Photos Military Art

Last of the 24th by Bud Bradshaw Soldier of the 24th Regiment of Foot (South Wales Borderers) loads his last round at the Battle of Isandhlwana.

d5b2040343b890c730af7cf584b2287d.jpg
 
An RAF Avro Lancaster bomber's crew start the engines on an airfield dispersal to join the stream of other aircraft heading east as the Moon rises over a winter dusk.

268786178_4649427665136406_8893867934198804255_n.jpg


Art by "Flight Artwork"
 
"Spitfires in Channel dogfight"

265570231_4635737479838758_2436151476441592160_n.jpg

The Luftwaffe’s new Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters outclassed the RAF’s Mk V Spitfires in 1942 in almost every way. But when the pilots of 303 (Polish) Squadron were ‘bounced’ by German fighters while on a bomber escort run over France on 5 June they turned the tables. F/O Gladych, P/O Szelestowski and Sgt Stasik shot down three of the enemy aircraft without loss. Boleslaw Gladych estimated that one plummeting Fw 190 missed his Spitfire, AD198 (RF-W), by only 20 yards.
Art by "Flight Artworks"
 
“After the Battle” Oil on Canvas by Barry Spicer
1hw4z8n10h781.jpg

Kurt Knispel and members of his crew inspect the damage to their Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B Tiger II after a heavy engagement with Russian forces around the town of Torokszentmiklos in central Hungry on the 22nd of October 1944. During this melee, his tank received over 24 direct hits from enemy fire. Knispel is regarded as the one of worlds greatest ever tank aces, with 168 confirmed, plus another 30 unconfirmed tank kills.

He was fatally wounded by shrapnel to the head near the town of Wostits and died in a field hospital in the nearby town of Urbau, ten days before the wars end in 1945.

He was 23 years of age.

Knispel was born in Salisfeld (Salisov), a small settlement near the town of Zuckmantel in Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia. He spent most of his childhood in nearby Niklasdorf. After completing his apprenticeship in an automobile factory in 1940, Knispel applied to join the armoured branch of the German Army.

Knispel was the gunner of a Panzer IV under Lt. Hellman at the time of Operation Barbarossa, where he participated in the initial assault as part of Panzergruppe 3, LVII Army Corps (later LVII Panzer Corps), commanded by General Adolf-Friedrich Kuntzen. Knispel saw action from Yarzevo to the gates of Stalingrad, in the north around the Leningrad-Tikhvin area and also in the Caucasus under Eberhard von Mackensen.

Knispel returned to Putlos at the end of January 1943 and became familiar with the new Tiger I tanks. At this time, Knispel was credited with 12 kills.

From Putlos, a group of men was sent to the 500th Panzer Battalion at Paderborn. This group, led by Oberfeldwebel Fedensack, was to become the 1st Company of the 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion which fought at Kursk as flank cover for the 7th Panzer Division (Armee Abteilung Kempf). Knispel saw further action during the relief attack on the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket, Vinnitsa, Jampol, and Kamenets-Podolsk.

Transferred from the east, the company was re-equipped with Tiger IIs and fought around Caen and in the retreat from Normandy. From there, the unit was transferred back to the Eastern Front and saw action around Mezőtúr, Törökszentmiklós, Cegléd, Kecskemét and the Gran bridgehead, Gyula, Nitra, Bab Castle, Laa and finally Wostitz where he met his end.

On the 10th of April 2013, Czech authorities said that Knispel's remains were found with 15 other German soldiers behind a church wall in Vrbovec, identified by his dog tags and on the 12th of November 2014, the German War Graves Commission reburied his remains at the Central Brno military cemetery in Brno.
 
“Laguna's Spitfire 303 Squadron”
My 'air to air' depiction of the Supermarine Spitfire Mk IIB flown by members of No 303 Tadeusz Kościuszko 'City of Warsaw’ Squadron RAF during the spring of 1941. P8331 RF-M was one of the 'presentation' Spitfires, carrying the name 'SUMATRA'.
It was shot down by ground fire while attacking German targets in northern France on 27 June. The aircraft crashed south of Calais and the Polish pilot, Battle of Britain veteran Acting Wing Commander Piotr Łaguna, was killed.

270219148_4703391789739993_4333101224918369047_n.jpg


Art by "Flight Artworks"
 
The USS de Haven (DD-727) provides anti-aircraft and anti-submarine protection for the carrier USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) while on Yankee Station, an operational staging area just off the coast of North Vietnam. Oil on canvas by R G Smith, 1969
tenojxzrpmdkcd_dreyrqz3zz127to-vzu81rkenr5o-jpg.jpg
 
Art by "Flight Artworks""Kangaroo nose art Lancaster"

Avro Lancaster W5005, AR-L for Leader of 460 Squadron RAAF as it appeared at the end of September 1943 when it carried 30 operations in the bomb tally on its nose. The aircraft was notable for its nose art of a kangaroo in Wellington boots playing bagpipes, painted by 460 Squadron Navigator T V (Vic) Watts DFC & Bar - a reflection of the tri-national nature of the crew that commissioned it. Watts painted nose art on several of the squadron's aircraft.

269623070_4667415536670952_7155057997502460067_n.jpg


Art by "Flight Artworks"
 

Similar threads

Back
Top