Update on August 15 at 11:30pm: This print has been sold.
Signed by the American and German pilots in addition to the artist. Signed and numbered limited edition.
From the explanatory material that comes with the print:
On March 6, 1944, fire and smoke seared the skies above northern Germany. When the heavens cleared, the U.S. 8th Air Force was revealed to have suffered the worst single day of air warfare of World War II; German forces had destroyed 69 U.S. heavy bombers and 11 escort fighters. In return, 81 Luftwaffe fighters were downed.
But air warfare was not about numbers: it was about the bold acts of individuals, pilots and gunners who risked their lives daily, and The Hunter Becomes the Hunted conveys one of those decisive acts of courage.
Early on March 6, B-24s and B-17s of the U.S. 1st, 2nd and 3rd Bomb Divisions were massed for a concentrated attack on Berlin. Forming a bomber stream 94 miles long, the aircraft flew east from England across Holland. At a few minutes past noon, the 100th Air Group, in the center of the bomb stream, found itself 21,000 feet above the small town of Haseluenne. It was a clear day with perfect visibility, and Berlin was only 200 miles to the east.
Suddenly, 21 Focke Wulf 190s raced into view of the 13th Combat Wing, B Formation, of the 100th Air Group. The German fighters attacked with swift, deadly force: of the 20 B-17s that left England, only five would survive to reach Berlin and return. And only one of the five pilots is alive today. That man, 1st Lt. Bob Shoens, is a signer of The Hunter Becomes the Hunted.
Half of the crews of the 100th's B-17s shot down over Haseluenne and Berlin perished. One of the handful of survivors of downed planes and former P.O.W., top turret gunner and Technical Sgt. Harold Stearns is also a signer.
Experienced Focke-Wulf pilot Oberleutnant Wolfgang Kretschmer watched as the B-17s plummeted into the fields of Haseluenne that day. However, when he looked around him a moment later, his tel-low pilots from 4 Staffel, II Gruppe of Jagdge-schwader 1 had disappeared. Apparently they had returned to base or were regrouping elsewhere. Recklessly, Kretschmer decided to press the attack on the remaining B-17s alone.
Meanwhile, eight P-47s of the American 56th Fighter Group, commanded by Col. Hub Zemke, had sighted the Luftwaffe attack. Using maximum power, the Thunderbolts roared after their prey. Yet when they reached the scene of the brief, fierce battle, they found only Kretschmer.
Lemke couldn't help admiring the German pilot's tenacity. However, he had a job to do, so he zeroed in on the lone Focke Wulf. In vain, Kretschmer tried to evade fire from Zemke's P-47. Bullets from eight machine guns riddled his craft. When the engine burst into flames, Kretschmer bailed out, badly burned and bleeding. He parachuted into the field of a small farm and was taken to a hospital, where he recovered from his wounds.
Zemke, too, would fall to earth. On a mission a few months later, his P-51 crashed. He was taken prisoner and spent the following five months in a P.O.W. camp.
But Kretschmer and Zemke were scheduled to meet again. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., holding a year-long retrospective on strategic bombing, invited the pilots involved in the attack to discuss the technical and dramatic feats of March 6,1944. On April 24, 1990, at the Airmen Memorial Museum in Suitland, MD, Kretschmer and Zemke shook hands for the first time - and reminisced about an unforgettable battle fought over 46 years earlier.
The B-17s shown in The Hunter Becomes the Hunted are from the 100th Bomb Group. The P-47 is a P-47D-3-RE of the 56th Fighter Group. The Focke-Wulf 190 is an Fw 190A-7 Werknummer 643000 from a Staffel, Il Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 1.
Sheet size: 38" x 21.5"