TURN OF THE TIDE

Late on the morning of D-Day, 6 June 1944 and with the amphibious landings well underway, rocket-firing Typhoons from 181 Squadron race along the shoreline having just attacked enemy coastal batteries targeting the invasion beaches.

Commemorating D-Day 6 June 1944

Few aircraft can lay claim to be the best fighter-bomber of the Second World War other than the Hawker Typhoon. Designed as a fighter to succeed the much-loved Hurricane, the Typhoon had at first proved a failure; its powerful engine, brilliant when it worked, had been beset with teething troubles and required frequent overhauls, the drag from its thick wings blunted performance and there were flaws with its airframe. The Typhoon stood on the verge of cancellation until a Hawker test pilot called ‘Bee’ Beamont almost single-handedly pioneered a new role for the aircraft – as one of the most potent ground attack fighters of the war, with its crowning glory won on the battlefields of Normandy.

For months both before and after D-Day, Typhoons from the RAF’s Second Tactical Air Force had wreaked havoc across Normandy and northern France. Tanks, trains, trucks and armoured vehicles, shipping and e-boats, supply dumps, airfields, bridges and troop concentrations all fell victim to its devastating firepower, with the rocket-firing Typhoons earning the sobriquet as the ‘Reaper of Falaise’ as they blasted what remained of the SS Panzer Divisions and German 7th Army into oblivion.

In his powerful painting ‘Turn of the Tide’, Anthony Saunders commemorates the anniversary of D-Day by paying tribute to the Typhoons and the pilots who flew them during the invasion and subsequent battle for Normandy. With the amphibious landings well underway on the morning of 6 June 1944, rocket-firing Typhoons from 181 Squadron race along the shoreline having attacked enemy coastal batteries targeting the invasion beaches.