RETURNING FROM SCHWEINFURT

On 14 October 1943 the weary, battered and bruised survivors of the 92nd Bomb Group return to Podington following the Eighth Air Force raid on Schweinfurt. The date forever etched in history as ‘Black Thursday’.

During the three bitter and often bloody years that followed their arrival in England, the heroism displayed by the bomber crews of the American Eighth Air Force would become etched into the history of the free world, and their purpose was simple – to assist in the destruction of Nazi Germany.

By the time of final victory in 1945, the Eighth’s bombers had flown some 968 missions, involving 523,000 sorties to destinations whose names will be forever linked to the heroism and dedication displayed by the airmen who fought in those great aerial battles to liberate Europe from Hitler’s tyrannical grip. One of those destinations was Schweinfurt.

14 October 1943: scarcely two months since the Eighth had first struck the ball-bearing plants at Schweinfurt in a raid in which the American bombers had suffered badly, the survivors were being asked to return. Although serious damage had been inflicted and the nearby Messerschmitt factory in Regensburg destroyed, the Schweinfurt ball-bearing plants were active again, promoting an increase in Luftwaffe fighter production. Schweinfurt must be attacked again.

It was news that no bomber crews wanted to hear; another 960-mile, seven-hour round trip to complete the job, with the knowledge that yet again the last 370 miles to the target would be beyond the range of their fighter escorts. The mission was bound to be as dangerous as the first but, in reality, it was worse.

As their fighter escort reached the limit of their range and turned for home the Luftwaffe pounced and once again B-17s began to fall to the relentless assault. The scale of loss was horrendous; by the time the first wave of Fortresses reached Schweinfurt less than half remained airborne but, undeterred by the mayhem around them, the survivors bombed successfully and all the targets were hit. Now all they had to do was fight their way back.

The second wave, following a slightly more southerly route, had fared better on the outward journey but, having bombed, they would now take a heavy pummelling as the lumbering bombers headed home. A quarter of the force that had set out for Schweinfurt that morning failed to return.

The raid, however, typified the determined resilience of the young American airmen who neither wavered nor flinched, vindicating the Eighth’s campaign of continuous high altitude precision daylight bombing against the Nazi war machine. It is fitting, therefore, that in his beautifully crafted drawing Returning From Schweinfurt, Robert Taylor has chosen a scene from the conclusion of this mission to commemorate all those who served with the Eighth’s Bomb Groups during World War Two. 

Shown as the endpapers in Robert Taylor’s Air Combat Paintings Volume VI, published in 2009, the Limited Edition print of ‘Returning From Schweinfurt’ was printed that very same year and has since been personally autographed by some of the ever-diminishing band of American bomber crew veterans who flew those frightful combat missions.

The prints, however, remained un-signed by artist Robert Taylor at the time of his passing in 2024 . Instead, the Military Gallery based in Great Britian, Robert’s exclusive worldwide publisher, has officially embossed every copy with the logo of the Robert Taylor Trust, a body established to preserve his legacy and safeguard the future copyright in years to come.

Adding significant historical importance, every copy is issued mounted to full conservation standards to show museum-quality reproduction USAAF pilots wings, an 8th Air Force shoulder patch, and the original signatures of airmen who took part in some of the most significant missions to be carried out by the Mighty Eighth during the war. These include legendary men such as Curtis LeMay who lead the first Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission, his Navigator Ralph Nutter, Kemp McLaughlin who was the Lead Pilot on the second Schweinfurt raid, Robert Shoens who took part in the first USAAF daylight mission to Berlin, and Medal of Honor recipient William Lawley.

But that’s not all – also including a unique Legacy Remarque!

Carrying on Robert’s legacy, his talented son Richard Taylor completes every piece with a unique original pencil remarque in the lower border of the print.

Full signature details as follows: