Product Code: L41

Our Price: £115.00
Published Price: £129.25

After the D-Day landings, the crucial battle in the Normandy campaign was inland, in the great encirclement battle of July/August 1944 which resulted in the virtual destruction of the German armies in Normandy, the remnants of which did not halt their headlong flight until they reached the French borders. In this great battle, the Typhoon wings of 83 and 84 Groups played a major role, harrying and destroying German armour and other vehicles to the point where the German army found it almost impossible to move in the daylight hours. The rout of the German army started at Avranches, the Mortain killing ground, and finally culminated in the bottleneck of what is known as the Falaise Gap. Here the Typhoons wreaked havoc with their rockets leaving the battlefield in a scene of hellish destruction that was not to be equalled until the Muttla Pass in the Gulf War. The success of the Typhoons was achieved at great cost. In Normandy alone 151 pilots of this relatively small force were killed and are commemorated on the Typhoon Memorial at Noyers-Bocage. Frank Wootton was attached to121 Wing at the Advanced Landing Ground B5 at Le Fresne Camilly and was seen on many occasions sketching quietly on the airfield. He also visited the scene of the carnage in the Falaise Gap and his painting is no glamourised picture of war, but rather the unvarnished truth.

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