Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD

Oil Painting 1917 Air Battle Arras British Sopwith Triplanes Duel German Albatross DII Biplanes

₩8,324,000

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Step into a piece of history with this stunning oil painting depicting WW1 era 1917 air battle in Arras. Witness the sleek British Sopwith Triplanes duel with the agile German Albatross DII Biplanes in a clash of aerial supremacy. Expertly crafted, this painting captures the intensity and drama of this iconic World War 1 moment.
Make a big statement & impress your guests or clients with this historic WW1 aeriel battle duel masterpiece for your home or corporate office.
Oil on board set in a later fine decorative gilt moulded frame.
An excellent proportion large size with the frame being 100.5 cm wide and 90.3 cm high.
Title Aviation Battle of Arras April 1917 WW1 British Sopwith Fighter Triplanes Vs German Albatros D.II Fighter Biplanes by Geoff Shaw.
Circa late 20th century 1970's.
Signed by the known British artist Geoff Shaw 1924-1992.
In our opinion this is one of his finest aviation example of his work.
Subject avaition military battle overhead arerial view of the historic WW1 Battle of Arras in April 1917. Allied British Sopwith triplane fighter squadron are in the air dogfighting German belligerents flying in Albatros DII biplanes. The main British Sopwith plane in view is named Black Maria seen on the side of the plane, with the pilot flying, German fighters are all around and in the distance..With blue sky and white & overcast scattered clouds, below you can view the flashes of fire & smoke from the land batte going on. Having such great perspective.
Artist biography Geoff Shaw was a known British artist who was born in the early 20th century after WW1 in the year 1924. Geoff Shaw's paintings have been exhibited & sold at auctions around the world. Royal marines museum, National maritime museum Cornwall, Fleet Air Arm Museum, National Museum of the Royal Navy Portsmouth. Portsmouth Museum & Visitor Services.
Battle history On 9 April 1917 the British Army launched a major offensive at Arras. During the battle the Royal Flying Corps fought for control of the skies against the German Luftstreitkräfte.The losses they suffered were so heavy that the period became known to British aircrews as 'Bloody April. The German flyers used new tactics, creating 'hunting squadrons' called 'Jastas'. Using their superior aircraft, they inflicted heavy losses on their RFC counterparts. The German ace Manfred Von Richtofen gained his famous nickname 'The Red Baron' during April 1917, when he shot down 20 British aircraft. By the end of April, the British had lost 250 aircraft, and some 400 aircrew had become casualties. Nevertheless, they had played a vital role at Arras, flying nearly 20,000 sorties to maintain the crucial reconnaissance.
In April 1917 the British Army began an offensive at Arras, planned in conjunction with the French High Command, who were simultaneously embarking on a massive attack (the Nivelle Offensive) about 80 kilometres (50 mi) to the south. The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) supported British operations by offering close air support, aerial reconnaissance and strategic bombing of German targets. The RFC's commanding officer, Hugh Trenchard believed in the offensive use of air power and pushed for operations over German-controlled territory. It was expected the large numbers of aircraft assembled over the frontlines in the spring of 1917 would fulfil this purpose. However, the aircraft were, for the most part, inferior to German fighter aircraft. Crucially, British pilot training was not only poorly organised and inconsistent, it had to be drastically abbreviated to keep squadrons suffering heavy casualties up to strength.
This was self-perpetuating, as it resulted in most new pilots lacking sufficient practical flight experience before reaching the front. The worst carnage was amongst the new pilots – many of whom lasted just a day or two. German pilot training was, at that time, more thorough and less hurried than the British programmes. After the heavy losses and failures against the French over Verdun in 1916 and against the British at the Somme, they had reorganised their air forces into the Luftstreitkräfte by October 1916, which now included Jastas, specialist fighter units. These units were led by highly experienced pilots, some of them survivors of the Fokker Scourge period and had been working up with the first mass-produced twin-gunned German fighters, the Albatros D.I and D.II, comprising a total of nearly 350 aircraft between the two types.
Paradoxically, the one sided nature of the casualty lists during Bloody April was partly a result of German numerical inferiority. The German air forces mostly confined themselves to operating over friendly territory, thus reducing the possibility of losing pilots to capture and increasing the amount of time they could stay in the air and choose when and how to engage in combat. The Battle of Arras began on 9 April 1917. The Allies launched a joint ground offensive, with the British attacking near Arras in Artois, northern France, while the French offensive was launched on the Aisne. In support of the British army, the RFC deployed 25 squadrons, totalling 365 aircraft, about one-third of which were fighters (or "scouts" as they were called at the time). There were initially only five German Jastas (fighter squadrons) in the region, but this rose to eight as the battle progressed (some 80 or so operational fighter aircraft in total).
Since late 1916, the Germans had held the upper hand in the contest for air supremacy on the Western Front, with the twin-lMG 08 machine gun-armed Albatros D.II and D.III outclassing the fighters charged with protecting the vulnerable B.E.2c, F.E.2b and Sopwith 1½ Strutter two-seater reconnaissance and bomber machines. The Allies' fighter squadrons were equipped with obsolete "pushers" such as the Airco DH.2 and F.E.8 – and other outclassed types such as the Nieuport 17 and Sopwith Pup. Only the SPAD S.VII and Sopwith Triplane could compete on more or less equal terms with the Albatros; but these were few in number and spread along the front
All four of the aforementioned Allied designs depended on just one synchronized Vickers machine gun apiece, given cooling louvers on the cooling jackets for aviation use, for their armament on their airframe. The new generation of Allied fighters were not yet ready for service, although No. 56 Squadron RFC with the S.E.5 was working up to operational status in France, intended to use both the synchronized Vickers gun, and an overwing-mount Lewis machine gun firing above the propeller arc for a twin-gun offensive punch. The Bristol F2A also made its debut with No. 48 Squadron during April, but lost heavily on its first patrol, with four out of six shot down in an encounter with five Albatros D.IIIs of Jasta 11, led by Manfred von Richthofen (popularly known as the Red Baron). The new R.E.8 two-seaters, which were eventually to prove less vulnerable than the B.E.2e, also suffered heavy casualties in their early sorties. During April 1917, the British lost 245 aircraft, 211 aircrew killed or missing and 108 as prisoners of war. The German Air Services recorded the loss of 66 aircraft during the same period. As a comparison, in the five months of the Battle of the Somme of 1916 the RFC had suffered 576 casualties.
Under Richthofen's leadership, Jasta 11 scored 89 victories during April, over a third of the British losses. In casualties suffered, the month marked the nadir of the RFC's fortunes. However, despite the losses inflicted, the German Air Service failed to stop the RFC carrying out its prime objectives. The RFC continued to support the army throughout the Arras offensive with up-to-date aerial photographs, reconnaissance information, effective contact patrolling during British advances and harassing bombing raids. In particular the artillery spotting aircraft rendered valuable reconnaissance to the British artillery, who were able to maintain their superiority throughout the battle. In spite of their ascendancy in air combat, the German fighter squadrons continued to be used defensively, flying for the most part behind their own lines. Thus the Jastas established "air superiority", but certainly not the air supremacy sometimes claimed.
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Condition report.
Offered in fine used condition.
Painting surface is in acceptable good overall order, having craquelure & foxing staining, the frame has general wear, scuffs, chips, losses in places commensurate with usage & age.
Hanging thread on the back ready for immediate home wall display.
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Dimensions in centimetres of the frame

High (90.3 cm)
Wide (100.5 cm)
Depth (4.5 cm)