by Philip E West

Heavy snow during the winter of 1941 sometimes kept pilots and their
aircraft grounded, including Spitfire 'G' George assigned to Geoffrey Wellum.

Primary Edition signed by the artist.
Artist Proofs signed also by a Spitfire pilot. Please see below.

500 Primary Edition: £60 75 Artist Proofs: £75

Artists proofs Signed by: 

Philip E. West is recognised as one of the world’s finest aviation artists. Collectors of his original oil paintings span the globe, many waiting patiently for his next breathtaking canvas to appear.  Self taught, Philip has won many accolades for his paintings, not the least of which was the prestigious Duane Whitney Award for Excellence at the 1997 American Society of Aviation Artists Exhibition.

We do hope you will find this biography of interest. We think that by knowing a little about the man behind the signature, it will help you get the most from your copy of “Winter of ‘41”. 

Flight Lieutenant R G (Bob) Large, DFC, Legion d’Honneur,
learned to fly in Scotland in 1940 and in 1941 joined 616 Squadron as part
of the Tangmere Wing, commanded by the famous legless pilot Wing Commander Douglas Bader.  The Squadron flew Fighter and Bomber sweeps over Northern France.  The remains of Bob’s Spitfire lie at the bottom of the sea ten miles off Hythe (where he now lives) after being bounced by eighty plus ME 109Gs over the English Channel.  Having learned of the activities of 161 SD Squadron he was interviewed by the CO, Wing Commander Lewis Hodges, and joined the Lysander Flight.  He then flew many important missions into occupied France in single, double and a memorable treble pickup when his excuse for being late at the rendezvous was that he had had a haircut  “in the firm’s time” because “it grew in the firm’s time”! After D-Day he returned to Fighter Command and later flew Meteors. (Bob’s dog, Patrick, became the first dog in the Allied Forces to fly in a jet which took place in a Meteor 3 on 11th May 1946 and is now recorded in the Guinness Book of Records!)