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Flt. Lt. John Bishop Signed Naval Art
Flt. Lt. John Bishop
Joined the RAF in April 1943 from Edinburgh University Air Squadron and trained as a pilot in Rhodesia. In August 1944 he was posted to Diego Suarez to fly Catalina flying boats on anti-submarine patrols. He converted to Sunderlands at Mombassa on 209 Sqdn. and 57 MU also on Sunderlands until 1953. This included the Berlin airlift in 1948, flying from the river in Hamburg to Havel Lake, and flew in an anti-shipping role in Burma. At the end o fthe war in the Far East he flew form Hong Kong and Singapore until returning to the UK in Spetember 1946. He continued on 201 Sqd. Flying Boats until 1953. Thereafter he was mainly employed on V.I.P. duties flying from Malta, Northolt, Fontainebleau, Bovingdon and White Waltham. He flew 173 ops and 1800 hours on Sunderlands and 1800 hours on Devons out of a total of 6250 flying hours. The last fiver years of his service was as an Air Traffic Controller at R.A.F. Benson and RAF Abingdon.
| Flt. Lt. John Bishop - Signed Naval Art Naval Crew Signatures |
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Fat Alberts Day Off by Ivan Berryman. Ground crew performing routine maintenance on a Sunderland on the slipway at Pembroke. |
Clipped Signature - John Bishop. Joined the RAF in 1943, and trained to fly Catalina flying boats, converting to Sunderlands with No.209 Sqn in 1944. He remained in the RAF after the war and clocked up 1800 hours on Sunderlands and 1800 hours on Devons before serving as an Air Traffic Controller at RAF Benson and RAF Abingdon. |
Guardian of the Convoy by Nicolas Trudgian. A limited edition print issued in part to raise funds for The Maritime Air Trust project 'Constant Endeavour'. A commemorative tribute to be erected in Westminster Abbey to all who served in RAF Coastal Command and their successors, together with the overseas squadrons and those from the Commonwealth and Allied Air Forces. |
Touchdown by Ivan Berryman. A Short Sunderland Mk111 of 422 Squadron alights on to a moderate sea at Castle Archdale in 1944. |
War in the Atlantic by Stan Stokes. During WW I Germany made very effective use of its U-boat fleet in a campaign which almost resulted in Englands defeat. As a result, the Versailles Treaty prohibited Germany from possessing submarines. By the late 1920s Germany had circumvented these restrictions and by the time WW II began, they had several dozen U-boats in service. The period between July of 1940 and December of 1941 was known as the fat years for the U-boat fleet. During this period, aided by the use of French Atlantic ports, and the effective use of wolfpack hunting techniques, German U-boats wreaked havoc on convoys in the Atlantic. By the spring of 1941 the Nazi U-boat fleet numbered 120, and later in the war would exceed 350 in number. The tide began to turn in favor of the Allies in late 1941 when the Royal Navy acquired fifty old destroyers from the U.S., and began an effective campaign against German weather and supply surface ships which supported the undersea hunters. The RAF was also involved, and the Short Sunderland flying boat played an important role in stemming the tide. The Short Brothers acquired one of the first licenses to built Wright biplanes, and eventually began building their own designs, including a number of dirigibles and torpedo planes during WW I. After the war they developed the first British all metal aircraft, the Silver Streak. The company is probably best known for a series of commercial flying boats, the pinnacle of which was their Empire Series of 4-engine, high wing monoplanes which were capable of cruising speeds of 200-MPH. The Short Sunderland was developed in the 1930s for the British Air Ministry as a long-range, all purpose flying boat. It was a large aircraft for its time with a wingspan of 112 feet. More than 700 of these aircraft were produced. During WW II the Sunderland was utilized in the anti-U-Boat role. With its armament upgraded the aircraft earned the nick-name the Flying Porcupine from U-boat crews. When America entered the war, the U-boat command expanded its hunting zone all the way to the East Coast of the United States. For a period the submariners experienced another period of happy times, and in November of 1942 almost 750,000 gross tons of shipping was lost. With production of averaging five new U-boats per week, for a time it appeared that victory in the Atlantic might be obtainable for the Germans. Eventually, the U-boat war was won by the Allies through the use of effective radar technology, the use of the Leigh Light (a powerful airborne searchlight), development of forward firing depth charges, and the use of special techniques to counter the U-boat threat. The U-boats also suffered from a general lack of coordination between its command and that of the Luftwaffe. In May of 1943 a total of 41 U-boats were lost, and by early 1944 more U-boats were being destroyed than Allied merchant ships were being sunk. The men who served in the U-boat command during WW II had the most hazardous of all positions in the War with close to a 75% casualty rate by wars end. |
Tireless Vigilance by Stephen Brown. With grace and majesty of mighty battleships, a pair of Short Sutherlands sweep out towards the dangers of the North Atlantic. With a 12-hour mission ahead of them the skill and dedication of the crews would once again play a crucial role in protecting vital supply lines from the menace of German U-boats. |
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