|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
||
| Navigation Menus |
|
Military Art Index |
Aviation Art Index |
Naval Art Index |
Artists Index |
Aviation History Archive |
Naval History Archive |
|
| HALF PRICE AND FREE PRINT SPECIAL OFFERS | ||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Some other related items available from this site. | ||||
  Halifax Mk.III NA337 by Ivan Berryman. |  Yorkshire Warrior by Keith Aspinall. |   Halifax - The Heavy Brigade by Keith Woodcock. |   Tactical Support by Richard Taylor. | |
| Signatures on these products | |
| *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature and is for the unmatted version where available. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | |
| Name | Info |
  Flt Lt Eric Kemp DFC (deceased) *Signature Value : £45 Editions signed : Limited edition of 50 artist proofs. Kemp signature edition of 50 prints (Nos 1 - 50) from the signed limited edition of 1150 prints | Kemp, Eric (Flt Lt Eric Kemp DFC (deceased)) Flew with 578 Squadron on Halifaxes |
| Warrant Officer Tom Cosby *Signature Value : £25 Editions signed : Cosby / Evans Signature edition of 100 prints (No.s 801 - 900) from the signed limited edition of 1150 prints. | Cosby, Tom (Warrant Officer Tom Cosby) Having completed his training as a Flight Engineer he served on Halifaxes with 578 Sqn but was shot down in March 1944 on his 12th Op by a German night fighter. He was eventually captured and spent was a PoW until his liberation at the end of the War. |
| Warrant Officer Eric Evans *Signature Value : £30 Editions signed : Cosby / Evans Signature edition of 100 prints (No.s 801 - 900) from the signed limited edition of 1150 prints. | Evans, Eric (Warrant Officer Eric Evans) After qualifying as a Rear Gunner he served with 463 RAAF Sqn serving on Lancasters from Waddington. In November 1944 his Lancaster was shot down by a German night fighter whilst on a mission over Germany and he served the rest of the War as a PoW. |
 Eddie Young *Signature Value : £20 Editions signed : Signature edition of 100 prints from the signed limited edition of 1150 prints. | Young, Eddie (Eddie Young) Helped build Hamilcar gliders in the early part of the war, before joining the Royal Navy, and taking part in Operation Neptune, D-Day. Joining the Royal Navy in May 1943, he served as a messenger at all action stations as part of the quarter-deck staff on board HMS Bellona. The ship was involved in several Russian Convoys, as well as around the Bay of Biscay and on D-Day was the only British ship situated off Omaha Beach offering anti-aircraft protection for the US Battleships Texas and Nevada who were bombarding the beach to aide the advancing US troops. |
 Sergeant Titch Rayner (deceased) Died : 2015 *Signature Value : £35 Editions signed : Rayner / Whitbread signature edition of 300 prints from the signed limited edition of 1150 prints. | Rayner, Titch (Sergeant Titch Rayner (deceased)) Titch Rayner served with the British Parachute Regiment. On D-Day he was flown into France on Horsa glider No.4, which landed off target due to a navigational problem. With the element of surprise gone, he and his fellow Paras had to fight their way through to Pegasus Bridge. He died on 2nd April 2015. |
 Private Alf Whitbread (deceased) Died : 2011 *Signature Value : £35 Editions signed : Rayner / Whitbread signature edition of 300 prints from the signed limited edition of 1150 prints. | Whitbread, Alf (Private Alf Whitbread (deceased)) Alf Whitbread, known in the war as 'Lucky Jim' was born in Twickenham, London and when his father got a job in the Building Research Station in Garston the family moved to Watford. Alf Whitbread left school to become a machine engineer, but was encouraged to volunteer for the army after hearing a patriotic speech on the radio. On June 19th, 1940, Alf Whitbread went to the Edgeware recruiting office and joined the Royal West Kent Youth Battalion at the age of 18 and in 1942 in Ireland, Alf heard rumours about a newly formed airborne unit and volunteered. Alf said : 'We thought we were going to be in the paratroopers, who were mad, but we finished up in the gliders and the paratroopers thought we were mad.' Alf Served with 17 Platoon of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. He landed as part of the Coup de Main operation on Glider No.6 into Pegasus bridge in the early hours of D-Day. Alf was part of the second group of gliders which landed first at Horsa Bridge, before taking part in the battle for Pegasus Bridge, (the subject of the film 'The Longest Day'.) They sent the message 'ham and jam', a code confirming they had captured both bridges. The men held off many counter attacks by German troops and tanks until midday on June 6th. Alf would later say 'Two of our gliders were sent to secure Horsa bridge and frankly, it was a walk over. Our platoon never lost a man. We secured the bridge and then, when another platoon relieved us, we went and joined John Howard on Pegasus Bridge.' Alf Whitbread was later to take part in Operation Varsity, the last major battle of the war in Europe. On March 24th 1945 Operation Varsity was launched. The aim was to take a bridge over the Rhine again by gliderborne troops. Almost 1,500 men of the Ox and Bucks died during the operation, and Lucky Jim lived up to his reputation before his glider even landed. Alf would say: 'They say dont volunteer for anything, but I did and it worked out to my benefit. I remember when we were set to get on a glider on the way for the Rhine crossing and it was too full. I was detailed to another glider. They both crash landed. All the troops in the first glider were killed. Only three of us got out of the other glider alive, after it broke in half.' After the war Alf Whitbread joined London Transport as an engineer for 40 years and in all that time Alf never took a day off due to illness. With great sadness we have been told that Alf has passed away peacefully on 19th March 2011 at the age of 88. Cranston Fine Arts feel very honoured to have had Alf sign some of our art prints. |
| Flt Lt Len MacNamara DFC *Signature Value : £35 Editions signed : MacNamara / Leckie Signature edition of 200 prints from the signed limited edition of 1150 prints. | MacNamara, Len (Flt Lt Len MacNamara DFC) A Rear Gunner with 10 Squadron at Melbourne, before being transferred to 158 Squadron at Lissett. He completed 36 Operations, then after a spell at OTU, completed 10 more Operations with 75 New Zealand Squadron. |
  Pilot Officer Bill Leckie, AEM, KW (deceased) Died : 2021 *Signature Value : £50 Editions signed : MacNamara / Leckie Signature edition of 200 prints from the signed limited edition of 1150 prints. | Leckie, Bill (Pilot Officer Bill Leckie, AEM, KW (deceased)) Bill Leckie was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 23rd June 1921, joined the Royal Air Force in June 1941 and went to St Johns Wood on the 15th of September 1941. Bill Leckie started his flying training on the 4th of April 1942 at Stoke Orchard near Cheltenham in Tiger Moths. He went to Canada on the 26th of May 1942 at Monkton for further training until June before going on to Detroit and on to Pensacola, Florida on the 1st October 1942, flying Stearman and Catalina Flying boats until 31st March 1943 when Bill went to Prince Edward Island for further training. Back in the UK, Bill was expecting to join a Coastal Command squadron flying Catalinas but was transferred to Bomber Command and a conversion course on to Whitleys at Kinloss Scotland on the 22nd of February 1944, and joined 77 Squadron at Full Sutton on the 19th July 1944 on Halifaxes, flying 6 bombing missions, one being the bombing of the Flying Bomb Factory at Russesheim, before transferring to 148 Special Duties squadron on the 19th of August 1944 and going to Brindisi. Pilot Officer Bill Leckie was involved in the dropping of supplies (guns, ammunition and food) to the Polish during the Warsaw uprising. This was a costly mission and many aircraft were lost. (Bill was flying Halifax JD319 (FS - G). For his efforts in air-dropping supplies during this period, Bill Leckie was awarded the Polish Cross of Valour (KW). Pilot Officer Bill Leckie was also the Pilot for Operation Ebensburg on Sunday 8th April 1945. Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron carried out the misison to drop four SOE agents and their equipment near Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps. Thier mission was to secure and protect 6,755 items of the worlds greatest works of art that had been looted and stored by the Germans as they swept across Europe. With the allied forces closing in, the Germans had planned to blow up the entire store to prevent the artworks from falling into the hands of the liberators. Once on the ground, the four agents linked up with local resistance fighters and the mine and its valuable contents were eventually secured, the explosives made safe and the entire cache taken into the safe keeping of the 80th US Infantry Division as the German occupation of Europe crumbled. Bill Leckie stayed with 148 Squadron until 18th May 1945 when he was posted to Cairo with 216 Squadron (Dakotas) of Transport Command and on 1st January 1946 to 78 Squadron flying Dakotas again until 1st June 1946 , finally leaving the RAF on the 18th September 1946. He died in October 2021. |
| Squadrons Related to This Print |
| No.644 Sqn |
| Aircraft Related to This Print |
| Halifax |
| Hamilcar |
|
Contact Details |
Sign Up To Our Newsletter!
This website is owned by Cranston Fine Arts. Torwood House, Torwoodhill Road, Rhu, Helensburgh, Scotland, G848LE Contact: Tel: (+44) (0) 1436 820269. Email: cranstonorders -at- outlook.com |
Signature(s) value alone : £45
Signature(s) value alone : £55
