It goes without saying that they were all incredibly brave young men, and they were very young, but they weren’t completely without ego, and some capable of little deceptions to protect their status and bravado within their group.
On missions across the Channel and over German occupied Europe, they would often become separated and get involved in fight to the death dogfights with the enemy. If, however, a sortie was uneventful with no contact with the enemy, some pilots found it necessary to save face with their colleagues.
Before returning to the airfield, they would fly into or behind clouds and fire off their guns. ‘Shoot Offs’. When they landed back at the airfield to an audience of other armchaired pilots, their gun barrels would still be smoking and glowing from the ‘shoot off’, giving their colleagues the impression that they had just returned from a particularly difficult dog fight!
This information fascinated me and gave me the basis for this small series of ink and acrylic drawings.
