TWO FIFTY UP

On 14 October 1943 high over north-east Poland, Hauptmann Walter 'Nowi' Nowotny, Gruppenkommandeur I./JG54 claims his 250th victory, a Russian Curtiss P-40, to become the Luftwaffe's top-scoring Ace at that time.

Walter 'Nowi' Nowotny's status in the history of the Luftwaffe is legendary. He was also highly decorated, having been awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. 

For a period, he and the pilots of JG54 Grünherz (Greenhearts) dominated the skies of the northern sector of the Eastern Front. During that time, they notched up a dazzling tally of victories against the ever-increasing might of the Russians, whose armies were slowly grinding their path west on a trail that would finally end in the blazing ruins of Berlin. 

Already an 'Ace in a day' several times over, and a 'Double Ace in a day' on two occasions, by mid-1943 Nowotny was the Luftwaffe's top scoring fighter pilot of them all. This position was cemented during the afternoon of Thursday 14 October 1943 when he became the first to reach 250 victories, a feat that resulted in a call from Hitler himself.

And he did it in style, as portrayed by Richard Taylor in his dramatic depiction of the encounter as Nowotny downs a Russian Curtiss P-40. Not only was the P-40 number 250 but the culmination of four victories in just twenty minutes!

As one of the Luftwaffe's most well-known Aces and fearing his loss in action would damage morale, he was soon ordered to cease combat operations, undertaking a propaganda tour. However, with the Luftwaffe increasingly stretched he returned to oversee a specialist trials unit 'Kommando Nowotny' testing and developing tactics for the Me262 jet. He died in a crash on 8 November 1944 after scoring two victories engaging American bombers to conclude his final tally at 258. His fame, however, would live on as JG7, the Luftwaffe and world's first operational jet fighter wing, was named Jagdgeschwader 7 Nowotny in his honour.

A highly-restricted edition including the ORIGINAL autograph of Walter Nowotny - only NINE available worldwide

Deservedly respected for his skilful technique of incorporating pencil and colourwash highlights, Richard adds to his growing list of highly-collectible masterworks with this superb piece.

Faithfully reproduced as high quality giclée fine art prints on archival paper, every one is issued hand numbered and personally signed by artist Richard Taylor. Each copy is then mounted to full conservation standards to display a museum-quality reproduction Long Range Day Fighter Clasp - these were awarded in recognition of the number and type of operational flights undertaken, in this case the Gold class denoting over 100 operational flights, similar to that pinned to Nowotny's uniform in the accompanying portrait. 

Alongside are a total of NINE original autographs of highly acclaimed Luftwaffe pilots who flew Fw190s in combat during the Second World War. Each also flew with JG54, plus notably they all achieved Ace status. These include the RARE autograph of the legendary Ace depicted, Walter Nowotny, along with a 'who's who' of notable JG54 pilots and leaders. Between them, these nine names amassed over 1,000 combined victories.

The full list of signatures reads: