Pacific War Aviation Artwork- (not screenshots/game images or real life photos) - Share your favourites

[Mysticpuma]

"Nishizawa" by Jack Fellows 

Hiroyoshi Nishizawa has been recorded by historians as having been the highest-scoring Japanese fighter 'ace' of World War Two. Although the methods used for keeping tally varied between the Japanese and their Allied opponents, Hiroyoshi Nishizawa still remains in a class with any top-scoring Allied fighter ace. However, due to the differing methods of tallying aerial victories, Nishizawa's final score remains a subject of controversy to this day - but certainly he was the undisputed top-scorer amongst Imperial Japan's fighter pilots, both Army and Navy. Nishizawa's humble beginnings, odd personality, and frail appearance, made him an unlikely candidate for the position in history that he acquired before his death in late October 1944. By October, Nishizawa was a member of the 203rd Air Group and on the 25th of October, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, he had a premonition of his imminent death. The following day, while on a transport aircraft ferrying pilots from Cebu to Japanese-held Clark Field on Luzon, his premonition came true when his transport was set upon by US Navy Hellcats from VF-14 off the USS Wasp, and shot down in flames over Mindoro, most likely by VF-14 pilot Lt. J.g. Harold Newell, who was credited for the 'kill'. An extremely aggressive fighter pilot, Nishizawa suffered the ignominy of dying while a mere passenger in a lumbering transport plane. At that time, by his own count he had claimed 87 aerial victories over Allied aircraft. Born in the mountains in Nagano Prefecture on the 27th of January, 1920, the fifth son of a father who was a worker in a local sake distillery. His working life began at age sixteen in a textile factory following his graduation from elementery school. Also at age sixteen he applied to become a member of the Yokaren, a reserve flight-training program and was subsequently accepted into the Japanse Naval Air Force Pilot training program, and graduated 16th in his class of 71 (surviving) students. Between that time in March 1939 and October 1941,when he was assigned to the Chitose Air Group, Nishizawa was attached to various air groups, including the Oita, Suzuka, and, Omura, attaining the rank of Petty Officer-1st Class in the process. His most well-known assignment was to the Tainan Air Group, or Tainan Kokutai, where he became the good friend of Saburo Sakai, Junichi Sasai, and Toshio Ota, three other high-ranking IJNAF fighter aces. Together, these four mutually respecting and intensly loyal friends raised havoc in the skies over New Guinea and over Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. As the Allied air forces gained strength The Tainan Air Group suffered unsustainable attrition, including the loss of Saburo Sakai on August 8 1942, Junichi Sasai, killed by USMC ace Marion Carl on 26 August, and Ota at the hands of USMC Corsair pilot Frank Drury over Henderson Field, on 21 October 1942. Not long after that, the Tainan Air Group disbanded and the survivors were assigned to other units. Above we see Nishizawa in May 1943 while attached to Air Group 251 flying a Reisen (Zero) A6M3-Model 22. 

[Mysticpuma]

"Retribution...Rex Barber and Yamamoto Isoroku" by Jack Fellows

Exactly one year, to the day, after Jimmy Doolittle led his group of Army B-25 bombers off of the flight deck of the USS HORNET and into history - Major John W. Mitchell, commanding officer of the 339th Fighter Squadron led a group of sixteen 13th USAAF P-38 Lightnings on a mission from Guadalcanal to Bougainville that has remained the most examined and analyzed fighter mission of the air war in the Pacific.

On this day, Mitchell's fighters intercepted a group of two Mitsubishi G4M1 "BETTY" bombers and six "ZERO" fighters just south of the wide mouth of Empress Augusta Bay, on the western side of the island of Bougainville in the Northern Solomons.The story is well known and space prevents its repetition here.

The painting depicts the moment, described by Rex Barber to the artist in 1991, when Barber's aircraft overran the bomber carrying Admiral Yamamoto. At this moment, the bomber's left wing dropped, pitching the right wing upward and into Barber's path. His quick evasive action narrowly averted a midair collision with the doomed aircraft carrying the Japanese architect of the infamous sneak attack upon the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941.
 

