The name Robert Taylor has been synonymous with aviation art over a quarter of a century. His paintings of aircraft, more than those of any other artist, have helped popularise a genre which at the start of this remarkable artist's career had little recognition in the world of fine art. When he burst upon the scene in the mid-1970s his vibrant, expansive approach to the subject was a revelation. His paintings immediately caught the imagination of enthusiasts and collectors alike . He became an instant success. As a boy, Robert seemed always to have a pencil in his hand. Aware of his natural gift from an early age, he never considered a career beyond art, and with unwavering focus, set out to achieve his goal. Leaving school at fifteen, he has never worked outside the world of art. After two years at the Bath School of Art he landed a job as an apprentice picture framer with an art gallery in Bath, the city where Robert has lived and worked all his life. Already competent with
water-colours the young apprentice took every opportunity to study the works of other artists and, after trying his hand at oils, quickly determined he could paint to the same standard as much of the art it was his job to frame. Soon the gallery was selling his paintings, and the owner, recognising Roberts talent, promoted him to the busy picture-restoring department. Here, he repaired and restored all manner of paintings and drawings, the expertise he developed becoming the foundation of his career as a professional artist. Picture restoration is an exacting skill, requiring the ability to emulate the techniques of other painters so as to render the damaged area of the work undetectable. After a decade of diligent application, Robert became one of the most capable picture restorers outside London. Today he attributes his versatility to the years he spent painstakingly working on the paintings of others artists. After fifteen years at the gallery, by chance he was introduced to Pat Barnard, whose military publishing business happened also to be located in the city of Bath. When offered the chance to become a full-time painter, Robert leapt at the opportunity. Within a few months of becoming a professional artist, he saw his first works in print. Roberts early career was devoted to maritime paintings, and he achieved early success with his prints of naval subjects, one of his admirers being Lord Louis
Mountbatten. He exhibited successfully at the Royal Society of Marine Artists in London and soon his popularity attracted the attention of the media. Following a major feature on his work in a leading national daily newspaper he was invited to appear in a BBC Television
programme. This led to a string of commissions for the Fleet Air Arm Museum who, understandably, wanted aircraft in their maritime paintings. It was the start of Roberts career as an aviation artist. Fascinated since childhood by the big, powerful machines that man has invented, switching from one type of hardware to another has never troubled him. Being an artist of the old school, Robert tackled the subject of painting aircraft with the same gusto as with his large, action-packed maritime pictures - big compositions supported by powerful and dramatic skies, painted on large canvases. It was a formula new to the aviation art genre, at the time not used to such sweeping canvases, but one that came naturally to an artist whose approach appeared to have origins in an earlier classical period. Roberts aviation paintings are instantly
recognisable. He somehow manages to convey all the technical detail of aviation in a traditional and painterly style, reminiscent of the Old Masters. With uncanny ability, he is able to recreate scenes from the past with a carefully rehearsed realism that few other artists ever manage to achieve. This is partly due to his prodigious research but also his attention to detail: Not for him shiny new factory-fresh aircraft looking like museum specimens. His trade mark, flying machines that are battle-scarred, worse for wear, with dings down the fuselage, chips and dents along the leading edges of wings, oil stains trailing from engine cowlings, paintwork faded with dust and grime; his planes are real! Roberts aviation works have drawn crowds in the international arena since the early 1980s. He has exhibited throughout the US and Canada, Australia, Japan and in Europe. His one-man exhibition at the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC was hailed as the most popular art exhibition ever held there. His paintings hang in many of the worlds great aviation museums, adorn boardrooms, offices and homes, and his limited edition prints are avidly collected all around the world. A family man with strong Christian values, Robert devotes most of what little spare time he has to his home life. Married to Mary for thirty five years, they have five children, all now grown up. Neither fame nor fortune has turned his head. He is the same easy-going, gentle character he was when setting out on his painting career all those years ago, but now with a confidence that comes with the knowledge that he has mastered his profession.
The Battle of Britain had been won by the young fighter pilots of Fighter Command, but now it fell to another band of young men to wage total warfare against the Nazi war machine - the aircrew of RAF Bomber Command. And like the fighter pilots of th......
In the early days of the USAAF daylight bombing campaign, before the arrival of long-range fighter escorts, rarely was a mission flown without Luftwaffe interception and the ever-present barrage of anti-aircraft fire. The Eighth Air Force crews liter......
At the outbreak of World War II, H.M.S. Belfast had already joined the Home Fleet operating out of Scapa Flow. Patrolling north of the Faeroes in October 1939 she came across and captured the German liner Cap Norte. This success was short-lived, how......
A Japanese Zero condenses the air off its wing tips as its pilot hauls his fighter inside a Marine F4F Wildcats determined attack. The two adversaries cavort the air in a desperate duel high over the island of Guadalcanal. The sky is alive with fig......
Bound for Tokyo, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle launches his B-25 Mitchell from the heaving deck of the carrier USS Hornet on the morning of 18 April, 1942. Leading a sixteen-bomber force on their long distance one - way mission, the Doolittle R......
3 print editions available from £200.00 1 canvas print edition available from £995.00
The pride of the German Navy, this magnificent battleship attracted the full wrath of the Royal Navy when, by brilliant gunnery, she sank the Hood. Within three days she was herself sunk by the Home Fleet with the loss of all but 110 of her crew. ......
Undeterred by Friday 13th, Wing Commander Beamont took off that day in May 1949, in the Canberra prototype. So accomplished was this new jet bomber that by the end of the 1950s, no fewer than 41 R.A.F. Squadrons were equipped with the Canberra, and ......
