Somme Contact Patrol

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Somme Contact Patrol - original oil painting Ref: GT-GW4

British troops signal their position to a BE2c flying overhead as they struggle to advance across no-mans land on July 1st 1916, the first day of the battle of the Somme.

Oil on Canvas, canvas size 16" x 20" (40cm x 50cm). Painting is framed - overall size including frame is approximately 18"x 22" (46cm x 56cm)

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CLICK HERE for close up detail images.

'Somme Contact Patrol' is also available as a Giclee print, in two alternative sizes on paper, and on canvas - CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

SOLD

Price: £2,950.00

Sheltering from the murderous artillery and machine gun fire in the meagre cover provided by a shell hole, these soldiers are from the 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, veterans of Gallipoli, and part of the VIII corps attack in the area near the village of Beaumont Hamel. In this region alone, 14,000 men were lost on this one day for no gain at all, the 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers recording 483 casualties without capturing a single section of enemy trench.

The infantry were issued with red flares, to be lit when their contact patrol aircraft signalled by firing a white Very light (later replaced by an audible klaxon signal). The aircraft would then in theory be able to plot the limit of the advance and report back to headquarters. However, smoke from the flares was felt by some soldiers to also risk revealing their position to the enemy, hence the practice of lighting them in the bottom of a trench or shell hole.

(above) Troops of the 29th division (of which the Lancashire Fusiliers were part) also carried a tin triangle on their backpack at the Somme to aid identification from the air.

(left) RFC aircraft involved in infantry co-operation carried some form of temporary identification linking them to a particular unit on the ground; one or two dark flags on either or both wing trailing edges was typical.

Images are cropped details from 'Somme Contact Patrol'. CLICK HERE to see these detail images at a larger size.

Award Winning First World War Aviation Art

Graham Turner's original oil painting Into the Hands of Fate (right) achieved award success at the 2013 Guild of Aviation Artists annual exhibition, held in the prestigious Mall Galleries, London, where it was awarded the Cross and Cockade prize for the best First World War aviation painting, the Roy Nockolds Trophy (voted for by the public), and was runner up for the two top awards - the Aviation Painting of the Year and Flypast Fellows Award for Excellence. It also sold straight away (for £7,500).

He also won the Roy Nockolds Trophy in 2011, the first time he exhibited with the Guild, for his painting 'Steady Boy', and was Highly Commended for 'Thank You Harry Tate' in 2012, both 'Victor & Vanquished' and 'Contact' in 2015, 'Replacements' in 2016, and 'Letter from Home' in 2017.

First World War Aviation prints

A selection of Graham Turner's First World War paintings are available from Studio 88 as high quality giclée prints - on paper or canvas. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS