measures approximately 34 in. by 25 in. and is
housed in a custom archival frame.
This print is accompanied by
two other companion prints--Crash Landing and Into
Battle both by Robert Taylor. The price listed here is
for the set of three prints.
Price:SOLD
All items sold by the History
Buff, Inc. come with documentation and a certified
opinion as to authenticity.
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