H.M.S. Kelly steams at full speed to intercept a U-Boat which is bearing down on an essential and otherwise vulnerable Allied supply convoy. The tension among the supply ships crews, tempered by the strong faith in their protectors, is almost tangibl......
The Junkers Ju87 Sturzkampfbomber, known to the British simply as the Stuka, had already acquired a deadly reputation across Europe, its siren screaming as the ungainly dive-bomber struck terror into the hearts of those below. In 1940 its pilots cro......
With the morning sun glinting on their fuselages, P-51 Mustangs of the 78th Fighter Group cross the Dutch coastline far below, as they head back towards their base at Duxford, England at the end of a long sweep east of the Rhine crossing, Spring 194......
On Thursday, August 24, 1944 a 22-year old Oberleutnant Erich Hartmann powered his Mel09G fighter in a spectacular low pass over his squadrons airstrip in north-eastern Rumania, wagging his wings to the cheering Luftwaffe personnel on the ground bel......
Robert captures precisely the arid heat, dust and smoke of desert warfare, conveying an air of impending conflict. Neville Duke in his 112 Sqn P40-D Kittyhawk.......
An exceptional painting by the worlds foremost aviation artist remembering the most famous of all Luftwaffe Fighter Wings that fought on the Western Front during the early years of World War Two. Prints are signed by Luftwaffe Aces who contested the......
In just six weeks Hitler's forces had overrun western Europe as once proud armies swiftly fell before the might of the German blitzkrieg. It was a devastating defeat, and now only Britain stood alone. Few thought she could survive. As Churchi......
A Lancaster has been damaged and is left far behind the main force to make its own perilous way home as best it can. Seeing the vulnerability of their friends, a Mosquito crew expose themselves to the same dangers, and throttle back to stay alongsid......
The very first air combat fought by American pilots following the surprise attack upon Pearl Harbor. In less than one hour America struck back in a war that was to end in total victory. As the assault mounted on the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, si......
A dramatic combat between an F-16 Falcon and a Mig23 fought over the Bekaa Valley in June 1981. In a three day period the Israeli pilots brought down over 80 Syrian aircraft without loss. Robert Taylors brilliant painting shows a close-up view of th......
A pilots eye view of the last seconds of a Mirage V at the hands of 801 Naval Air C.O., Commander Sharkey Ward, flying a Sea Harrier from H.M.S. Invincible on May 21, 1982, in a ferocious dogfight during the Battle of Falkland Sound. ......
Commemorating the Battle of the Coral Sea, Robert Taylor has chosen to portray the sinking of the Shoho in this dramatic painting. When Commander Weldon Hamilton, leading one of the Lexington's Dauntless squadrons, spotted the Shoho at 1040 on ......
A colourful painting depicting a Mosquito, the fastest Allied aircraft and perhaps the most versatile of all to fly in World War II, dodging between the flak and searchlights on a low-level night attack. ......
The American Clipper Flying Cloud arrives at Hong Kong in May 1860, 97 days out of London. En-route to Foochow, she will load tea for the return voyage. Of all the famous American Clippers Flying Cloud had by far the best record. ......
The awesome battleship Tirpitz under the command of Admiral Schniewind, in company with battleships Scheer and Hipper, setting sail during Operation Rosselsprung, destined for the open sea and the North Atlantic convoy traffic. Messerschmitt Me109s ......
On June 6, 1944, no fewer than 4000 ships landed 133,000 assault troops on the beaches of Normandy. A further 23,000 parachuted in, whilst Allied aircraft flew 14,000 sorties on that historic day. By the end of August 200,000 seamen had transported ......
It had taken almost six years of continual air fighting for the Allied forces to attain complete and total air superiority over the Luftwaffe. At the outbreak of World War II the mighty German Air Force had appeared invincible but the ensuing Battle......
As Typhoon Mk1b fighter-bombers of 247 Squadron exit the target area near Falaise at full throttle, the havoc wreaked in their wake bears witness to the devastation of their powerful rockets. Fuel and ammunition from the retreating German column exp......
The Battle of Britain commenced at the beginning of June 1940, and for the next two and a half gruelling months the young men of Royal Air Force Fighter Command, duelled with the cream of Goerings Luftwaffe over the skies of southern England. It wa......
Marine Ace Captain Joe Foss leads a flight of eight F4F Wildcats of VMF121, based at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, in a diversionary attack on the Imperial Japanese battlecruiser Hiei north of Savo Island, Friday November 13, 1942. In the distance T......
Tea carried down the Min River from the plantations on Chinese junks, is loaded aboard the American clipper Spitfire in Pagoda Anchorage, Foochow, October 1857. In this busy port scene a steam tug approaches, indicating the Clipper is almost ready to......
A Spitfire of 610 Squadron narrowly misses colliding with an Me109 while in close combat, low over the south of England, during the late summer of 1940. ......
On August 5, 1944, following a successful attack on Japanese forces just north of Changsha, P-40 Warhawks of the75th and 16th Fighter Squadrons, 23rd F.G., are attacked by enemy Nakajima fighters and a massive dog-fight has developed over the Hsiang......
A specially commissioned study of her Majesty The Queens Flight on the occasion of its 50th Anniversary. Featured are all the main aircraft to have been in service with the flight. ......
In the dark days of 1940 following Dunkirk, a seemingly defenceless Britain stood starkly alone in Europe, facing the might of an all-conquering Nazi Germany. Protected only by the narrow waters of the English Channel, it was left to a tiny band of......
Flying a Sopwith Camel with RFC Squadron 208, Flight Lieutenant Henry Botterell brings down a German observation balloon near Arras, northern France, August 29, 1918. Botterell acknowledges the observer with a chivalrous salute before departing the ......
During operation Ramrod 792 on April 25, 1944, leading his Spitfire wing, Johnnie Johnson had a long-running combat with an FW190. Robert Taylor shows the last moments of the duel which ended in victory for the Allied Air Forces leading fighter Ace.......
ADLERTAG (EAGLE DAY) - that was Hitlers code name for the start of the Luftwaffes great and decisive aerial offensive that was intended to bring the RAF to its knees, clear the skies of Spitfires and Hurricanes above the South Coast of England and pr......
Russ Berg flies his 10th Recce Group P51s in low and fast, dodging flak and enemy fighters, to get vital photographs for General Patons advancing forces. A superb study of World War IIs most outstanding tactical fighter in action, in the hands of on......
At 23.45 on the night of 5 June 1944, the 101st Airborne's most legendary unit of combat paratroopers – the notorious 'Filthy Thirteen' – jumped into France near the village of Sainte Mère Église, in the final hours before the D-Day land......
Dinghy Young, flying Lancaster AJ-A, heading through flak and machine gun fire towards the Mohne Dam at precisely 60ft, has just released his cylindrical, hydrostatically-triggered bouncing bomb – clearly visible against the huge splash created as i......
In August 1940, Frank Carey let No 43 Squadrons A Flight into Schwarms of JU87s, escorted by Me109s. Though hopelessly outnumbered, Carey accounted for 4 JU87s before running out of ammunition.......
Biggin Hill was one of the most active R.A.F. Fighter bases of World War II. Fighter aircraft scrambled as many as seven or eight times a day during the height of the Battle of Britain. Mark Vb Spitfires are seen retracting their undercarriage almos......
A Lancaster of 626 Squadron takes evasive action during a raid over Osterfeld in December 1944, as a Messerschmitt Me110 G.4 night-fighter makes a pass beneath the bomber. ......
The legendary Wing Leader Douglas Bader high above the south coast of England, flying his beloved Mark Va Spitfire. Baders inspired leadership spawned some of World War IIs greatest fighter leaders- Johnnie Johnson, Denis Crowley-Milling, Cocky Dund......
Over seventy images of aviation art paintings by artist Robert Taylor. This 128 page book includes over 27,000 words of text and a foreword by lifelong aviation enthusiast Peter Jackson. ......
Spitfires of 126 and 185 Squadrons successfully fend off a last desperate attempt by enemy aircraft to sink the crippled American tanker Ohio, still some 80 miles short of the beleaguered island of Malta. Badly damaged and barely afloat the Ohio, as......
Robert has chosen to show a Spitfire in the Battle of Britain colours of No 41 Squadron for his romantic portrayal of a Spitfire over St Michaels Mount, just off the coast of Cornwall – where the southwest corner of the British Isles meets the might......
Between 3 and 13 September 1944, the 55th Fighter Group flew eight arduous, highly successful, bomber escort missions to Germany for which the group received a Distinguished Unit Citation. Like those the group had flown before, and would fly again a......
On April 25th 1945, the RAF despatched over 300 Lancasters to attack The Eagles Nest, Hitlers private mountain top castle at Berchstegaden. It was a symbolic raid, for the war was almost over, but it seemed appropriate that, after almost six years o......
Badly marked by Focke-Wulf 190's the B-17 The Peacemaker of the 91st Bomb Group limps towards the sanctuary of the English coast escorted by P-51B Mustangs of the 361st Fighter Group. To keep her flying the crew are jettisoning everything that t......
Flying an 805 Squadron Sea Fury from H.M.S. Ocean in Korean waters, 1952, Hoagy Carmichael became the first piston engine pilot to destroy a jet aircraft when he downed a North Korean MiG. ......
Though some 1400 of Germanys remarkable Me262 jet aircraft were built, fewer than 300 ever saw action during its short 10 month combat career, the 550 mph fighter-bomber arriving in service too late to make any impression on the course of the war. ......
For their outstanding contribution to the war in the South Pacific, the Black Sheep were awarded one of only two Presidential Unit Citations accorded to Marine Corps squadrons during the war in the Pacific. With typical mastery, Robert Taylor has br......
Leaving the port of Gdynia on May 18th 1941, two large German warships stealthily zig-zagged their way up the coast of Norway at the outset of what was to become one pf the shortest, most fiercely fought naval contests of the Second World War. Oper......
The weather on the morning of 31 December, 1944 was already unpleasant. In the Ardennes, hard-pressed German troops were battling Allied ground forces advancing through several inches of snow. Above, darkening skies heralded the arrival of more snow......
A symbolic study of the very first two Sea Harriers to fly with the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm, 700 Alpha Squadron, commanded by Sharkey Ward. Seen overflying Plymouth Harbour, both of these aircraft fought in the Falklands War. ......
Over seventy images of aviation art paintings by artist Robert Taylor. This 128 page book includes over 27,000 words of text and a foreword by lifelong aviation enthusiast Peter Jackson. ......
Silently out of the night they came. With flaps deployed, three timber and plywood Horsa gliders swept swiftly down through the night skies, rapidly closing with their objective – Pegasus Bridge over the Caen Canal. On board, with tension etched dee......
There are few truly defining moments in the history of a State - single episodes that touch every citizen, and cast a nations future. Epoch-making events that influence the entire world are even more uncommon. The events that took place in the space......
Following the attack against Admiral Ozawas Japanese carrier fleet on June 20, 1944, Admiral Mitscher defies all rules of naval engagement: In total darkness, with the ever-present danger of enemy submarines, he orders every ship in his Task Force 5......
To fly a small aircraft at the dead of night, without radio communication or navigational assistance, deep into enemy-occupied territory, was an extremely perilous task. To then land on an unlit remote field, deliver secret agents, collect Resistanc......
On the night of 16th - 17th May 1943 nineteen specially modified Lancasters of No.617 Squadron departed from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire on one of the most secret and daring bombing operations undertaken during World War Two. The ultra-secret oper......
Downed aircrew often drifted for days in their small inflatable dingies hoping rescue would come. Robert Taylors painting depicts that first sighting by an Air Sea Rescue Sunderland and the moment of joy of the aircrew. ......
On the morning of 30th November 1917, Lieutenant Andrew McKeever, a Canadian serving with 11 Squadron RFC, together with his observer/gunner Lieutenant Leslie Powell, climbed into their Bristol F2b Fighter and took off alone; their task to fly a sol......
The 56th Fighter Group was led by some of Americas greatest fighter leaders of World War II and was home to many of its leading fighter Aces. Under successive commanders Hub Zemke, Robert Landry and David Schilling, the 56th destroyed more enemy ai......
Robert Taylors spellbinding painting, Wings of Glory, paying tribute to Mitchells immortal fighter, features the MkX1X Spitfire of the RAFs Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. Powered by the Rolls-Royce Griffin engine providing maximum speed of 450mph......
Winter in Northern Europe brings short days, long nights and, for the most part, appalling weather making navigation difficult and flying hazardous, even by todays electronically sophisticated standards. Throughout RAF Bomber Commands arduous six ye......
A Junkers Ju52 of Luftflotte 2, escorted by Me109s of JG-53, transports important military personnel over the Dolomites in 1942. With the setting sun illuminating the mountain tops in a brilliant light, the panoramic vista is both chilling and specta......
In the early hours of May 24, 1941, as the mighty German battleships Bismarck and Prinz Eugen slipped through the Denmark Strait, they were dramatically intercepted by the Royal Navy battleships Hood and Prince of Wales. Within six minutes of the fir......
HMS Hood ablaze after its magazine was hit by a salvo from the DKM Bismark, May 24, 1941<b><br><br>One of the rarest of the early Robert Taylor prints, published in 1980, we have one secondary market print available. The eidition was not numbered. ......
A Soviet Yak 3 hurtles towards us in a typically daring head-on attack on a Bf109. Other Yaks wheel and turn frantically in search of the enemy. Casualties on both sides are evident. Away into the distant horizon stretches a vast Russian sky, painte......
If you had the height, you controlled the battle. If you came out of the sun, the enemy could not see you. If you held your fire until you were very close, you seldom missed. These three basic rules contributed to the prowess in aerial combat of som......
Winter in the Bay of Biscay brings ferocious gales and bitter cold discomfort for ships crews aboard the British frigate Indefatigable. Horatio Hornblower, C.S. Forresters dashing eighteenth-century naval officer, experienced the worst of conditions......
Truk, the small atoll in the South Pacific, was the major anchorage for the Japanese Fleet. Comprising a magnificent harbor and four heavily defended airfields, it was thought impregnable by the US forces as they fought their way up through the Paci......
Flying escort missions was no soft option for fighter pilots. Supporting bombers en-route to important strategic targets almost guaranteed interception by enemy fighters, and the great bomber air raids over enemy occupied Europe brought about some ......
During the legendary Battle of Britain Spitfires of 92 Squadron are engaged with Messerschmitt Me109s of JG-2 in a high-altitude dog-fight directly over London in September 1940. Way below bombers of the Luftwaffe attempt one of their final daylight......
The air war fought throughout World War II in the night skies above Europe raged six long years. RAF Hurricanes sent up to intercept the Luftwaffes nightly blitz on British cities had no more equipment than the fighters that fought the Battle of Bri......
By any military standards, it is difficult to imagine the Supreme Commander of the largest air force of the day, piloting himself over the battlefront during the early moments of one of historys greatest military operations. But General Jimmy Doolli......
The Spitfires of 54 Squadron, quickly scrambled from nearby Hornchurch, clash with the Me109s from 1./JG51 over Kent. Below, Me110s from KPRG210 are about to receive unwelcome attention as the rest of the Spitfires hurtle down upon them and in the ......
Based at a temporary formed airfield at Lille Marc, Hurricanes of No. 87 Squadron - showing the strains of battle - taxi in from a skirmish during heavy fighting in the Battle of France, May 1940. ......
In a strange quirk of fate, a Sunderland of 461 Sqn RAAF identification letter U, destroys submarine U-461, a type XIV tanker, one of three German submarines caught on the surface by Allied aircraft in the Bay of Biscay on July 30, 1943. At extreme l......
During WWII JG-52 was the most successful Fighter Wing of the Luftwaffe, and with it flew many of the great German Aces, including the world's leading Fighter Pilot Erich Hartmann. General Galland was at one time a Squadron Commander. The Wing ......
Adolf Galland and his wingman Bruno Hegenauer break through the fighter escort of No. 303 Squadrons Spitfires to attack Blenheim bombers of No. 21 Squadron over northern France, 21 June 1941. In two missions that day Galland claimed two Blenheims an......
Having completed a successful bomber interception high above Salzburg, the Me262s of JV44 led by Adolf Galland, are returning towards Munich-Riem at full throttle, hugging the deck to avoid the attentions of USAAF escort fighters. Below the crew of......
