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D-Day Armada by Nicolas Trudgian is a magnificent 60th Anniversary tribute to the men and machines of the Ninth Air Force who contributed so much to the greatest military invasion in history.
There was never a greater concentration of air power deployed in an active theatre of war as over the English Channel in May and June 1944. As D-Day approached, the USAAF's Ninth Air Force had assembled over 3500 aircraft and, dispatching up to 1000 aircraft a day, they were pounding enemy positions all the way from Pas de Calais to the coast of Normandy.
6 June 1944, arguably the most decisive single day in modem military history, saw the sky filled with waves of troop carrying aircraft towing gliders, dropping over 20,000 highly trained men in support of the massed sea-borne landings on the beaches below. Grabbing all the airspace they could find, the combat wings of the Ninth Air Force were creating havoc among the German ground forces as they scrambled to get troops and armour to the battlefront.
Nicolas Trudgian's dramatic painting depicts a scene late on D-Day Plus One, as yet another aerial armada heads inland over the heavy fighting on the beaches below. Bearing their high profile invasion stripes, P5l Mustangs of the 354th Fighter Group are seen escorting B-26 Marauders of the 397th Bomb Group as they cross the battle lines, the Marauders' mission to hit enemy targets ahead of advancing Allied ground forces. Below, endless flotillas of troop ships and landing craft are swarming onto the beaches as the second day of the invasion draws towards its close.
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