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The Hard Way Home by Robert Taylor. - Robert Taylor Prints

The Hard Way Home by Robert Taylor.


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The Hard Way Home by Robert Taylor.

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 the Battle of Britain, the young men who flew with Bomber Command came not just from Britain, but from all over the Commonwealth, and from the countries of occupied mainland Europe. Every man was a volunteer, prepared to endure the deadly flak and prowling night fighters, to say nothing of the savage and bitter cold, in order to wage their relentless attack on the military and industrial targets of the Third Reich. The aircraft that carried these young men to war were numerous, but bearing the brunt of the RAFs incessant campaign were two heavy bombers, the stalwarts of Bomber Command - the Lancaster and the Halifax. Between them they accounted for over three quarters of all the bombs dropped by the RAF, and Halifaxes alone accounted for a total of 73,312 operations, nearly a fifth of all missions carried out by Bomber Command.
Item Code : DHM1987The Hard Way Home by Robert Taylor. - This Edition
TYPEEDITION DETAILSSIZESIGNATURESOFFERSYOUR PRICEPURCHASING
PRINT Signed limited edition of 400 prints.

Paper size 35 inches x 23 inches (89cm x 58cm) Image size 29 inches x 16 inches (74cm x 41cm) Irons, Harry
Godfrey, Laurie
Carter, Eric
Nawarski, Stanislaw
+ Artist : Robert Taylor


Signature(s) value alone : £125
£65 Off!Now : £210.00

Quantity:
All prices on our website are displayed in British Pounds Sterling



Other editions of this item : The Hard Way Home by Robert Taylor. DHM1987
TYPEEDITION DETAILSSIZESIGNATURESOFFERSYOUR PRICEPURCHASING
ARTIST
PROOF
Collectors edition of 25 artist proofs.
Great value : Value of signatures exceeds price of item!
Paper size 35 inches x 23 inches (89cm x 58cm) Image size 29 inches x 16 inches (74cm x 41cm) Irons, Harry
Godfrey, Laurie
Carter, Eric
Nawarski, Stanislaw
Sayer, Tom
Williamson, Frank
Mottershead, Bluey
Morrison, John
Walker, Frank
MacNamara, Len
Maltas, Fred
Gough, Harry
Evans, John
Thompson, Sam
Holiday, Matt
Bell, William
Taussig, Kurt
Elkington, John
Neil, Tom
Ryll, Stefan
Cleaver, Reg
+ Artist : Robert Taylor


Signature(s) value alone : £530
£65 Off!Now : £395.00VIEW EDITION...
PRINT RCAF edition of 25 artist proofs.

SOLD OUT.
Paper size 35 inches x 23 inches (89cm x 58cm) Image size 29 inches x 16 inches (74cm x 41cm) Edwards, J F Stocky
Warren, Douglas
Bowles, Edward
Cleaver, Reg
Curnock, Richard
Hewitt, Ian
Oakeby, Henry
+ Artist : Robert Taylor


Signature(s) value alone : £160
SOLD
OUT
VIEW EDITION...
PRINT Collectors limited edition of 250 prints.
Great value : Value of signatures exceeds price of item!
Paper size 35 inches x 23 inches (89cm x 58cm) Image size 29 inches x 16 inches (74cm x 41cm) Irons, Harry
Godfrey, Laurie
Carter, Eric
Nawarski, Stanislaw
Sayer, Tom
Williamson, Frank
Mottershead, Bluey
Morrison, John
Walker, Frank
MacNamara, Len
Maltas, Fred
Gough, Harry
Evans, John
Thompson, Sam
Holiday, Matt
Bell, William
Taussig, Kurt
Elkington, John
Neil, Tom
Ryll, Stefan
Cleaver, Reg
+ Artist : Robert Taylor


Signature(s) value alone : £530
£65 Off!Now : £325.00VIEW EDITION...
PRINT RCAF limited edition of 250 prints.