Pilots from the 31st and the 52nd Fighter Wings climb their heavily armed F-16 Vipers out of Aviano Air Base, Italy, on a strike mission over Bosnia, June 1999.......
Irish and I came into the break smoking at 500 knots, below the level of the flight deck. I could see thousands of men watching from the catwalks. I made a six-G break turn with 90 degree angle of bank. We landed after one of my best passes of the c......
Macky Steinhoff in action over the White Cliffs of Dover. It is August, and the height of the Battle of Britain: Heinkel 111 bombers have attacked airfields and radar stations along the south coast, and a frantic dog-fight has developed as Me109s of ......
The Battle for Milne Bay in New Guinea was a story of true grit, determination, and valour; it was the moment when the Imperial Japanese Army tasted defeat on land for the first time in nearly three centuries. In the space of two weeks, the Japanese......
Approaching their target at the oil refinery at Zwickau, 60 mikes southwest of Dresden, the 452nd Bomb Groups B-17 Flying Fortresses were bounced by 28 ME-262 jets from JG-7. Screaming in from the six oclock position, the jet pilots singled out the ......
B26 Marauders of the 386th Bomb Group 9th Air Force, returning from a strike against VI, rocket sites in the Pas de Calais, January 1944. The 9th Air Force became one of the most effective forces in the destruction of VI rocket sites, railroad yards......
The Short Stirling was the RAFs first four-engined bomber but was handicapped by a low operational ceiling. Thus, Stirling crews spent much of their time flying through the flak rather than above flak. However, the Stirling possessed a strong, highl......
Col Leon Johnson aboard the damaged Suzy Q emerges through an inferno of intense ground fire and dense palls of acrid burning oil. More seriously hit and smoking, another B-24 Liberator completes its bombing run. By the end of that first day of Ma......
During the early part of 1943 the B-17s of the American Eighth Air Force were paying regular visits to the occupied ports on the west coast of France. It was here at Brest, St Nazaire and Lorient that the U-boats were serviced and made ready for the......
Robert Taylors magnificent painting shows Victory breaking through the enemy line at 1.00pm 21st October 1805. A broadside has crippled Admiral Villeneuves French flagship Bucentaure, seen off Victorys port side, while Nelsons gunners fire a second ......
Flying low over the picturesque village of Thaxted, in the cold winter of 1944-45, the P-51D Mustangs of the 78th Fighter Group return to Duxford after a tiring eight hour escort mission. With dusk approaching, low on fuel, the fighters have about 20......
On 6th November 1935, a prototype aircraft took to the air for the very first time. As Sydney Camm's sturdy, single-engine monoplane fighter climbed into the sky, few realized that it was destined to become one of the enduring symbols of the gre......
On October 12, 1940, No. 603 Squadron, reduced to only eight aircraft, took on a large formation of Me109s attacking head on. Robert Taylors vivid portrayal shows Scott-Maldens Spitfire moments after knocking down an Me109 in the encounter, both he ......
Depicted are B-29s of the 499th Bomb Group, 73rd Wing of the 20th Air Force. After a daylight raid on Tokyo, showing all the telltale signs of combat over the target, a Wing of the worlds largest and fastest-ever piston-engined bombers make their lon......
An outstanding painting commemorating the intrepid 240 American air men who volunteered to fly with the R.A.F. in their early struggle against the Luftwaffe before the U.S.A. joined the war. Taylors painting vibrated with the roar of the Spitfires M......
The biggest, fastest, most powerful fighter of its day, the McDonnell Phantom was an awesome war machine that came to dominate aerial combat for over two decades. It may have been the size of many World War II bombers but it could outperform anythi......
2 print editions available from £200.00 1 canvas print edition available from £695.00
As the Allied armies dashed across France after victory in Normandy, they remained reliant on one thing - supplies. With Cherbourg the only port in use, everything depended on trucks to deliver enough fuel, food and ammunition to keep the momentum ......
At sunrise on 12 November, 1944, led by Wing Commander James Tait, Lancasters of 617 Squadron RAF prepare to make their bombing run on the German battleship Tirpitz, lying in the Norwegian fjord at Tromso.......
H.M.S. Hermes prepares to launch her Sea Harriers whilst a Sea King stands off: H.M.S. Arrow in the foreground ploughs into the swell, whilst H.M.S. Sheffield keeps station off the port beam. Following are H.M.S. Glamorgan and the auxiliary Fleet Tan......
From the summer of 1942 until the end of hostilities, the USAAFs Eighth Air Force took the battle to enemy occupied Europe every single day that weather permitted. The largest air unit ever to go to war, the Eighth played a vital role in the ultima......
Of the many outstanding Luftwaffe fighter Wings of World War II, JG52 became the most successful. Many of the most famous Aces flew with this legendary wing, including one-time Squadron Commander Adolf Galland. JG-52 was home to the only fighter A......
The Prinz Eugen, one of the finest and most famous ships in the German Navy, shelling Russian shore positions in Western Samland, the Baltic, January 1945 Earlier in the war The Prinz Eugen took part in the sinking of H.M.S. Hood and later the Chann......
December 7, 1941. Japanese Aichi dive-bombers make a final attempt to destroy the USS Nevada as she lay beached at Hospital Point. Behind her the destroyer USS Shaw is on fire, moments later she will explode. In the docks beyond, the battleship Penn......
