'Grid' Caldwell MC*. WWI
Combat over Normandy. prints signed by 'Johnnie' Johnson, Geoffrey Page, Pete Brothers.
Hampden's over the countryside.
Caucasus Dawn. Prints signed by Gunter Rall, Walther Wolfrum, Franz Woidich, Werner Hohenberg.
Mustang Escort. P-51 flown by Captain Leonard 'Kit' Carson.
Spitfires over Kent.
W/C Guy Gibson VC DSO* DFC* over the Mohne Damn.
My own Fighting Lady print, signed by 43 German and British 'aces' of WWII
General Walter Krupinski with the original painting of Fighter General.
Group Captain Frank Carey CBE DFC** DFM AFC
Gerhard Schopfel KC
Erich Rudorffer KC, oak leaves and crossed swords.
Peter Duttmann KC and his lovely wife Anni.
Neville Duke DSO OBE DFC** AFC
Fighter General. prints signed by; General Krupinski, Colonel H Marquardt, Major E Rudorffer, Cpt E W Reinert, Major G Schoepfel, Lt F Tegtmeier, Major H Lange, Lt P Duttmann.
Right of the Line. Prints signed by; G Rall, U Steinhilper, R Miese. P Barthropp, HM Stephen, A Winskill.
'Laddie' Lucas CBE DSO* DFC
Bob Doe DSO DFC signing the Fighting Lady prints.
'Paddy' Barthropp DFC AFC Sir 'Archie' Winskill KCVO CVO CBE DFC*
Peter Brothers CBE DSO DFC*
Fighting Lady. Showing W/C 'Johnnie' Johnson CB CBE DSO** DFC* MKIX Spitfire over the Dover cliffs. prints signed by 'Johnnie'Johnson, B Doe HM Stephen P Barthropp 'Archie' Winskill Bird-Wilson 'Laddie' Lucas Peter Brothers Geoffrey Page Sir Dennis Crowley-Milling Billy Drake Desmond Sheen.
Bob Doe signing the Fighter Pilot prints.
S/L Ian Blair DFM signing the Return from Caen prints. I have to include a remarkable story about Ian when he was an air gunner on Blenheim's in North Africa. They were attacked by an enemy aircraft near the coast. On the first attack the pilot was killed and the Blenheim started to go down. Ian, who'd never flown an aircraft before managed to get into pilots seat and evaded continued passes by the e/a who eventually flew off. Cpl Blair navigated the Blenheim back to base, lower the undercarriage and landed the plane perfectly. The Station Commander gave him an immediate DFM. He subsequently went on a pilots course and did two successful tours as a Spitfire pilot.
Wartime photo of Ian Blair DFM
Fighter Pilot print.
ACM Sir Lewis Hodges KCB CBE DSO* DFC* DL signing my Lysander Pick Up print.. The ACM lived only a five minute drive from me in Plaxtol, Kent. It was a real joy to listen to his story of navigating his way across France at night to drop off and pick up agents from the French Resistance or SOE, including two future Presidents of France (V Auriol, F Mitterrand).
Lysander pick up.
Mohinda Pujji DFC. There is a wonderful statue, unveiled in 2014, in Gravesend, Kent to this brave and lovely man.
Mohinda siting in the cockpit of his Hurricane fighter.
Battle for the skies over Dieppe.
Hurricane Patrol. 85 Squadron. prints signed by W/C 'Tap' Tapping DFC*
Adolf Galland signing Eagles over the Steppes prints in his lovely house just above the famous bridge in Remagen. Heidi, Galland's wife was beautiful and lovely and showed me around their wonderful house which included a spectacular large, stained glass window at the end of his sitting room and two full-size excellent oil portraits of Galland's brothers who were both WWII fighter pilot 'aces'.
General Gunter Rall signing my Eagles prints. If you look closely you can see Gunter's missing thumb on his left hand. It was shot off by the 56th Fighter Group's Mustang P-51''s. Gunter's spectacular home high up on the hills overlooking Bad Reichenhall was the most beautiful house and setting anyone could wish for. It was also snowing very heavily and I was worried about being stranded high up in the mountains while the signings took place. I was relieved to make it down, though mostly sideways however. I met Gunter many times both in the UK and Germany, he was an extremely lovely, charming and a very charismatic man indeed.
Eagles over the Steppe. prints signed by Gunter Rall, Peter Duttmann, Walter Wolfrum, Walter Krupisnki
Larry Lewis DFC DFM AE
'Larry' Lewis DFC DFM. my golfing partner and president of the golf club. Larry was a 'rigger' on 'Ginger' Lacey's Hurricane during the Battle of Britain. In 1941 he completed a tour as a rear gunner on Wellingtons, gaining a DFM. Commissioned and taking a pilots course in Canada he went to the Far East flying Dakotas in Burma gaining an immediate DFC for rescuing wounded American Special Forces stuck behind enemy lines. Larry flying through the night landed the 'Dak' in a paddy field. The local villagers came out and by lifting the tail turned the Dakota around so Larry could fly back to base. Larry's favourite saying of his time in the RAF during the war was 'I went from out to in and from the back to the front'.
S/L George Harris DFC. George was a pilot in 101 Squadron which had an extra fluent German speaker onboard. His sole job was to convey extreme confusion to the Luftwaffe aircrews who were getting conflicting orders to fly elsewhere and at different heights. Arguments would brake out amongst the German pilots and giggling amongst the Lancaster crews. However, 101Sqn were targeted because of this and suffered the highest casualty rate of the war.
Eric Kemp DFC. Eric lived only a few hundred yards from me and we played golf together for decades. He was a navigator on his beloved Halifax's. He told me that once he went up to the Astra dome to get 'a fix' on his bearings. To his surprise he found all the stars in the night sky were simply not visible; Impossible. As his eyes grew accustomed to the dark he became aware that in fact there was another Halifax above his and only less than two feet away. He ordered the pilot to gently and cautiously descend. A lovely and most gentle man, he had a jewellery shop in the High Street, Sevenoaks, Kent for decades until he retired.
Larry Robillard DFC. In a club in London to sign Return from Caen prints.
Return from Caen. signed by L Lewis DFC DFM E Kemp DFC, G Harris DFC, I Blair DFM,A Eyton-Jones DFC, T Austin DFC, M Allen DFC**,P Ward-Hunt DFC, P Rutter, L Robillard DFC. M Scott DFC
Spitfires taking off from a satellite airfield in Kent 1940.