So long Southwold...

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A really good effort at a very difficult subject David. Look closely and you will see something is missing from the foreground bomber.

Yep. I noticed that. In truth, on my.model it's not visible. But it looks wrong so I think I need to add it.

Well, I Assu.e you mean a starboard tailplane

Yes you need to fix it because anyone knowing about these bombers will home in on it.

On the night of 16th May 1943 three waves of Lancaster bombers from 617 sqn, the Dambusters, took off from RAF Scampton and headed south east into history. The first wave, leaving around 2140 hrs, flew out over Southwold, low over the sea in flights of three aeroplanes, each flight leaving ten minutes behind the previous one. This shows one such flight of three. My aeroplanes are deliberately unidentifiable. Operational orders stated that "if absolutely necessary" they may climb to up to 150 feet above the ground! In this painting I have tried to depict the bombers as seen from a small fishing boat off the coast. I have exaggerated slightly the size of the bomb, which is after all the defining element. The painting is watercolour but the sea has been touched up with acrylic anthraquinone blue. More expensive than gold, it seems, it adds something exquisite.