CLOUD DANCERS

Remembering all those who flew P-51 Mustangs with the 8th Air Force during WWII

Tuesday 10 April 1945, and Hitler’s Third Reich was imploding. The German armies that had once crushed all before them were disintegrating whilst the Kriegsmarine had been neutralised, its ports reduced to rubble and now little more than a ships’ graveyard. What little remained of the Luftwaffe, starved of fuel, spares, pilots and machines, was often grounded.

Playing a critical part in all this destruction had been the herculean efforts of the U.S. Eighth Air Force whose heavy bombers had waged their long, daylight bombing campaign. In almost three years of operations, their bombers had flown 968 missions and dropped nearly 700,000 tons of bombs to obliterate much of the German war machine. Yet that same magnificent bomber force could not have survived, nor achieved their success without the ‘little friends’ – the fighters that not only escorted and protected them but, in the process, helped the Allies establish complete air superiority. Destroying over 5,200 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and a further 4,200 on the ground, the Eighth’s fighter pilots became the unrivalled masters of the sky.

Choosing the legendary figure of Lt. Joe Peterburs to represent all the Eighth’s fighter pilots, Richard Taylor has crafted another of his by now famous drawings. Entitled ‘Cloud Dancers’ he depicts Joe’s aircraft amongst other P-51s from the 20th Fighter Group as they climb to gain altitude at the start of a typical escort mission. For Joe, however, this was his last; having just shot down an Me262 jet flown by Luftwaffe Ace Walter Schuck, he’d then destroyed five more aircraft in a strafing attack, but his P-51 was hit by groundfire. Lady luck was on his side, however, and he survived; baling out and taken prisoner he managed to escape to join a company of Russian troops for the final days of the war.

To honor all those who flew Mustangs with the 8th Air Force, each print was personally signed and authenticated by the last of the jet hunters, Joe Peterburs, on a visit to the UK in late 2024. By endorsing the edition, his autograph helps to create a historically important collector's piece to be cherished for future generations. Every copy is then issued mounted to full conservation standards to display a further four original autographs of some of the most famous pilots to fly P-51s during the war, including Joe’s close friend Colonel Clarence ‘Bud’ Anderson.