Mark Vc tropicalized Spitfires of No 1 wing RAAF returning from a Scramble over the city of Darwin in early 1943. The bombing of Darwin by Japanese aircraft shortly before 10:00 am on the morning of February 19, 1942, brought the northern region of ......
A flight of Kittyhawks of No. 3 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force on a strike mission over the North African Desert in January 1942, in the build-p to the Battle of Alamein. No. 3 Squadron RAAF was the first in the Desert to achieve 100 confirmed ......
P40 Tomahawks of the American Volunteer Group fought against the Japanese air force in the skies over Indo-China during World War 2 and became one of the most successful and famous fighter units of all time. Strangled by the Japanese blockade of its......
Taking his Hurricane off from Speke, a raiding JU88 crossed the airfield in front of Denys Gillam, who promptly shot it down. It was the fastest air victory of the war, and probably of all time. ......
Pilot Officer John Bisley of 126 Squadron in combat with Me 109s from JG-53 during one of the intense aerial air battles over Valetta in April 1942. Between the summer of 1940 and the end of 1942, Malta became one of the most bombed places on earth.......
In the mid 1930s, at a time when Pan American had led the way with two generations of four0engined flying boats. the United States Navy sought a much larger, heavier flying boat for over-water reconnaissance bomber service. Consolidated Aircrafts PB......
The mighty Lancaster, the mainstay of RAF Bomber Command, crewed by volunteers from Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Rhodesia, South Africa, and many other nations opposed to Nazi rule, flew day and night sorties whenever there was a chance ......
The crews of 617 Squadron that took part in the epic Dambusters raid on the night of 16/17 May 1943 were among the finest in the RAF. They were the elite of Bomber Command, and when they left RAF Scampton that night, the skills of their pilots – som......
Crucial to every squadron in the RAF were the unsung heroes of World War II - the ground crew. Without the vital support of these dedicated men who refuelled the aircraft, rearmed them, maintained them and kept them flying, the pilots and aircrew wo......
The 357th Fighter Group was thrown into action soon after arriving in England in February 1944. Being the first fighter group equipped with P-51 Mustangs, great things were expected of them, and they did not disappoint; in the final year of the war......
Spitfires of Johnsons Canadian Wing, complete with Normandy Invasion markings, making a sweep above the Normandy beaches on the 6th June, 1944 - D-Day. Johnson and his Canadian pilots flew sweeps on this day from dawn till dusk, limited most of the ......
Flying the high speed low level Day Ranger missions in the Mosquito was one of the most exhilarating forms of aerial combat experienced by aircrews in WWII. Given a free hand at squadron level to select targets of opportunity deep inside enemy held......
For those on the ground there were few sights more stirring than a B-17 Fortress on its final approach from a combat mission, and Robert Taylor's outstanding painting <i>Winter's Welcome</i> is no exception. This now legendary image conjure......
Fearless and effective in battle, no matter what the odds, Stanford-Tuck achieved a magnificent 29 aerial victories by 1942 when he was shot down by groundfire over Northern France. Here Bob Stanford-Tuck brings down an enemy aircraft over the port ......
In this classic Robert Taylor painting Brian Kingcome is seen leading the Spitfires of 92 Squadron in a diving attack into a force of HEIIIs over the city of London during the height of the Battle of Britain. Brian Kingcome flew Spitfires operationa......
On 10th April 1945, thirteen hundred bombers of the Mighty Eighth set out to destroy the last of the Luftwaffe's jet force. But, unknown to the bomber crews and their fighter escort, the enemy jets were already airborne and waiting to spring the......
Image shows nearest, young Pilot Officer Geoffrey Page, later to become one of the RAFs most highly decorated fighter aces, powers his Mk I Hurricane over the country lane at the edge of the airfield, as he and his fellow No 56 Squadron pilots make t......
Robert Taylors tribute to HMS Ark Royal, Britains last conventional aircraft carrier, seen steaming with her Phantoms on deck. Launched in 1950, HMS Ark Royal entered service in 1955 and her flag flying tours over the next two decades took her to the......
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. T......
The Royal Yacht Britannia is show in the Thames at her traditional mooring off Castle Point against the dramatic backdrop of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. ......
Portrayal of the Channel Dash - three German ships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau embark from Brest, France returning to home ports encounter their own mines.......
When Luftwaffe bombers first appeared in force in the night skies over London in September 1940 they heralded the beginning of The Blitz - the most sustained period of concentrated bombing aimed at British cities during World War II. Robert Taylors ......
Royal Air Force and Royal Navy fighter aircrews flew combat throughout the six long years of World War Two. At the outbreak of war in 1939 four RAF Hurricane squadrons and two equipped with Gladiators went immediately to France where in short time N......
By the spring of 1945, Germanys once all-conquering submarine fleet, driven by allied forces from its bases in estern France, had fled to the relative safety of the Norwegian fjords - territory still remaining under German occupation since 1940. I......
Eric Nicolson, the only pilot of the Battle of Britain to be awarded the Victoria Cross, scrambles out of his stricken 249 Squadron Hurricane. Fired on by an Me110, he was wounded in the head and foot, and his engine was ablaze. After clambering ou......
Adolf Gallands Fighter Wing JG-26 (Me109s) taking off to do combat with R.A.F. Spitfires and Hurricanes. If ever a fighter commander led the front, Adolf Galland did. He flew throughout the war, achieving over 100 air victories all on the Western Fr......
Mist and fog swirled eerily over the Eder Lake on the night of 16/17 May 1943 as four specially modified Lancasters of 617 Squadron, under the leadership of Wing Commander Guy Gibson, circled overhead. Their target, the mighty Eder Dam, was barely ......