[Mysticpuma]

"Night Action off Mindoro" by Jack Fellows 

On the night of December 26, 1944, this radar-equipped B-24M night intruder, piloted by Lt. Samuel L. Flinner of the 63rd Bomb Squadron, 43rd Bomb Group attacked and immobilized the Imperial Japanese Navy Yugumo-class destroyer, Kiyoshimo, off the Philippine island of Mindoro, where it was left behind and sunk by a PT boat. Leaving Tacloban, they had been informed that a Japanese task force might try to retake the area so orders were given to try to locate it. After departure, they skirted a squall line only to find that Mindoro's night sky was being lit up by shelling and flares. Scouts for ships with radar produced several targets. While being showered with heavy tracers and antiaircraft fire, a low altitude bomb run at 1000 feet was made on a vessel that was three miles off shore. All three of their bombs produced large explosions.

After the run on the ship, the B-24 became the center of attention for the Japanese as it dove to the deck in a hard turn. Two shells hit the plane, one in the tail turret, injuring the tail gunner, and another exploded in the midsection behind the waist gunner, cutting the rudder cables. Splicing the cables together, they flew back through the squall line to Tacloban and circled until daylight to land. A ground inspection revealed over 200 holes. Lieutenant Flinner accumulated 24 missions and 412 combat hours. He and his crew were given credit for the kill.

Edited October 17, 2023 by Mysticpuma

[Mysticpuma]

"Mission to Balikpapan" by Jack Fellows

The objective of Imperial Japan in occupying the Dutch colonial oil resources in the Netherlands East Indies and on Borneo was realized shortly after the initiation of hostilities against the Allies on 8 December, 1941. This important oil resource was unavailable to Japan, since prior to hostilities, the Allies had denied Japanese access to the oil that would, it was hoped, prevent Japan from its expanding pan-Asian ambitions that were too often being realized at the edge of the sword. The subsequent campaign by the Allies to either destroy or recapture these Dutch assets fell to General MacArthur and his Fifth US Army Air Force, commanded by Maj. General George C. Kenney. The ensuing campaign waged against the occupied oil facilities at Balikpapan on the east coast of the island of Borneo by the 5th USAAF commenced on 13 August, 1943 and was not concluded until the raids commencing on 1 June, 1945 in support of operation OBOE were completed (in support of OBOE landing forces). Raids by heavy bombers of one or more of five heavy bombardment groups from both the 5th and 13th US Army Air Forces commenced in earnest after the August ʼ43 raids on 29 September, 1944 when two groups from the Jungle Air Force, the Bomber Barons and Long Rangers, and the Jolly Rogers from the 5th USAAF attacked Balikpapan, losing three B-24s in the process, but inflicting substantial damage. Subsequent raids took place on October 3, 8, 9, 10, 14, and the 18th - with the raids on the 10th and the 14th being the largest and most destructive.

Pictured are elements of the 403rd Bomb Squadron and the 65th Bomb Squadron leaving the two burning target sites at Balikpapan on 10 October as described by Col. James Pettus after he lead the 43rd BG on that day. The picture replicates his view out of the lead Liberatorʼs pilotʼs window. His left wingman is the nearest B-24, "WOLF PACK" which was usually flown by 403rd Bomb Sqdn. pilot Lt. Leonard Clark. Beyond Clarkʼs aircraft are elements of the 65th Bomb Sqdn. Col. Pettus notes in his narrative that at this point, a Japanese float plane inexplicably made an oblique high-angle head-on pass through the group, without firing a shot, perhaps having intended initially to ram one of the bombers. The 43 BG lost no aircraft to the enemy defenses on this mission, however one of the aircrew on Col. Pettusʻ aircraft was killed by Japanese defensive guns.

Taken as a whole, the raids were only partially successful, since the occupying Japanese could quickly repair damage and resume production, however in the meantime the construction of Allied airfields in the area allowed interdiction of petroleum shipments out of Borneo, achieving the desired effect which was to cut off the Japanese war machine from the fuel it needed to continue.

[Mysticpuma]

"Tokyo Sleeper" by Jack Fellows

On 2 September 1943, 16 B-25 Mitchells of the 405th Bomb Squadron departed Durand Air Strip to bomb and strafe a convoy of Japanese transports in Wewak Harbor, New Guinea. P-38s joined in top cover, but the enemy fielded barrage balloons cabled to ships, ack-ack (anti-aircraft fire) laid up in curtains of fire and resolute pilots of Tonys and Ki-43 Oscars prepared to ram if their air-to-air gunnery failed. In the foreground is Tokyo Sleeper; the most famous of the 405th Bomb Squadron, Thirty-eighth Bomb Group. The Veteran strafer is shown performing to perfection the role that Pappy Gunn intended.

