Details
MUSTANGS OVER THE EAGLES NEST
Commemorative Proof Edition
by Nicolas Trudgian
Overall Print Size: 35½" x 26⅝"
Edition Size: 150
Secondary Market
Introducing a unique new format the hugely talented artist Nicolas Trudgian has specially painted four extra images featuring aircraft from all four American Air Forces that served in Europe during WWII to accompany his stunning new main painting of "MUSTANGS OVER THE EAGLE’S NEST." Featured are a B-17 Fortress from the 8th Air Force, a P-47 Thunderbolt from the 9th Air Force, a B-26 Marauder of the 12th Air Force, and a B-24 Liberator from the 15th Air Force. Each individual work of art, a painting in its own right, is beautifully reproduced as part of the limited edition print and is accompanied by the signatures of highly regarded pilots who flew each type in combat.
Obersalzberg, a spectacularly picturesque area of southern Germany in the Bavarian Alps, became a focal point for the Allies as World War II was drawing to its close. This mountain village had become a Nazi stronghold after the Third Reich had seized houses, farms, and some 600 acres, and built private residences for Martin Bormann and Hermann Goering, an SS barracks, and erected a 30 km fence around the perimeter to deter intrusion. At its center was the Berghoff, Adolf Hitler's private mountain retreat. Crowning Bormann's lavish building program was the house he had built on a rocky spur almost 3000 feet above the Obersalzberg, some 6000 feet above sea level. Reached via a twisting road blasted out of the mountainside, the house was approached after entering a tunnel via a large brass two story elevator rising over 400 feet to the building. The Kehlsteinhaus was Martin Bormann's present to Hitler on the occasion of Hitler's 50th birthday in 1939. It was known by the Allies as the "Eagles Nest." Believing the Obersalzberg to be where Hitler and his closest henchmen would make their final stand; in April 1945 Allied bombing raids reduced much of the area to ruins. The "Eagles Nest", intended as a private retreat from which Hitler could gaze over a conquered Europe, being an isolated target, survived this onslaught, and endures to this day.
This fine painting shows P-51D's of the 339th Fighter Group roaring over the rooftop of Hitler's now abandoned folly. With Germany and the Third Reich on the brink of defeat, this majestic aviation image conveys the poignant irony of the greatest lost cause in human history, with P-51 Mustangs providing a fitting symbol of victory over tyranny.
In addition to the artist each print in this COMMEMORATIVE PROOF Edition has been individually signed in pencil by these FIVE highly decorated USAAF pilots who flew combat in the European theatre during World War II:
- Master Sergeant DALE MOON (8th Air Force)
- Lt. Colonel LAWRENCE POWELL (8th Air Force)
- 1st Lieutenant IVAN HASEK (9th Air Force)
- Captain JOHN MINECH (12th Air Force)
- Major ROBERT STERNFELS (15th Air Force)
AND by TWO P-51 Aces
- Captain CLINTIN DeWITT BURDICK
- Colonel ART FIEDLER
Comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.
