Arctic Defenders

Hawker Hurricanes of 151 Wing return to Vaenga in the Arctic Circle after a patrol in October 1941. 151 Wing was made up of two squadrons, 134 and 81 which set sail for the Murmansk area at the end of August 1941 to deliver Hurricanes to the Soviet Union and to train its pilots to fly them. The Wing took part in operations whilst there and claimed several victories over German aircraft. By mid-October, the winter snows had set in and the Hurricanes were officially handed over to the Russian Air Force.

An interesting feature of 151 Wing was its use of squadron codes. Because the Russians wanted to add their ID numbers to the fuselages of the Hurricanes, the two squadrons decided to cut their squadron codes down to the first letter only, so 134 went from GQ to G and 81 went from FL to F. The individual aircraft code letter was then applied in place of the second letter, so in this painting, the two aircraft would have been GQ-M and GQ-G.

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 Overall limited edition of 130

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No's 1-100 signed by the artist....£50 

30 Artist's Proofs signed by the artist ...£65 

Remarques may be available @ £300 plus the cost of the print, please contact Mark for details.

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