Thursday, November 15, 2012

Anatomy of a P-51 Mustang Loss



My Belgian friend contacted me after a long time without having heard from him.  He asked me if I was still buying collections of World War II aircraft parts.  I gleefully replied, knowing what his question presaged, that I certainly was.  After a brief back and forth and a much longer wait for the delivery of the parts in question, I was happily unpacking two 70 pound boxes of aviation history.  All of the parts were nicely marked and with each aircraft there was a lengthy back story of the excavation (all of which were accomplished many years ago, when eye-witnesses were still alive to direct archaeologists to the otherwise forgotten crash sites) and aircraft history.  The latter was not always complete, but I fortunately have a knack for tracking down records myself, or know other people who can.  Opening those boxes, and others like them, is my favorite part of doing what I do for a living - a Christmas of physical history in twisted duraluminum!

One piece of metal in particular intrigued me, for no other reason than its size and state of preservation.  Many parts that I receive are rather hard to identify, which is my primary motivation to pair them with my original art of the aircraft in action - they are quite forlorn, if not sad, all by themselves with nothing to speak for them.  But this big piece was unmistakably from a P-51 Mustang.  I'd been told that it was a late war 'D' model, but I knew better.  The piece, about four feet long by three feet wide and covered in olive drab, was from the upper fuselage just forward of the vertical stabilizer - and without a ventral fin it could not be a 'D' - but an earlier 'B' model.  I looked more closely at the included photographs of its excavation in France, and was surprised that I'd missed it before: the US insignia was rimmed in red paint.  That seemingly irrelevant detail said much: only USAAF aircraft produced between July and September 1943 were painted in that way (the red was found to be distracting from a distance, and orders were sent to all units that the red was to be over-painted with dark blue ASAP).  In fact I'd never seen any evidence, aside from what I was now looking at, that any P-51 ever flew in action with that rare red surround.  What aircraft was this?  Who flew it?  And how was it lost over France?   These are the little mysteries that get me excited as a historian.


North American, manufacturer of the P-51, was kind enough back in 1943 to stamp many of its aircraft's parts with numbered codes.  Even on the small portion of this aircraft in my possession I was able to uncover several of them: 102-31276-2, 97-31108-5, and 73-31370.  From these, the photos of the excavation, the location of its crash, and information provided on various data plates, I had enough information to put some of the pieces together.  Then my Belgian friend came to the rescue with more details via the excavation team, and I felt confident enough to outline a general history.
In October of 1943 this P-51B was apparently among the first Mustangs sent to the European Theater of Operations (ETO), where it was assigned to the soon-to-be-famous 354th Fighter Group.  The 354th was the first unit in Europe to be equipped with this new and revolutionary fighter, and on December 2nd it flew its first combat sortie, a fighter sweep, over Occupied France - without incident.  On December 7th it escorted its first bomber stream of 8th Air Force B-17s, also without incident.  At the time this aircraft would have been painted in the standard color scheme: olive drab with white identification bands.  For whatever reason and against directives of the USAAF, it evidently flew these missions with the red rimmed US insignia.  Perhaps the unit was too busy with other priorities to paint it out - but that's all speculation.


Sometime in April or May 1944, during the run-up for the D-Day invasion, the 354th received newer P-51s and this particular aircraft was converted to a photo reconnaissance model - known as the F-6B in this case - and assigned to the 10th Photo Group, 12th Photo Squadron.  As part of the 9th Tactical Air Force, this unit was tasked with the mission of low level reconnaissance in support of ground attack missions during and after the D-Day invasion of June 6th.