4 print editions available from £200.00 1 canvas print edition available from £995.00
Robert Taylors painting protrays the renowned defiance of the U-Boat crews. Caught on the surface by a PBY Catalina the gun crews of a type VIIc U-Boat are quickly into action. The 3.7cm anti-aircraft gun is hurriedly reloaded while on the upper pla......
Into Battle - Piling out of their C47 Dakotas, US paratroopers decent into the Drop Zone inland from Utah Beach D-Day 1944. <br> Crash Landing - A Glider Pilot brings his fully laden CG Glider into the Normandy battlefield - D-Day 1944. ......
It was the foundation upon which the Luftwaffe was built and flew throughout WWII. It was flown by some of the greatest fighter Aces of all time, and credited with more air victories than any other fighter in history. It was the Messerschmitt Bf10......
The four-masted barque Glenogil passes Liverpool pierhead as she is towed up the Mersey. Paddle steamers in the foreground are seen embarking passengers for the river crossing in this busy harbour scene. ......
A magnificent study of a pair of C130 Hercules seen in tactical trail over the Severn Estuary, 25 miles west of R.A.F. Lyneham, headquarters base of RAF Support Command. ......
Don Kingaby is the only pilot in the RAF to have been awarded 3 DFMs. During his first combat on August 12, 1940, he severely damaged an JU88 over the Isle of Wight and Robert Taylor captures the moment of break, with the JU88 already smoking. Don Ki......
The long balmy summer days of 1940 provided perfect flying weather for the vast armadas of Luftwaffe bombers and fighters wreaking havoc over the southern counties of England. As summer wore on the enemy stepped up their attacks on airfields, radar ......
The Stuka when dressed for war was an awesome spectacle. Robert Taylors outstanding painting shows a formation of JU87s bombed up and fitted with long range tanks heading out on a shipping strike over the Mediterranean in 1941. Following its success......
Leonard Cheshire VC is one of the most outstanding of all RAF Bomber Pilots. He devised the master bomber technique - flying low over the target marking with flares, allowing the main force to pinpoint the target in the darkness. Cheshire flew over ......
Late in the day on May 26, 1941, in deteriorating weather, 15 Fairey Swordfish biplanes launched from the heaving deck of the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. Each was armed with a single torpedo, its task to halt the escape of the battleship Bismarck......
Piloting a Sea King helicopter of 820 Naval Air Squadron, Prince Andrew was first to lift off survivors after the Atlantic Conveyor was hit by an exocet missile. Robert Taylors fine painting depicts the Prince in the thick of the action.......
On the evening of 17th August 1943, a total of 596 aircraft of RAF Bomber Command, spearheaded by the Pathfinder Force, set out on what called for, and what became, the most precise bombing raid of the war. Success was vital. The target was a secl......
For over five years the young men of RAF Bomber Command fought a long, unceasing and always bitter struggle against the mighty war machine of Nazi Germany. Magnificently brave, they endured fearful odds, frightening losses and some of the most terr......
Ships of the East Asiatic Squadron at anchor in a Pacific Island bay prior to the outbreak of hostilities in 1914. The ships are, left to right, light cruisers Nurnberg and Dresden, cruiser Gneisenau and von Spees flagship Scharnhorst. ......
With their distinctive red tails, P-51 Mustangs of the 332nd Fighter Group – the famed Tuskegee Airmen, climb to operational height as B17 Fortresses from the 483rd Bomb Group manoeuvre into formation at the start of another long and dangerous missi......
A flight of P47 thunderbolts of the 404 Fighter group, 9th Air force, clear the target area after a low-level attack on the airfield inland from Le Havre, Normandy, 1944. Tracer winds up towards them from ground defences and almost all the aircraft h......
Just after midday on 27 September 1940 one of the bitterest engagements of the Battle of Britain took place in the skies over Kent when the Spitfires of 19 Squadron took on the Bf109s of JG54. In the huge dogfight that ensued, 19 Squadron claimed 8......
Doolittle Raiders take their B-25 bombers down to very low level and head for China after delivering their surprise attack on the industrial and military targets in and around Tokyo on April 18, 1942. The sixteen-ship mission, led by volunteer crews,......
Submariners are a special breed of sailor. Their environment, operating deep beneath the surface of the waves, is both unnatural and dangerous, and demands men of cool courage and exceptional quality. Prowling the depths like a mammoth shark, sometim......
Flying down Thud Ridge at just below the speed of sound, Jack Broughton leads an F-105 Thunderbolt raid on the power plant at Viet Tri, North Vietnam, March12, 1967. The target was destroyed.......
A B-24 has been hit and is losing touch with the main bomber formation, as Luftwaffe pilots concentrated their attentions on the unfortunate aircraft. Two Fw190s, are zooming up for the kill on the damaged B-24. Seeing the desperate situation, a P-3......
On November 11, 1940 a group of 21 slow, outdated Swordfish biplanes attacked and crippled the Italian Fleet in the heavily defended port of Taranto. One of the most daring raids of World War II captured in this print for posterity. ......
Damaged by flak and enemy fighters, and almost out of fuel, after a gruelling eight hour mission the pilot of this B-17 Fortress makes a forced landing in the safety of an English cornfield. A pair of P-51 Mustangs have escorted the damaged aircraft......
A Battle of Britain Spitfire from 610 Squadron takes on a Me109 from I./JG3 in a head-on attack high over the south coast port of Dover, in the late morning of 10 July 1940. ......
