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Robert Bailey


Sheet size: 34" wide x 20" high.

Image size: 27" wide x 12 1/2" high.

Escort Fury by Robert Bailey
180 Limited Edition prints w/EIGHT signatures. (Walter Schuck, Peterburs, and all others)
US $195


1st. Lieutenant Norm Achen flew with the 4th Fighter Group, 344th Fighter Squadron from Debden, England from June 1944 to August 15th. He was shot down by ground fire in his P-51 while searching for targets of opportunity after escorting B-24's to Hanover. Norm later escaped from a P.O.W. camp and after 15 days reached a General Patton tank unit.

2nd. Lieutenant Lewis H. Maynard enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corp near the end of 1942. He took pre-flight in San Antonio, Texas, and basic training in Kansas. He trained on P-47’s and flew 500 hours of air-sea rescue. Shipped to England, he served with the 5th Air Sea Rescue Squadron out of Halesworth.

Lieutenant Everett ‘Bud’ Miller was born in Nashua, Iowa, and raised in Chino, California. He was initially with the 94th F.G. (Hat in the Ring) in the Mediterranean. His first victory was a Fw-190 returning from Ploesti on May 10, 1944. His 2nd, 3rd and 4th victories were on June 10 over Romania.

Captain Ronald J. Nash was born in Hanford, California. He was an Aircraft Commander on B-17’s with the 390th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force. On his 27th mission (Dec. 31, 1944), he was shot down over Hamburg and suffered spinal injuries. He spent 3 months in a German military hospital, and afterwards was incarcerated in Stalag 10.

Lieutenant Joseph A. Peterburs enlisted in the forces at Milwaukee, Wisconsin and by November 1944 was with the 20th F.G., 55th F.S. on Mustangs. He was Assistant Flight Leader by February 1945. On April 10th he shot down Oberleutnant Walter Shuck, while escorting B-17’s over Germany. It was his 49th mission and his last, for he was then shot down and became a POW but escaped and fought with the Russians.

Oberleutnant Walter Schuck joined the Luftwaffe in 1937. He scored his first victory while with 7./JG-5 based at Petsamo on the Polar Sea. On June 5th, 1942, he shot down 4 Russian fighters. His rate of victories increased steadily. During March, 1944, he shot down 7 Boston bombers and by April had 84 victories. On June 15th he scored 6 more, and on the 17th, 12 more victories in 24 hours! By August he had 150. Later in the war he flew the Me.262 jet with JG-7. He shot down 4 B-17's in the 262, with 8 victories. His all-up score was 206 confirmed aerial victories. His awards include the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves.

Oberleutnant Kurt Schulze
Began his service as a cadet in 1939. As a wireless operator, he flew in Me 110's over southern Russia with 3.(F)11. From 1942 - 44 he was Communications and Navigation Officer of 1/KG-2 and flew night missions to England as a navigator in Do 217's. While with KG-2, he became a pilot and in 1944, flew Me 109G's with III.JG-5 from northern Finland and Norway. There, he participated in photo reconnaissance missions over Murmansk, (F)124. In early 1945 he commanded 1/JG-51 in Gdansk, where he flew the last of his 103 missions and ended the war commanding 13/JG-5 in Norway. He was credited with 3 victories and holds the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class, Flight Clasp, etc. After the war, he spent two years as a P.O.W. in France.

Captain Robert P. Winks
Robert Winks was born in Sumner, Iowa. He joined the service in 1943, and after training was posted to England. Flying his first combat mission in July 1944, he served with the 364th Fighter Squadron, 357th Fighter Group at Leiston, flying P-51's. He scored his first victory in November 1944, with a second in December. Then on January 14, 1945, he had another 2 1/2 victories and the next day on a mission to Augsburg he saw a 262 jet slow rolling near its field and shot it down in flames. His year long tour in Europe took in the heavy fighting over the Battle of the Bulge, the missions to support the Arnhem operations, and the Battle of Berlin, when the 357th destroyed 56 enemy aircraft. During this time he flew some 69 combat missions. His personal P-51D was 'Trusty Rusty'.

 

    

Escort Fury

April 10th, 1945. High above Germany, Oberleutnant Walter Schuck of JG-7 is shot down by Lieutenant Joseph A. Peterburs of the 55th Fighter Squadron.

By the early spring of 1945, Allied air superiority reigned supreme across the vast air spaces of Western Europe. American and British air forces flew in numbers that would boggle the minds of modern military planners. Thousand-plane raids were carried out almost on a weekly basis, designed to wear down the German war machine into capitulation. The Allies had little to fear from the battered Luftwaffe whose once vaunted JG’s almost brought the American air forces to change their precision daylight bombing tactics just a few years earlier.

But that is not to say that the Luftwaffe could not still prove deadly or continue to produce more planes than was thought possible. That, coupled with the ‘wonder weapons’ that were coming into operational status, such as the Me-163 (first rocket plane), the Me-262 (first operational jet), the V-1 (first pulse cruise missle), and the V-2 (first intercontinental ballistic missile), still made the Germans a dangerous foe. This is no better illustrated than when on reads the early encounter reports that a bomber crews communicated after mission encounters. They were first thought outrageous, but in late 1944, these reports grew in numbers. They described aircraft engagements with the Luftwaffe where speeds exceeded 100 m.p.h. faster than the fastest Allied fighter. Exotic planes with the wing and power plant configurations were described that had no comparison in English or American aviation circles.

The results were devastating, with no apparent defensive tactic available to thwart an enemy appearing out of nowhere, approaching at unheard of speeds, destroying bomber streams and quickly departing, leaving crews to cope with tattered formations. Fortunately for the Allies, because of Hitler’s incessant meddling and the limitations placed upon aircraft designs and roles, effective use of these aircraft was greatly reduced. Further, the erosion of qualified, experienced pilots, doomed any chances the Luftwaffe had of attaining any prior level of effectiveness against adversaries.

Escort fighters of the 8th and 9th Air Forces took it very personally when bombers that they were escorting were struck by the enemy, and would descend on the intruder with a vengeance. Each bomber lost to flak or enemy aircraft represented a crew of 10 men. A strong bond existed between the bombers and their ‘little friends.’

In Robert Bailey’s painting, titled ‘Escort Fury,’ Walter Shuck of JG-7 flying ‘Yellow One,’ is attempting to exit his stricken Me-262 after his aircraft has been mortally hit by Lieutenant Joseph A. Peterburs of the 55th Fighter Squadron. Having just shot down another B-17, Schuck’s luck has run out.