With the 12th Photo Squadron, this aircraft was assigned to Lieutenant William D. Lacey Jr., pictured below (though in a different F-6B):



While the photo reconnaissance units did not receive the attention often directed upon the fighter escorts, their job was perhaps far more dangerous.  Flying any aircraft at low altitude is a hazard even without people shooting at you.  These F-6 pilots braved not only enemy fighters of the renown Luftwaffe and the heavy anti-aircraft batteries that were a threat to high altitude bombers, but they also had to worry about the far more numerous and harder to evade light flak - smaller rapid-fire guns - which were hidden everywhere near potential targets and whose sole purpose was to destroy snooping aircraft being flown by men like Lieutenant Lacey.

On July 30, 1944, Bill Lacey and his wing man, Lieutenant Robert G. Walker, departed their base near Le Moley to photograph a railroad junction behind German lines.  Lacey was flying the 'number 2' position late in the afternoon when his aircraft was hit by ground fire.  According to Walker's report, he saw Lacey's Mustang catch fire and he attempted to contact the pilot on his radio without any response.  Within seconds the aircraft was engulfed in flames and quickly snapped over onto its back.  At low altitude, even if Lacey were conscious and responsive, there was probably very little he could have done to save himself.  In any case, he hit the ground at high velocity about 5 miles S.E. of Tessy-sir-Vire.

In May 2009, an excavation team arrived at the spot of Lt. Lacey's crash all those years before.  The remains of his aircraft were recovered, including Lacey's survival kit and other personal items.  The team was very sensitive to the fact that this was not just another crash site - but a man of valor had lost his life there.  A memorial service was held in honor of Bill Lacey's sacrifice at the conclusion of the excavation.

Thus it is with a mix of feelings that I close the book on this research project.  For the most part such ventures into history end with little more than unit markings, loss dates, and impersonal serial numbers.  But to have learned these details, to find an actual photograph of the deceased hero still in the prime of his life, and to hold a piece of something that was his in his very last moments . . . that does make a profound impact.  It's for that reason that, while I pay my bills and therefore allow myself the time to conduct this kind of research, by selling my displays of recovered aircraft parts and artwork - I've decided to keep the primary portion of wreckage from Lt. Lacey's P-51 for myself, to display with his photograph.  Perhaps, should the circumstances arise, I'll take that a step further and donate it to a museum - if they would display it.  People should know the story of this individual warrior.

                   

Monday, October 29, 2012

Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-7 'Black 6': Melding Art with Archaeology


On the morning of April 25, 1941, Jagdgeschwader 2./JG 52 was offering fighter cover for a raid over the countryside of Kent, England, when they were ambushed by Spitfires of RAF 92 Squadron. In the ensuing action, Luftwaffe pilot Oberfw. G. Struck's Bf 109 E-7 'Black 6' was critically hit by Squadron Leader J. E. Rankin's Spitfire MkVb. Struck flipped his 109 on its back and fell from the cockpit. He landed safely by parachute and was taken prisoner. His aircraft (Werk Nu. 5895) was not so fortunate. It impacted the ground at high speed near Blackhouse Farm - an event not uncommon in those days.

In 1974 the reports of this loss reached members of the Brenzett Aeronautical Museum, a group of volunteer aviation archaeologists devoted to uncovering the remains of these historic aircraft - before the elements corroded or rusted them away. The impact site of 'Black 6' was located and excavated. The Messerschmitt was is many small pieces, but the wet soil had preserved the parts very well, and much of the original paint was still visible from this JG 52 machine, including its distinctive yellow identification markings. In that respect her recovery was quite unique.

I acquired some of the best pieces of 'Black 6' in 2012. Right away I knew, thanks to the previously done research that included this aircraft's original color scheme and history, that I had to paint this Messerschmitt as it was while still in action over England. I knew this would make an excellent short series of limited edition displays: my artwork paired with the actual fragments from 'Black 6'.


When creating a composition to be paired with aircraft pieces, I always keep in mind the origins of the pieces and the original colors still present upon them. In the case of 'Black 6' I was fortunate to have a reasonably large section of the underside cowling with its thick field-applied yellow 'JG 52' paint over light blue. When I painted this aircraft I made sure to highlight that area of the aircraft, and color match the yellow in the painting with the original paint on the part.


I'll be able to offer about six of these displays, which is roughly average in terms of what I can offer based upon the material on hand. Some of these have already sold!

- R







Sunday, October 28, 2012

Manfred von Richthofen: A New Look


My childhood best buddy, Iain Martin, is now a well known author and historian who works for a great publishing house in Connecticut. I'd already done some work with him for the cover of Eddie Rickenbacker's biography, and the idea of me painting some portraits for his upcoming Gettysburg book came up. I suggested that perhaps we look into some advanced colorization of existing b&w period photos - something I'd been experimenting with in the digital realm. That evolved with some mediocre results, but in the process I came upon some ideas to merge period photo colorization with new hand-painting - in theory bringing together the best of both worlds.

As an experiment I decided to apply these ideas to the well known formal WWI portrait of the 'Red Baron' - Manfred von Richthofen. Starting with the original picture I proceeded to improve upon it using traditional Photoshop techniques: improving the resolution, sharpness, contrast, and healing the many artifacts and damage to the original negative. I then employed the colorization methods that I've developed over the years.


There are huge problems with the usual ways that artists and photo editors add color to b&w photos - they apply to my own usual means as well - due to several factors. For one thing, a b&w photo does not represent a merely desaturated version of a color image. Reds appear as black and light blues appear as white, for example. But the greatest stumbling block in the way of colorizing a convincing image is due to the fact that a human face, for example, is not various shades of one color with only 'pinker' cheeks and lips - which is what we do to a b&w portrait to try and make it look natural in color. There are many tones and colors in the human face, subtle though they may appear, and there is no Photoshop mechanism available to pull this information from out of the original image. They must be hand painted into it, but not in a way that creates a new painting at the expense of the original photo.

(See my comparison photo - below - that shows an excellent but traditional 'colorized' Richthofen with my own original completed piece)


After I'd created the best possible colorized 'Baron', I began trying out my new ideas. I imported dozens of excellent color photos of human facial features: eyes, noses, hair, areas of flesh, warts and all. I created a layer over the background image and, using my eyedropper to capture exact color samples from these photos, began hand painting these features one by one over top of my 'Baron' background. By so doing I discovered myriad colors everywhere in the human face that I might not have otherwise noticed: yellow in the eyes and green in areas of the flesh, and all sorts of odd things. I did not trust my own eyes, but what the eyedropper showed me, and as I built up these layers my 'Baron' started to really come to life. In order to adhere exactly to the original photo, however, most of these layers were translucent - from 90% to less than 5% - and thus nothing of the original photo was completely repainted, while at the same time nothing of the original photo was completely preserved. The result, shown here, I think speaks for itself.

Of course there were some areas where I had to invoke some artistic license. The original photo did not reveal eyelashes, freckles, or other fine details. Surely Richthofen had them and I had to do my best to add these elements in a way that was plausible and not contrary to how he really looked. I kept these details very subtle, and I think they add to, rather than take away from, the originality of the portrait.

As an afterthought I decided to offer 13 x 19 inch prints of my completed work as a limited edition series, and so far it has been one of my hottest sellers! Who knew?

- R

Westland Lysander 'Special Duties'


As is so often the case I was doing some research for a completely different project when I stumbled across the perfect ingredients for this subject and composition. I'd always wanted to do a 'Special Duties' Lysander - those aircraft and brave crewman who infiltrated German lines to bring supplies, and spies, in and out of occupied France during WWII. I know that other artists have produced compositions similar to this (How else do you portray this aircraft other then under a moonlit night?), but I wanted to paint it just the same and with my own flair.

This Lysander served with the 161st Special Duties Squadron, RAF, c. 1944, and was the subject of Airfix's 1/72 scale model kit a few years ago.

As is usually the case with my compositions I was shooting for a mood here.

I'm now offering this piece in a 13 x 19 inch format - signed and numbered.

- R