Briefing at 0500 hours on the morning of 14 October 1943 brought the crews of the 92nd Bomb Group news they did not want to hear: Its Schweinfurt again! The same message was being repeated in USAAF bomb group briefing rooms all over eastern England ......
A Lancaster of No. 61 Squadron, RAF, piloted by Flt. Lt. Bill Reid, under attack from a German Fw190 en route to Dusseldorf on the night of November 3rd, 1943. Already injured in a previous attack, Bill Reid was again wounded but pressed on for anot......
Bobby Oxspring in his 66 Squadron Spitfire destroys an ME109 of JF/53 Ace of Spades Group, in a high level attack at 30,000 feet above Dover, 18th September 1940. ......
On November 5, 1942, flying wingman in a Schwarm of four Me109s of JG-52, his flight had scrambled to intercept Russian Lagg-3s and IL-2 fighter-bombers bound for the Front. Splitting into two elements they dived steeply into attack, screaming in beh......
Completing a record 213 operational sorties with Bomber Commands Pathfinder Force, Mosquito LR503 became one of the most successful aircraft in the Royal Air Force during World War II. It flew first with 109 Pathfinder Squadron, and then 105 Pathfin......
Hit and run attacks by fast moving German E-Boats were a constant threat to vital Allied shipping in the Mediterranean during the second World War. Often made under cover of darkness, these fast, highly manoeuvrable craft would speed through a convo......
December 7, 1941 was, said President Roosevelt a day of infamy. The surprise attack by Japanese aircraft on that fateful day, brought America into a war that was to become global. The Japanese airstrike was the first of many attacks that day against......
In Robert Taylors panoramic painting, P-38J Lightnings of the 364th Fighter Group return from a strafing mission over France in the summer of 1944. Making their land-fall at just 100 feet, they skim across an estuary on Englands south coast, near th......
On August 12th, 1940 the Luftwaffe turned their full attention to the RAF's forward fighter bases and radar stations with the intent to obliterate them once and for all. The outcome of the Battle of Britain hung in the balance. It was late in ......
With its mission completed, the mighty Lancaster slowly rolls to a halt on the lonely dispersal point, the roar of its four pulsating Merlin engines steadily slackens, replaced by an eerie silence, broken only by the snapping cracks of cooling metal......
Doug Canning breaks radio silence to call the sighting of Admiral Yamamotos flight over the pacific island of Bourganville, 18 April 1943. After a two and a half hour, four hundred mile flight just above the waves, mission leader John Mitchell and h......
In the azure skies above London and the south-eastern Shires of England during the long, hot summer of 1940, a small band of RAF fighter pilots, substantially out-numbered, and against all odds, flew and fought a savage aerial battle in defence of t......
Each print in this special Tribute Edition is signed by four famous RAF Fighter Aces that flew Hurricanes and Spitfires with Douglas Bader in the Battle of Britain in 1940. Sadly, none of these renowned pilots are still with us today. The signatures......
The R.A.F.s Red Arrows - perhaps the finest close formation aerobatic team in the world, flying their renowned Hawk jets over the Gloucestershire countryside. ......
Leading 433 (Canadian) Squadron, top Allied Fighter Ace Johnnie Johnson -Greycap Leader - has already bagged an Fw190, and is hauling his MKIX Spitfire around looking for a second in heavy dog-fighting over the Rhine, September 1944. In the distance......
The crews of Bomber Command faced one of the most daunting tasks, calling for courage sustained night after night, in conditions of desperate danger and discomfort. They did not fail us and 55,573 paid the supreme sacrifice. In his new tribute to Th......
Passengers aboard the Isle of Wight ferry gaze in wonder as RMS Titanic steams majestically down the Solent at the outset of her maiden voyage, April 15, 1912.......
A superb study of a pair of Lancaster heavy bombers as they set out on a mission over occupied Europe, painted against a powerful cloudscape. Both Bill Reid and Norman Jackson won Britains supreme award, the Victoria Cross, flying in Lancasters.......
The Cutty Sark sailed the worlds great trading routes under the Red Ensign between 1870 and 1895, when she was sold to a Portuguese company. In 1922 she was bought by a Captain Dowman and rigged as a sail training ship. She is now preserved in dry-d......
September 1940: The Battle of Britain reaches a crescendo as Me109s of the 1./JG52, their bright yellow noses glinting in the sun, gather speed and altitude as they form up after take-off from their base at Coquelles, near Calais. Led by Hauptmann W......
Dawn had broken to reveal another glorious day in paradise, and on board the USS Arizona and the repair ship USS Vestal alongside, the crew were taking it easy. All next week they would be hard at work preparing for sea, but today was Sunday, and t......
December 10th 1941, Just three days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, captain Colin Kellys 19th BG B-17C is heavily outnumbered by Zeros as it returns to Clark Field after completing a successful bombing attack. With his aircraft on fire. K......
Depicting the legendary Ace Erich Hartmann in the distinctive colour scheme of his Bf109-G aircraft. The highest scoring Ace in history with 352 confirmaed victories, he was awarded the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves, Sword and Diamonds.<br><br><b>Th......
The windjammer Loch Etive departs Glasgow on October 15, 1892, bound for Sydney, Australia. After a round-trip lasting six and a half months, she will return to London with a cargo of wool. Looking across the Firth towards Glasgow the waters are bus......
Robert Taylors final painting in his 60th Anniversary trilogy features a scene from the attacks on the afternoon of September 7, 1940. Led by Herbert Ihlefeld, Me109Es of II/LG 2 dive through the bomber formation giving chase to Hurricanes of 242 Sq......