SOLD OUT.
Paper size 35 inches x 23 inches (89cm x 58cm) Image size 29 inches x 16 inches (74cm x 41cm) Edwards, J F Stocky
Warren, Douglas
Bowles, Edward
Cleaver, Reg
Curnock, Richard
Hewitt, Ian
Oakeby, Henry
+ Artist : Robert Taylor


Signature(s) value alone : £160
SOLD
OUT
VIEW EDITION...
PRESENTATION Original pencil tribute edition of 10 proofs.

SOLD OUT. Supplied with a matted original pencil drawing - full matted size 20 inches x 19 inches (51cm x 48cm)
Paper size 35 inches x 23 inches (89cm x 58cm) Image size 29 inches x 16 inches (74cm x 41cm) Irons, Harry
Godfrey, Laurie
Carter, Eric
Nawarski, Stanislaw
Sayer, Tom
Williamson, Frank
Mottershead, Bluey
Morrison, John
Walker, Frank
MacNamara, Len
Maltas, Fred
Gough, Harry
Evans, John
Thompson, Sam
Holiday, Matt
Bell, William
Taussig, Kurt
Elkington, John
Neil, Tom
Ryll, Stefan
Cleaver, Reg
Bressloff, Boris
Briggs, Graham
Clarke, Eric
Cox, George
Glendinning, Harry
Joss, Douglas
Lasham, Bob
Leksinski, Rudolf
Levy, Harry
Manning, Reg
Petrie-Andrews, John
Smith, Ron
Thomas, Ken
Bennett, Donald (matted on companion print)
Cheshire, Leonard (matted on companion print)
Jackson, Norman (matted on companion print)
Learoyd, Roderick (matted on companion print)
Reid, Bill (matted on companion print)
+ Artist : Robert Taylor


Signature(s) value alone : £1070
SOLD
OUT
VIEW EDITION...
General descriptions of types of editions :



Extra Details : The Hard Way Home by Robert Taylor.
About all editions :

Detail Sections




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.
NameInfo


Lt Stanislaw Nawarski DFC KM (deceased)
*Signature Value : £40

Polish pilot Stanislaw Nawwarski flew with the French Air Force, but escaped to England after the fall of France in 1940 and joined the RAF. Just prior to the Battle of Britain he was injured after being shot down whilst ferrying an unarmed Hurricane. In 1941, back in action, he was posted to 302 Polish Squadron flying Spitfires. He flew Spitfires om D-Day and throughout the subsequent Allied advance through Normandy, scoring four victories, all Me109s. He died on 8th January 2017.


Warrant Officer Eric Carter (deceased)
*Signature Value : £35

Initially posted to 615 Squadron flying Hurricanes, Eric was then posted to 81 Squadron, again on Hurricanes. In the autumn of 1941 he accompanied the squadron on HMS Argus to Russia as part of Force Benedict, a clandestine operation to defend the strategically important Russian port of Murmansk. As well as operational patrols the squadron escorted Russian bomber missions. He died in August 2021.


Warrant Officer Harry Irons DFC (deceased)
*Signature Value : £40

Joining the RAF at the age of 16 in 1940, he did 2 full tours as a Rear Gunner with 9 Squadron and took part in nearly all the famous raids of Bomber Command. He finished in 1945 at 158 Squadron flying Halifaxes. 'I had just turned 18 when we went on a gunnery school course. After that six-week training, we usually went for a further three months training to an Operational Training Unit. It so happened that 9 Squadron had just converted from Wellingtons to Lancasters and they were 14 air gunners short on the squadron, so they posted us from gunnery school after six weeks' training straight to the squadron. 'When I got there, I was approached by a Flt Lt Stubbs, who said to me: 'You're my new gunner. We've got a gunner already but he's been flying Wellingtons and he doesn't want to be a rear gunner. He wants to go in the mid-upper turret. You'll be the rear gunner.' But, he said, on my first raid, the best thing for me to do would be to go on the mid-upper turret. 'That way you can see exactly what's going on,' he said. 'My first raid in Lancasters with 9 Squadron was to Dusseldorf on September 10th, 1942. Every time we went on a bombing raid, we had to do an air test first. We would test our guns, test the bomb sight, test the hydraulics, test the engines, and when you landed, if everything was OK, you told the engineers that everything was fine for the raid. As we landed, the armourers arrived with the bomb load. I still remember now, it was one 4,000 pounder - one huge, fat bomb - and 1,200 incendiaries. 'Our bomb aimer was an 'old sweat'. We used to call him 'The Old Boy'. He was 26. He said that with that bomb load we had, we were definitely going to the Happy Valley. When we returned to the mess, we got ready to go to the briefing. We were briefed and the curtain came down off the target and there it was - Dusseldorf. 'That's right,' said the bomb aimer to me, 'that's where we are going, Dusseldorf.' Most of our raids were on the Ruhr Valley and the reason why I am alive now is because - I don't know why - but I never went to Berlin. I wouldn't be talking to you now if I had been to Berlin. I can assure you. 'We put all our gear on. It took about half an hour for the air gunner to get dressed with all the clothing. I clambered into the mid-upper turret and off we went. As we crossed the Dutch coast, I could see we were about 1,400 or 1,500 feet over the coast. I could see a huge number of lights coming up. Far below us there was light flak, in beautiful colours, but it never touched us because we were a little too high. 'We crossed over Holland and the bomb aimer said: 'We are approaching the target, Skipper,' so I decided to swing my turret around and have a look. I was absolutely shocked by what I saw. I could not believe my eyes seeing what was in front of me. The flak, the guns, the lights, the search lights. It was incredible and I was really, really, really frightened. The plane was bouncing about. Then the bomb aimer said: 'Bomb doors open' and in we go straight and level. 'On my left I could see an aircraft on fire going down, and one below us I could see exploding. And I thought to myself: 'We're in for something here!'. I could not believe that we were going to fly through this huge explosion. But we went through it. Then the pilot was talking to the bomb aimer, and the bomb aimer said: 'We have missed the target, Skipper. We're going to have to go round again.' And I thought: 'Dear, oh dear, we've got to go all the way round, come back and go through all that again.' Which we did. And on the second run, we dropped our bombs. 'Bomb doors closed. On the way home. Flying back, there were problems with the oxygen, so the skipper – he was 21 and on his second tour, and old hand – took us down lower. We had to drop below 10,000 feet, and as we crossed the Dutch coast, the light flak opened up. It was absolutely hair-raising. There were hundreds and hundreds of these lights flashing past us but, strangely enough, not one of them hit us. 'When we got back, we landed and had a look at our aircraft. There were about 10 or 15 holes, two or three inches wide, across the fuselage, flak holes caused by shrapnel from the shells. We must have caught them on the Dutch coast. We were lucky but I've seen much worse. We went in for a briefing, had a coffee and went to bed. That was my first raid. Later, I found out, that our skipper, who had finished his tour, unfortunately got killed during training a couple of weeks later.'
Harry Irons died on 10th November 2020.
Warrant Officer Laurie Godfrey
*Signature Value : £10

As a WOP/Air Gunner he joining 408 Sqn, only the second RCAF squadron formed overseas, serving on first Halifaxes and Lancasters completing 32 operations.
The Aircraft :
NameInfo
HalifaxRoyal Air Force heavy Bomber with a crew of six to eight. Maximum speed of 280mph (with MK.VI top speed of 312mph) service ceiling of 22,800feet maximum range of 3,000 miles. The Halifax carried four .303 browning machine guns in the tail turret, two .303 browning machines in the nose turret in the MK III there were four .303 brownings in the dorsal turret. The Handley Page Halifax, first joined the Royal Air Force in March 1941 with 35 squadron. The Halifax saw service in Europe and the Middle east with a variety of variants for use with Coastal Command, in anti Submarine warfare, special duties, glider-tugs, and troop transportation roles. A total of 6177 Halifax's were built and stayed in service with the Royal Air Force until 1952

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