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Signed Avro Lancaster Prints by Philip West and Anthony Saunders.
PCK1582. Signed Avro Lancaster Prints by Philip West and Anthony Saunders. Aviation Print Pack.
Items in this pack : Item #1 - Click to view individual item DHM0434F. Lancaster Dawn by Anthony Saunders. Depicts a 103 squadron Lancaster returning from a night-time bombing mission. Signed by Flt Lt George Harris DFC. George Harris RAF signature series edition of 100 prints from the signed limited edition of 850 prints. Image size 19 inches x 12.5 inches (48cm x 32cm)
Item #2 - Click to view individual item DHM2324. Almost Home by Philip West. After another long, hard nights mission over Germany, Flt. Lt. Rusty Waughman of 101 Special Duties Squadron, once again brings his aircraft and trusting crew back across the English Channel, heading for their home base of Ludford Magna, Lincolnshire. Many of the 101 Squadron Lancasters flew with an extra, German speaking, crew member, whose job it was to use onboard transmitters to jam the radio frequencies of German night-fighters. Signed by Flt Lt Rusty Waughman DFC AFC. Signed limited edition of 250 prints. Paper size 28 inches x 20 inches (71cm x 51cm)
Website Price: £ 245.00
To purchase these prints individually at their normal retail price would cost £340.00 . By buying them together in this special pack, you save £95
All prices are displayed in British Pounds Sterling
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Signatures on this item | *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. 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 George Harris DFC (deceased) *Signature Value : £35 (matted)
| George Harris went to an Operational Training Unit flying old Wellingtons and, on his last flight of the course, a night practice bombing and fighter affiliation trip, suffered an engine fire just after take-off. He came down in darkness in Sherwood Forest and came to in hospital. A wooden propeller had shattered on impact, sheared through the airframe and his seat, taking a slice out of his back and leaving him with several broken ribs, a punctured lung and lacerated kidney. His parents were warned he may not survive but within six weeks he was flying again, back in Wellingtons, then on Halifaxes, before finally moving on to Lancasters and a posting, along with three other crews, to No 1 Group 101 Squadron in Ludford Magna, Lincolnshire. It had taken three years of training and frustration and now he and his crew were replacements for those recently killed in action. The squadron's Lancasters were equipped with the radio jamming system known as the Airborne Cigar, or ABC. It covered the frequencies used by the Luftwaffe but its presence also deprived them of a vital navigational aid which heightened their vulnerability. On average only one in four crews survived and that was the case with those Harris had been posted with: all were lost, the first on its first operation. His missions ranged from major night attacks on Germany and tactical support attacks on German troop strongholds, communication centres, V-1 flying bomb sites and airfields in France and the Low Countries. He was subsequently invited to take his crew to the Pathfinder Force but turned down the opportunity as it would have meant leaving behind his German-speaking Special Operator, which he felt was wrong. Anyway, he regarded 101 as a very special squadron with huge spirit and said the Lancaster was 'a simply splendid' aircraft to fly. Among his hair-raising exploits were coping with another engine fire – resulting in an emergency landing on three engines with a full bomb load – braving electric storms which could throw the Lancasters around like corks and dodging the searchlights above enemy territory. On one occasion, returning from a night raid on Brunswick on 12th August 1944, the searchlights locked on him and he desperately performed a violent corkscrew manoeuvre to escape the beams. Failing to shake them off, he dived at full bore with a full bomb load, descending so rapidly the navigator said he had exceeded the plane's reported break-up speed. The slipstream and engine noise was like a banshee, he recalled. Miraculously they remained in one piece to tell the tale and, after debrief, took an idyllic stroll back to their quarters as the sun rose and the dawn chorus began. That night 24 of their men did not return and 101 maintained its reputation as a 'chop' squadron. Reflecting on the end of his operational tour with his Lancaster Z-Zebra, he said he felt strangely flat, rather old and empty but had gained much, including the sheer freedom and joy of flying, the magic of cloud hopping and, as a flight commander, the responsibility for life and death decisions over other men. His award of the DFC, for valour in the face of the enemy, was announced in February 1945. Seventy years later he received the Legion D'honneur for his part in the operations to liberate Caen. After the war he completed a BA in modern languages and economics at St John's College, Cambridge and took posts at Liverpool and Glasgow universities before moving to the Mobil Oil Company in 1954. Four years later he joined PA Management Consultants and in 1967 established executive search company Canny Bowen and Associates, the UK arm of the US firm Canny Bowen, undertaking searches at chairman, managing director and director level for major British and international companies. George died on 17th January 2018 in Tunbridge Wells, aged 95.
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George Harris signing the print - Distant Dispersal - by Graeme Lothian. |
George Harris signing the print - Lancaster Dawn - by Anthony Saunders. |
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Signatures on item 2 | *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. 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 Russell Rusty Waughman DFC AFC *Signature Value : £15 (matted)
| Volunteered for the RAF in 1941. After training in Canada, he qualified as a heavy bomber pilot. In November 1943 he was posted to No.101 (Special Duties) Squadron at Ludford Magna. He completed a tour of operations, which began during the Battle of Berlin, where they did several operations. Surviving a mid-air collision, only to write the aircraft off on landing, Rusty and his crew on a subsequent flight had a miraculous escape when their aircraft was blown upside down, over the target, at Mailly-le-Camp; they also survived the Nuremberg raid on 30th March 1944, when 97 aircraft were lost - including about one quarter of 101 Sqn strength that night.
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