Ship paintings

[Vegaskip]

Based on a true incident, just north west of Rothes. 21/6/1944, Ju188 crashed onto Moorland during a reconnaissance flight. RAF begins salvage operations
W/C 15.5” X 11.5”

 

[aferox]

Fantastic work Jim. I greatly admire your use of light and color.

 

My uncle served in the Royal Canadian Navy and did Murmansk runs, though he would never talk about them.

[Vegaskip]

I liked the Moorland setting. So I did this one .

'Cutting the Peats

[Vegaskip]

HMS Kingston Olivine MS/AS Trawler with some of her 'flock'.
11.5” X 9.5”

[Vegaskip]

Dusk 16/3/1940 Scapa Flow. Orkney Islands. Background to next commission 
W/C 15.5” X 11.5”
Jim

[Vegaskip]

2. At dusk on 16 March an attack was made on Scapa by 15 enemy bombers operating in small groups, and continued from 7:45pm until 9pm

3. It is reported that only the first wave of five aircraft attacked ships in the harbour, dropping about 20 bombs. This attack came in low and climbed on reaching Scapa Flow to make dive bombing attacks on the fleet. H.M.S. Norfolk was hit in the quarter deck and holed by a near miss aft, 4 officers being killed, and 4 officers and 3 ratings wounded. The damage to the ship necessitates docking, but she was capable of steaming at 10 knots, and has since arrived at the Clyde. H.M.S. Iron Duke (depot ship) was also damaged by two near misses, and one other capital ship was attacked but not hit.

4. The remaining aircraft dropped a large number of high explosive and incendiary bombs near Hatston Aerodrome and Bridge of Wraith on the road between Kirkwall and Stromness. About 120 high explosives and over 500 incendiary bombs were dropped in all. Eight craters were made in the airfield at Hatston, some 800 yards from the hangers, and one bomb fell near a bomb store. No other damage was done to air force objectives, but two cottages were damaged at Bridge of Wraith, one civilian being killed and seven injured.

[John Allen]

Perfection as always.

 

Off subject but dealing with Scapa Flow there is a great read on the sinking of the HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow by Dilip Sakar survivor accounts when she was torpedoed by a German sub. 

 

Pretty hard read on what those sailors went through.

[Vegaskip]

Dusk at Aultbea Pier Loch Ewe with Convoy assembling in the background. 
W/C 15” X 9”

jim

[ChadB]

Lovely as usual Jim!

[Vegaskip]

We had an unusually sunny couple of days there in 2015. Many WW2 buildings and gun emplacements etc.

jim

[Vegaskip]

When I post one of my paintings a friend ( 'tidies it up' digitally and sends it back .

Here are some.

Jim

[Vegaskip]

Today is ANZAC Day the  anniversary of the Gallipoli landings. Particularly remembered in Australia and New Zealand.
Something to stir a bit of history, a small event during the campaign.
HMS Albion
HMS Canopus tows Albion off a sandbank off Gaba Tepe in the Dardanelles, HMS Lord Nelson approaching to assist.
"......later they got more guns moved up into position and began to belt away fast and furious, many bursting over our heads. At 7am Lord Nelson arrived and by that time things began to hum a bit";

[Louie da fly]

Still remembered. The sacrifice of all those young men for a campaign pretty much doomed at the start, because the Turks knew they were coming and were well prepared.

 

Steven

[John Allen]

3 hours ago, Vegaskip said:

Today is ANZAC Day the  anniversary of the Gallipoli landings. Particularly remembered in Australia and New Zealand.
Something to stir a bit of history, a small event during the campaign.

Sadly a massive waste of brave young men, led at that time by incompetent British officers. Sadly history repeats itself and we never learn

 

Jim, another nice one.

[davyboy]

4 hours ago, John Allen said:

Sadly a massive waste of brave young men, led at that time by incompetent British officers. Sadly history repeats itself and we never learn

 

Jim, another nice one.

 

John,the phrase "Lions led by Donkeys"comes to mind.

 

Dave 

[Vegaskip]

09 May 1945 HMS Formidable was hit by a Kamikaze. 
W/C 14” X 11”

[Louie da fly]

Brilliant picture, as usual. This attack occurred when she was attached to the British Pacific Fleet (otherwise known as the "Forgotten Fleet"), which I didn't even know existed until about a year ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Formidable_(67)

 

"The British fleet carriers with their armoured flight decks were subject to heavy and repeated kamikaze attacks, but they proved highly resistant, and returned to action relatively quickly. The USN liaison officer on Indefatigable commented: "When a kamikaze hits a US carrier it means 6 months of repair at Pearl [Harbor]. When a kamikaze hits a Limey carrier it's just a case of 'Sweepers, man your brooms'" (Wikipedia entry on the BPF)

 

Steven

Edited April 30, 2019 by Louie da fly

[Vegaskip]

She 'entertained' another guest from the Land of the Rising Sun four days later, with much the same results.

jim

[ccoyle]

The descriptions of the rapidity with which Formidable was returned to flight operations after each kamikaze attack are indeed enlightening.

[Vegaskip]

A different view of Scapa Flow

Hot out of the comfort zone!
'The Grim Reapers', Reaping the Barley and stacking the stocks, its somewhere above Scapa Flow, now why would I do that?.

At some later date I could still put half The Grand Fleet in it, or the High Sea' Scuttle!.
W/C 12” X 9” 

Edited May 2, 2019 by Vegaskip

[Vegaskip]

HMS DEXTEROUS  Rescue Tug, not an actual event, but I’m sure typical of many.
W/C 15” X 10”

[lmagna]

Great picture as always Jim. I have always liked the Assurance class tugs.

 

You could have also painted the mad dash by the Dexterous to rejoin her convoy while engaged in a running gun battle with U-403! That would make a different but absolutely authentic painting also I think. 

 

For another source of what being on board a Deep Ocean Rescue Tug in the North Atlantic was like, there are some scenes in the 1958 movie "The Key"  some where about midway through the movie there is a series of shots of the tug maneuvering in reasonably heavy seas and it is some pretty impressive footage. They used the HMS. Restive (W-39) for filming. The story is OK with William Holden acting like himself, and Sophia Loren doing much the same and can drag at times, but I personally thought the first time I saw it on late night TV that it was over all a good movie. I eventually found it on DVD for just a few dollars and added it to my collection of old, (1950s-60s) British war movies.

[Vegaskip]

HMS DEXTEROUS  Rescue Tug, not an actual event, but I’m sure typical of many.
W/C 15” X 10”

Thanks Lou, Sub and Tug sounds good. Saw The Key in the Cinema. 

Heres something different. 

Not Naval, but once apron a time the RN had Armoured Cars!
Mobile Sand Castles!.Two Abrams MBT's somewhere out east!. a little bit out of the comfort Zone, but quite similar to painting Ships

[lmagna]

55 minutes ago, Vegaskip said:

but quite similar to painting Ships

Kind of like camels in a way. Modern "Ships of the Desert". I have not really read any accounts of modern tank engagements but many of the WWII tank battles between Rommel and Montgomery read much like actions between ships at sea.

 

If you saw "The Key" in the theaters you must be even older than I am, or had a very mature movie interest at a young age. I was 9 when it came out!

[mtaylor]

Lou,

There's quite a bit on tank battles here:  https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz   You'll have to basically go through quite a few pages as the don't have a search function as such.  They have articles on WWI to the present.

[Vegaskip]

12 hours ago, lmagna said:

Kind of like camels in a way. Modern "Ships of the Desert". I have not really read any accounts of modern tank engagements but many of the WWII tank battles between Rommel and Montgomery read much like actions between ships at sea.

 

If you saw "The Key" in the theaters you must be even older than I am, or had a very mature movie interest at a young age. I was 9 when it came out!

I joined the RN Jan 1958 (after a year and a bit in the MN) the year the film came out.

[John Allen]

Ouch

[Roger Pellett]

I remember when the Israelis agreed to return the Sinai to Egypt several analysts likened it to the sea in that it could be controlled by fleets of tanks without having to actually garrison it with boots on the ground.  The US Navy’s great strategic writer Captain Mahan would have approved.

 

Gallipoli seems to be an example of a concept sound in strategy but ahead of its time as the technology did not exist to allow it to work-  ships’ boats instead of landing craft, and especially inadequate communications to allow effective command and control.  I just read the first volume of Admiral Turner’s biography and even with voice radio, the US Navy badly underestimated communication requirements for early WW 2 amphibious landings.  Like we did with the Japanese prior to WW2 the Turks were badly underrated as a competent, tough fighting force.  In my opinion, once the initial assaults failed and the fighting settled into the same trench warfare as the Western Front, the troops should have been withdrawn sooner rather than later.

 

Roger

[cog]

Funny all those experts ...

[ccoyle]

May I politely suggest that any additional debate on the merits of particular military campaigns be taken to the Shore Leave section and allow this thread to go back to exhibiting Vegaskip's wonderful paintings? Thank you!