[Mysticpuma]

"Strafer - Mission to Kavieng" by Jack Fellows 

Major Chester Coltharp, commanding officer of the 498th Bomb Squadron, 345th Bomb Group, 5th USAAF is seen sweeping into the Kavieng, New Ireland Japanese seaplane anchorage, the 5th Air Force's target for destruction on 15 February, 1944. Major Coltharp's B-25D, "Princess Pat" and 1st Lt. G. D. McCall's "Near Miss" are the embodiment of the legendary Major Paul I. "Pappy" Gunn's revolutionary gun-toting field conversion of the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber to the devastating tool of destruction that was to become known as the Strafer.

[Mysticpuma]

"Flying Fiends" by Jack Fellows 

The 30 October, 1944 fighter strike against Sandakan Harbor, North Borneo, Netherlands East Indies was a 750 mile over-water-strike ( each way) for the P-38J/Ls of the 36th Fighter Squadron, 8th Fighter Group. Upon reaching the target they were surrounded by anti-aircraft and a stiff barrage of machine gun ground fire. William W. "Pappy" Turner dove on an IJN escort vessel. Hit by defending gunfire, his Lightning was thrown temporarily out of control. Leading 36th Fighter Squadron ace Ken Giroux seen here, was third or fourth over the vessel, striking some high explosives on deck. As the Lightning pilots turned for their three-hour return flight the enemy vessel raged into an inferno. The members of the 36th Fighter Squadron were known as the "Flying Fiends".

[Mysticpuma]

"The Ordeal of Tondelayo" by Jack Fellows

The crew of the 500th Bomb Squadron B-25D-1 "TONDELAYO" fight for their lives over St. Georges Channel, near Rabaul, on 18 October, 1943 while under attack by a determined Japanese foe. Pilot, 1/Lt. Ralph G. Wallace will win an epic struggle to fend off 201st and 204th Kokutal Japanese Zeroes while keeping his aircraft aloft with only one of its two engines functioning.

Beyond TONDELAYO, a Zero that had made too low of a pass hits the water, killing its pilot. Both of Wallace's wingmen, Captain Lyle "Rip" Anacker in "SNAFU" and 1/Lt. Harlan H. Peterson, flying "SORRY SATCHUL", were shot down in this encounter-survivors of Peterson's crew were machine-gunned by the Japanese. Wallace's crew in TONDELAYO managed to fight their way clear of their tormentors and eventually landed a Kiriwina Island, in the Trobriands Group after what seemed to be an eternity.

TONDELAYO, with dozens of bullet-holes, would return to combat only after seven months of repair. In the end all seventeen crewmen of the three 500th Bomb Squadron B-25's were awarded the Silver Star for valor. Col. Clinton True, CO of the 345th Bomb Group, leader of this mission, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second-highest award for valor.

[Mysticpuma]

"Milk Run by Kyushu" by Jack Fellows 

On 10 August 1945, in one of the final bombing missions in the war in the Pacific, more than 20 B-24s of the Fifth USAAFs 43rd Bomb Group targeted Oita, a Japanese home island city on Kyushu. Shown here are the Consolidated B-24 Liberators of the Far East Air Force departing the target area. Of special interest is the elaborate "Nose Art" displayed on late war Liberators such as this one from the 64th Bomb Squadron, 43rd Bomb Group, 5th USAAF.

The B-24s in the painting were part of one of the Far East Air Force's last bombing missions against the Empire of Japan. Seen here leaving the target, the city of Oita on the Japanese home island of Kyushu, elements of the 64th Bomb Squadron, 43 Bomb Group, 10 August, 1945 were part of a twenty-plus B-24 raid by the 43 Bomb Group on a mission dubbed a "milk-run" due to the light-to-nil defensive opposition generated by the Japanese. In the foreground, #973 bears the flamboyant artwork covering the complete port side of the aircraft which would immortalize it and its creator S/Sgt. Sarkis E. Bartigian, who was assigned to the 64Tth Sqdn. ground echelon. Bartigian's exuberant creations decorated the sides of a number of 43rd Bomb Group B-24s late in the war, but this one, "THE DRAGON AND HIS TAIL" was the most well known and photographed. After meeting an ignominious end in the smelters at Kingman, Arizona following the war's end, #973 recently was reincarnated in all its glory on the port side of the Collings Foundation's B-24, flouting Seargent Bartigian's provocative artwork at air shows around the U.S.

[Feldgrün]

America Strikes Back by Robert Taylor 

During the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7th 1941, American pilots experienced their very first air combat following the surprise attack.  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, simultaneously the air base at Wheeler Field came under heavy attack.  Two young USAAF pilots, Kenneth Taylor and George Walsh, quickly got their P-40 Tomahawks airborne.  Winging southwards towards Ewa Field they ripped into a dozen or more enemy planes attacking the marine field.  Diving into the formation they each downed 'Val' fighter-bombers.  

[Trooper117]

16 hours ago, Mysticpuma said:

eight B-52s and nine P-38s lost,

 

[Mysticpuma]

"Battle for the Solomon's" by John D. Shaw. 

[BlitzPig_EL]

Apparently the person that wrote the description of Bartigian's artwork doesn't know port from starboard.

[javelina]

CV-6 departing Pearl after an over night stop on Dec 9th.  Artist: Julien Lepelletier. (Saw this in an X thread via DryDock Dream Games)

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by javelina

[Mysticpuma]

"Morning Thunder" by Robert Taylor. 

There are few truly defining moments in the history of a State - single episodes that touch every citizen, and cast a nation's future. Epoch-making events that influence the entire world are even more uncommon. The events that took place in the space of less than two hours on the morning of December 7, 1941 were of such defining importance, their memory is now deeply embedded into the history of the Twentieth Century.

At ten minutes to eight, as the US Pacific fleet lazily came awake suddenly, and without warning, the world around them exploded with all the mighty force of thunder: Within seconds Pearl Harbor became cloaked with attacking Japanese aircraft. Before sailors could comprehend what was happening, bombs and torpedoes had ripped out the heart of the fleet: Four of eight battleships were sunk; a dozen more naval vessels lay stricken in the water; 2400 souls perished.

In those terrible few moments, the tranquil scene was transformed into a boiling cauldron of explosions, fire, smoke and unimaginable destruction. Pearl Harbor became a ranging inferno.

Robert Taylor's specially commissioned masterpiece recreated desperate moments during the second wave attack at around 9am on December 7, 1941. Having taken six torpedo hits and two bomb strikes in the first wave attack on 'Battleship Row', the West Virginia is ablaze, her bows already low in the water and decks awash. Ignoring the risks, crews push the navy tug Hoga alongside with fire-fighting equipment and to pick up survivors. Overhead, Japanese Zeros swoop through the smoke, aiming the second wave attack at installations on Pearl Harbor's Ford Island, to complete one of history's most devastating unprovoked declarations of war. 

[Boba Fett]

I always understood it as 0755 as that is the accepted time the first bomb hit. Nitpicking, rivet counting, and other caveats apply.

[wheelsup_cavu]

3 hours ago, Boba Fett said:

I always understood it as 0755 as that is the accepted time the first bomb hit.

Have heard that was the time the attack on Pearl Harbor Officially started since I was a wee lad.

 

Wheels

[javelina]

saw this on the Net, via Roy Garner

 

 

[Mysticpuma]

"Kamikaze" by Ron Embleton (artist who created the end titles for Captain Scarlet in the 1960's) 

[Mysticpuma]

James Dietz @Blitzen

Edited December 22, 2023 by Mysticpuma

[Mysticpuma]

Title uknown Nicholas Trudgian

[javelina]

Caught this on the 'net, via John Shaw:

[wheelsup_cavu]

1 hour ago, javelina said:

Caught this on the 'net, via John Shaw:

Cool image.

I really wish I could find a picture that shows how all the planes were staged when Doolittle took off. The best picture I can find only shows twelve of the aircraft staged behind the one that is getting ready to takeoff which leaves me three short...

 

Wheels

[Mysticpuma]

On 12/24/2023 at 2:13 AM, wheelsup_cavu said:

Cool image.

I really wish I could find a picture that shows how all the planes were staged when Doolittle took off. The best picture I can find only shows twelve of the aircraft staged behind the one that is getting ready to takeoff which leaves me three short...

 

Wheels

This is the best link I have from the event. 

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/photos/doolittle-raid-b-25

[Blitzen]

One of my better efforts about the Doolittle Mission Early Launch: