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Coastal Command - Avro Anson Mk.I by Ivan Berryman. (B) An Avro Anson Mk.I from Coastal Command is attacked by an Me109. Item Code : B0299B Coastal Command - Avro Anson Mk.I by Ivan Berryman. (B) - This Edition TYPE EDITION DETAILS SIZE SIGNATURES OFFERS YOUR PRICE PURCHASING PRINT Presentation edition of 2 prints. Image size 12 inches x 9 inches (31cm x 23cm) Hartmann, Erich (clipped) Boulter, Bertie Borchers, Adolf (clipped) + Artist : Ivan Berryman Signature(s) value alone : £200 £300.00 All prices on our website are displayed in British Pounds Sterling

Other editions of this item : Coastal Command - Avro Anson Mk.I by Ivan Berryman. B0299 TYPE EDITION DETAILS SIZE SIGNATURES OFFERS YOUR PRICE PURCHASING PRINT Signed limited edition of 35 prints. Image size 12 inches x 9 inches (31cm x 23cm) Boulter, Bertie + Artist : Ivan Berryman Signature(s) value alone : £45 £30 Off! Now : £60.00 VIEW EDITION... ARTIST PROOF Limited edition of 15 artist proofs. Image size 12 inches x 9 inches (31cm x 23cm) Boulter, Bertie + Artist : Ivan Berryman Signature(s) value alone : £45 £35 Off! Now : £85.00 VIEW EDITION... ORIGINAL DRAWING Original pencil drawing by Ivan Berryman. Size 16 inches x 12 inches (41cm x 31cm) Rudorffer, Erich Morewood, Roger + Artist : Ivan Berryman Signature(s) value alone : £125 £100 Off! Now : £400.00 VIEW EDITION... General descriptions of types of editions :

Signatures on this item
*The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare.
Name	Info
Adolf Borchers (deceased) *Signature Value : £50 (clipped)	Adolf Borchers was born on 10th February 1913 in Wendhausen near Lunesburg. In the autumn of 1938 he was in the Legion Condor. He was transferred to JG51 where he flew in the Polish and Western campaign and in the Battle of Britain, during which he scored five victories. By the end of 1941 his score stood at 23. In October 1942 he was promoted to Officer and named squadron leader of 11./JG51. By the end of 1942 his score stood at 38. On 7th May 1943 he scored his 44th to 49th victories. A short time later he was awarded the Knights Cross for 78 victories. He was then neamd Commander of 1./JG52 on 11th June 1944 and on 24th July that year he scored his 110th victory. His 118th victory came on 2nd September, the same time the 10,000th victory of JG52 was recorded. Erci hHartmann took over 1./JG52 on 1st February 1945 and Borchers was appointed Commander of iii./JG52. He was bitterly disappointed at being replaced by this youngster and carried that resentment to the grave. Borchers flew approximately 800 missions and had 132 victories, including 5 in the west. He was the 53rd ranking ace in Germany. Adolf Borchers died 9th February 1996.
Flt Lt Bertie Boulter DFC (deceased) *Signature Value : £45	Joining the RAF in July 1941, Bertie completed pilot training in the USA before returning to the UK in 1942, joining Coastal Command flying Ansons and Blackburn Bothas, and instructing on the use of radar. Converting to Blenheims he joined 1655 Squadron at Warboys, and began training on Mosquitos. In early 1944 he was selected for the Pathfinders, joining 128 Squadron flying Mosquitos from Wyton, then becoming part of the Light Night Strike Force with 163 Squadron, completing almost 50 operations. In his book, Mosquito to Berlin, Bertie recalls how they copied the other aircrew as they walked round their planes before the flights. 'We pulled and pushed a few things, kicked the tyres, nodded to each other and clambered aboard.' So with less than 30 hours of solo night flying they roared off down the runway, went to Wiesbaden, dropped their load and returned. 'It must have gone totally to plan because I remember so little of it,' he says. 'We were shot at and I remember a shell burst very close. I went into a hard dive to port before recovering height and heading.' Mission followed mission, with Bertie now a fully-fledged member of the squadron, until one flight over Nuremberg when they were on a diversionary raid designed to fool the Luftwaffe as to the evening's main targets and were carrying huge amounts of aluminium strip to confuse the German radar. They also had a 4,000lb bomb to deliver but things started to go wrong on the return trip to Wyton. The starboard engine was running too hot, so he shut that down and continued on the other engine. Then that began to overheat, so he shut it down and restarted the starboard engine which, by then, had cooled. For around 400 miles after leaving Nuremberg they tried flying on alternate engines and made it as far as Dunkirk, by which time both were heating up too quickly and Bertie and Jim agreed it was time to bail out. Unfortunately, as he was leaving the plane, Jim accidentally pulled the D-ring which activated the parachute, leaving him jammed in the hatch. Bertie delivered a sharp kick on his navigator's shoulder and he promptly popped out of the blazing plane. Bertie followed and a short time later landed with a squelch in a French field. He wasn't certain on which side of the frontline he had landed and thought he heard foreign voices. Eventually he found a farmhouse where the farmer told him the location of the nearest British troops. By the time he had found an old mill where they were stationed it was first light. Bertie wandered in to find them making their first brew of the day and was soon sitting by a fire with a steaming mug of tea. His navigator had been taken in by a Czech sentry and treated to superb hospitality, so that when Bertie caught up with him he was slightly the worse for wear. Bertie had to again bail out of his Mosquito a second time after a mission to Berlin. They found themselves at 25,000ft in a jet stream and overshot Berlin, their intended target. They returned and dropped their bomb but on returning to England the weather had closed in and they were running short of fuel. They made two attempts to land at Wyton, never saw the runway and by this time their fuel tanks were virtually empty. One plane had already crashed because of this. Then the voice of their commanding officer barked over the airways 'This is not a request, this is an order. Climb to a safe height and bail out. Acknowledge.' Bertie and his navigator promptly did so and landed in a muddy field somewhere in Cambridgeshire. In early 1945 he was posted to Canada to ferry back Mosquitos but the war ended. Sadly Flt Lt Bertie Boulter died in April 2010 aged 86.
Oberst Erich Hartmann (deceased) *Signature Value : £95 (clipped)	Erich Hartmann started his career as Paule Rossmans wingman, and it was obvious that here was a very special pilot. Promoted Staffelkapitan of 7/JG52 in July 1943, he was shot down and taken prisoner for four hours before escaping. In September he took over 9/JG52. In March 1944 he reached the 200 victory mark. He later le 4/JG52, then briefly I/JG52, and lastly Gruppenkommandeur of I/JG52. Hartmann scored a total of 352 victories, more than any other pilot in history, and was awarded the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. Erich Hartmann is the top-scoring fighter pilot in history. During WWII he shot down the equivalent of almost 15 Allied squadrons in aerial combat. In some 850 aerial combats he shot down 352 Allied planes and was shot down himself 16 times. He was never wounded. Hartmanns mother taught him to fly at age 14 and in 1942 at age 20 he was flying Me109s on the Eastern front. His first combat mission was disastrous. He spoiled his leaders attack by going for the kill himself, then mistook his leaders Me109 for a Russian fighter and fled in panic. Were it not for super ace Walter Krupinski believing in Hartmanns abilities he might well have had his flying career ended. Krupinskis tutoring coupled with the fact that Hartmann was a crack shot, turned him around. He scored his first victory on November 5th 1942 and by September 1943 he had completed 300 missions with 95 victories to his credit. In August 1944 Hartmann was awarded the Diamonds to his Knights Cross - Germanys highest decoration and one that was awarded to only 27 German militar ypersonnel. Hitler made the award personally. Before the award ceremony he was demanded to hand over his sidearm before meeting with Hitler. Hartmann told the generals that if Hitler could not trust his front line officers, he could stuff his Diamonds. After a brief confusion he was allowed to carry his pistol. Hartmanns success resulted from the lessons he learned from Krupinski - do not fire until your enemys plane fills your windscreen. That resulted in a sure kill with a minimum amount of ammunition expended. Almost every kill Hartmann made was a near collision. After the war Hartmann surrendered to the Americans, who turned him over to the Russians. He was singled out for especially brutal treatment and was illegally held by the Russians until 1955 when Chansellor Adenaur personally visited Moscow and arranged for his release. The Russians had used every persuasive device known to convert Hartmann to Communism and get him to join the DDR airforce. Upon his return to Germany, his friend and fellow ace, Walter Krupinski, urged him to join the new German Air Force with other old friends such as Barkhorn and Hrabak. Since he felt he was too old to begin a new career, he did. He was given refresher training in the United States and was selected to command the Richthofen Wing in the new German Air Force, the first fighter wing to be rebuilt since the war. He filled that and other jobs in the new Luftwaffe with great distinction until his retirement. He died 20th September 1993.

The Aircraft :
Name	Info
Me109	Willy Messerschmitt designed the BF109 during the early 1930s. The Bf109 was one of the first all metal monocoque construction fighters with a closed canopy and retractable undercarriage. The engine of the Me109 was a V12 aero engine which was liquid-cooled. The Bf109 first saw operational service during the Spanish Civil War and flew to the end of World War II, during which time it was the backbone of the Luftwaffe fighter squadrons. During the Battle of Britian the Bf109 was used in the role of an escort fighter, a role for which it was not designed for, and it was also used as a fighter bomber. During the last days of May 1940 Robert Stanford-Tuck, the RAF ace, got the chance to fly an Me109 which they had rebuilt after it had crash landed. Stanford-Tuck found out that the Me109 was a wonderful little plane, it was slightly faster than the Spitfire, but lacked the Spitfire manoeuvrability. By testing the Me109, Tuck could put himself inside the Me109 when fighting them, knowing its weak and strong points. With the introduction of the improved Bf109F in the spring of 1941, the type again proved to be an effective fighter during the invasion of Yugoslavia and during the Battle of Crete and the invasion of Russia and it was used during the Siege of the Mediteranean island of Malta. The Bf109 was the main fighter for the Luftwaffe until 1942 when the Fw190 entered service and shared this position, and was partially replaced in Western Europe, but the Me109 continued to serve on the Eastern Front and during the defence of the Reich against the allied bombers. It was also used to good effect in the Mediterranean and North Africa in support of The Africa Korps. The Me109 was also supplied to several German allies, including Finland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Slovakia. The Bf109 scored more kills than any other fighter of any country during the war and was built in greater numbers with a total of over 31,000 aircraft being built. The Bf109 was flown by the three top German aces of the war war. Erich Hartmann with 352 victories, Gerhard Barkhorn with 301 victories and Gunther Rall with 275 kills. Bf109 pilots were credited with the destruction of 100 or more enemy aircraft. Thirteen Luftwaffe Aces scored more than 200 kills. Altogether this group of pilots were credited with a total of nearly 15,000 kills, of which the Messerschmitt Bf109 was credited with over 10,000 of these victories. The Bf109 was the most produced warplane during World War II, with 30,573 examples built during the war, and the most produced fighter aircraft in history, with a total of 33,984 units produced up to April 1945. Bf109s remained in foreign service for many years after World War II. The Swiss used their Bf109Gs well into the 1950s. The Finnish Air Force did not retire their Bf109Gs until March 1954. Romania used its Bf109s until 1955. The Spanish Hispanos flew even longer. Some were still in service in the late 1960s.
Anson	he Avro Anson originated from the Avro 652 commercial aircraft which first flew on 7th January 1935. It was a twin-engine British-built multi-role aircraft which saw distinctive service with both the Royal Air Force and The Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm as well as The Royal Canadian Air Force during and after the Second World War. The prototype 652A first flew at Woodford on 7th January 1935 and was developed from an initial airliner design and named after Admiral George Anson. The adaptation for a coastal reconnaissance role resulted in the production variant, the Avro 652a, which flew at Woodford on New Years Eve 1935 with the type entering service in March 1936 as the Anson Mk1. Initially it was flown with a 3-man crew but later developments in its reconnaissance role required a 4th crew member. The Anson entered service on 6 March 1936 with 48 Squadron equipped with the Anson. At the start of the Second World War, the RAF had received 824 Ansons and there were 26 RAF squadrons operating the Anson I: 10 with Coastal Command and 16 with Bomber Command. All of the squadrons in Bomber Command in 1939 with Anson Is were operational training squadrons that prepared crews for frontline service. 12 of the squadrons were in No. 6 (Operational Training) Group. Newly formed crews having completed individual flying and technical training were first trained as bomber crews in Ansons and then advanced to the various frontline aircraft types, which were also in the same squadrons with the Ansons. After training in the frontline aircraft type, crews would advance to the frontline bomber squadrons with those aircraft types (Fairey Battle, Bristol Blenheim, Vickers Wellington, Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, and Handley-Page Hampden). At the start of the war, the Lockheed Hudson was beginning to replace the Ansons in Coastal Command with one squadron of Hudsons and one with both Ansons and Hudsons. Limited numbers of Ansons continued to serve in operational roles such as coastal patrols and air/sea rescue. Early in the war, an Anson scored a probable hit on a German U-boat. In June 1940, a flight of three Ansons was attacked by nine Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109s. Remarkably, before the dogfight ended, without losing any of their own, one of the Ansons destroyed two German aircraft and damaged a third. The aircraft's true role, however, was to train pilots for flying multi-engined bombers such as the Avro Lancaster. The Anson was also used to train the other members of a bomber's aircrew, such as navigators, wireless operators, bomb aimers and air gunners. Postwar, the Anson continued in the training and light transport roles. The last Ansons were withdrawn from RAF service with communications units on 28 June 1968. The Royal Australian Air Force operated 1,028 Ansons, mainly Mk Is, until 1955

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