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Please note that our logo (below) only appears on the images on our website and is not on the actual art prints. When you are ready to add this item to your basket, click the button below.       Website Price: £ 280.00       Pack 516. Pack of two WW2 Lysander aircraft prints by Robert Taylor and Graeme Lothian. PCK0516. Pack of two WW2 RAF aviation prints by Robert Taylor and Graeme Lothian, depicting Lysander aircraft on special operations. Aviation Print Pack. Items in this pack : Item #1 - Click to view individual item RT310. They Landed by Moonlight by Robert Taylor. To fly a small aircraft at the dead of night, without radio communication or navigational assistance, deep into enemy-occupied territory, was an extremely perilous task. To then land on an unlit remote field, deliver secret agents, collect Resistance leaders, or downed airmen and fly them home without attracting the attentions of enemy night fighters, was appallingly risky work. Yet throughout World War II the prime function of the pilots of the RAFs Special Duties Squadrons was to fly time and again into occupied France, in utmost secrecy, under the cover of darkness. It was acutely dangerous work requiring inordinate flying and navigational skills, and supreme courage. Most suited to these clandestine operations was the rugged Westland Lysander, operations being conducted, weather permitting, during the moons fullest phase. Guided only by torch light, the pilot made a hazardous night landing into an isolated field at a pre-arranged time, trusting that agents on the ground had checked the field for cart tracks and loitering Gestapo. Every mission required ice cool bravery and nerves of steel. Signed by Captain Murray Anderson DFC*, Lieutenant Colonel Francis Cammaerts DSO (deceased), Air Chief Marshal Sir Lewis Hodges KCB CBE DSO DFC* (deceased), Wing Commander Len Ratcliff DSO DFC and Group Captain Hugh Verity DSO* DFC (deceased). Signed limited edition of 750 prints. Paper size 31 inches x 24 inches (79cm x 61cm) Item #2 - Click to view individual item DHM1155B. Lysander Pick Up by Graeme Lothian. A Lysander of 161 Squadron from RAF Tempsford banks to port as it circles a field somewhere in France 1943. These missions only took place on or around the full moon period to pick up or drop off SOE agents with the help of the Resistance. 161 Squadron, the most secret of all RAF squadrons, had in its flight, Lysanders, Hudsons, and Halifaxes which carried out parachute operations. Two of 161s top pilots Hugh Verity and Lewis Hodges both received the DSO & bar and DFC & bar, and from France the Legion dHonneur and the Croix de Guerre. Signed by Air Chief Marshal Sir Lewis Hodges KCB CBE DSO DFC* (deceased). Limited edition of 250 prints, signed by Sir Lewis Hodges, DSO, DFC, Legion d Honneur and Croix de Guerre. Image size 25 inches x 15 inches (64cm x 38cm) Website Price: £ 280.00   To purchase these prints individually at their normal retail price would cost £420.00 . By buying them together in this special pack, you save £140 All prices are displayed in British Pounds Sterling   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 Air Chief Marshal Sir Lewis Hodges KCB CBE DSO DFC* (deceased) *Signature Value : £40 (matted) Lewis Hodges flew with 49 Sqn from June 1940 until he was shot down over occupied France in Sept 1940 and taken prisoner by the Vichy French. He managed to escape and made his way back to England, rejoining 49 Sqn. He took part in the attacks against the German Channel dash operation in Feb 1942. In Nov of that year he joined 161 (Special Duties) Sqn, flying Halifaxes, Lysanders and Hudsons landing and parachuting agents into German occupied territory. Among the people he brought out of France were two future Presidents - Vincent Auriol and Francois Mitterand. He died 4th January 2007. Captain Murray Anderson DFC* (deceased) *Signature Value : £15 (matted) Commissioned in the Royal Tank Regiment from RMA Woolwich in 1939, Murray Anderson was seconded to the Royal Air Force in 1940. He flew Spitfires with No.1 Photo Reconnaissance Unit at RAF Benson until 1943. He then joined 161 (Special Duties) Squadron flying Lysanders, and was the most successful pick up pilot for the whole of that year even though in May 1944 he was posted to 65 Squadron 2nd Tactical Air Force, flying Mustangs. After a rest period he was posted to 52 Sqn at Dum Dum in May 1945. Murray Anderson died in April 2016. Group Captain Hugh Verity DSO* DFC (deceased) *Signature Value : £35 (matted) Learning to fly in the Oxford University Air Squadron in 1938, Hugh Verity flew Beaufighters in Coastal Command and night fighter squadrons before volunteering to join 161 (Special Duties) Sqn. In 1943 he commanded this squadrons Lysander flight and became the Squadron Commander. On his 29 successful pick ups, of which 24 were in Lysanders, he brought back to England a total of 93 people from the meadows of occupied France, lit only by pocket torches. He died in 2001. Lieutenant Colonel Francis Cammaerts DSO (deceased) *Signature Value : £20 (matted) Born in 1916 the son of a Belgian poet Emile Cammaerts, he was a pacifist at the beginning of the war but his views changed when his brother was killed in the RAF, and in 1942 joined the Special Operations Executive (SEO). Flown to France (by Hugh Verity), he was to join a circuit which he soon found to be insecure. Over 15 months in the field he hardly ever stayed in the same house for more than a night or two. By 1944 he was the inspired leader of thousands of well trained and armed resistance fighters in the South of France. His sabotage teams excelled at cutting railway lines when the time was required after D-Day. Before the Allied landings in the South of France in August 1944, he was given command of all Allied missions in SE France. His guerilla army held open the Route Napoleon from Cannes to Grenoble to allow the Allied army to by-pass the strong enemy forces near the lower Rhone. He died 3rd July 2006. Wing Commander Len Ratcliff DSO DFC (deceased) *Signature Value : £20 (matted) Len Ratcliff joined the RAFVR in early 1939 to train as a pilot. In 1941 he completed a full tour of 30 operations in Bomber Command with 49 Squadron. After a rest period he was posted to 161 (Special Duties ) Sqn as Flight Commander flying agents and supplies in and out of France, Belgium, Holland, Norway and Denmark. He then spent a period in charge of A.I.2.C at the very centre of clandestine activities in the whole of occupied Europe. He returned to 161 Squadron in 1943 as Flight Commander and later Squadron commander. Len Ratcliff died on 1st April 2016. Signatures on item 2 *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 Air Chief Marshal Sir Lewis Hodges KCB CBE DSO DFC* (deceased) *Signature Value : £40 (matted) Lewis Hodges flew with 49 Sqn from June 1940 until he was shot down over occupied France in Sept 1940 and taken prisoner by the Vichy French. He managed to escape and made his way back to England, rejoining 49 Sqn. He took part in the attacks against the German Channel dash operation in Feb 1942. In Nov of that year he joined 161 (Special Duties) Sqn, flying Halifaxes, Lysanders and Hudsons landing and parachuting agents into German occupied territory. Among the people he brought out of France were two future Presidents - Vincent Auriol and Francois Mitterand. He died 4th January 2007.

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