During the months following Pearl Harbor, American aircrews made a number of daring air raids against the Japanese in an effort to make their presence felt as quickly as possible. The wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean dictated these raids would be conducted over long distances, the most famous of these early sorties being the Doolittle Raid. Though eclipsed somewhat by the publicity following Doolittle’s attack on Tokyo, the Royce Raids were none-the-less courageous, and arguably inflicted more physical damage to the enemy.

In early April 1942, under the command of General Ralph Royce, and almost a week before the Doolittle raid —seven B-25C Mitchells and three B-17 Fortresses of the 5th Air Force, lifted off from their base in Australia and headed for the staging field at Del Monte on Mindanao, in
the Philippines. For three days from 12 April, this small fleet of intrepid aircrews flew bombing missions against Japanese shipping, docks, and ground installations in Manila, Cebu, and Davao, the Royce Raids being among the very first to inflict air strikes against the Japanese in World War IL.

Richard Taylor’s new painting shows one of Royce’s 5th Air Force B-25C Mitchells taking off from the Del Monte on the island of Mindanao on Sunday 12th April 1942, en-route to hit the harbour and shipping targets at Cebu. In the three days of Royce’s raids, the Mitchells flew over twenty sorties, sinking and seriously damaging three Japanese transport ships, and shooting down three enemy fighters. In a triumph of surprise aerial strikes, all seven B-25s and their crews returned safely to base.

Every print in this new limited edition is authenticated by:

Senior Master Sergeant VERNON MAIN

Vernon Main is one of only two surviving veterans of the Royce mission, and is joined in signing each print by the artist Richard Taylor.

Acid Free Permanent Paper

Overall Print Size: 35.5" x 23.25"

THE REMARQUE EDITION

In the short period of time that Richard Taylor has been published by the Military Gallery, his pencil remarques have evolved into highly skilled pieces of original art. More and more detailed, these beautiful hand-crafted drawings are quickly growing to be appreciated by collectors, and are becoming increasingly in high demand. Two highly restricted remarque editions will be issued, all with drawings comprehensively researched and relating to the B25 Mitchellsof the 5th Air Force; the first limited to 25 copies, will each have an ORIGINAL pencil drawing elegantly hand drawn by Richard Taylor. The second, restricted to just TEN COPIES, will be issued with a
DOUBLE SIZE remarque drawing or two seperate remarque drawings.

400 Signed & Numbered prints £95 inc vat (£80.85+vat)
25 Artist Proofs £125inc vat (£106.38+vat)

25 Remarques £265 inc vat (£225.53+vat)
10 Double Remarques £445 inc vat (£378.72+vat)

Orders from outside the European Union are free of vat

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