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A B-24 has lost one engine
and streams smoke from another. She’s close to the White
Cliffs of Dover but not out of trouble. Any second now, the last
power may fail. Without enough altitude for a safe bail-out,
her crew will brace for ditching and the English Channel is cold
and choppy. She’s got one thing going for her—a Spitfire
Mark IXB of the 403 Squadron based at Kenley-Middlesex has come
to meet her and weaves above. If her pilot chooses to ditch,
the Spit pilot will tell Air-Sea Rescue.
When Bill did this painting,
he liked it from the start. Old bomber pilots like it, too. Many
recalled the exact situation, the irony of struggling out of
enemy skies only to go down a few miles from the home base and
the joy of seeing an RAF plane coming to ride herd. Built as
an interceptor, the Spitfire lacked range for escorting the bombers
very far. But all agreed that the plane was a beauty and never
more so than when it played Samaritan for its wounded allies. |