During the low-level attacks and aerial battles that raged throughout the day, some 300 Luftwaffe aircraft were lost. Though 200 Allied aircraft were destroyed, most on the ground, pilot losses were light.
Nicolas Trudgian's brilliant new painting takes us right into the action above the Allied air base at Eindhoven. Me262 jets join a concentration of Me109s and Fw190s of JG-3 fighter wing, as they hurtle across the airfield in an assault that lasted 23 minutes, while Spitfires from 414 Sqn RCAF do their best to repel the attack. On the ground Typhoon fighters of 439 Sqn - one of 8 Typhoon squadrons based at Eindhoven - take a hammering, no fewer than 60 being destroyed or damaged.
As dawn broke on January 1, 1945 every serviceable Luftwaffe fighter scrambled from bases ranging across northern Germany. In the desperate effort to get 900 aircraft airborne many older experienced pilots, now retired from flying duties, were thrown into the fray. The success of Operation Bodenplatte, a secretly planned maximum strength effort to cripple British and American air forces, was to be achieved by mass surprise attacks on their bases in France, Belgium and Holland. It was a battle fought at great cost to the Luftwaffe. During the low-level attacks and aerial battles that raged throughout the day, some 300 Luftwaffe aircraft were lost. Though 200 Allied aircraft were destroyed, most on the ground, pilot losses were light. The paintings takes us right into the action above the Allied air base at Eindhoven. Me262 jets join a concentration of Me109s and Fw190s of JG-3 fighter wing, as they hurtle across the airfield in an assault that lasted 23 minutes, while spitfires form 414 Sqn RCAF do their best to repel the attack. On the ground Typhoon fighters of 439 Sqn - one of 8 Typhoon squadrons based at Eindhoven - take a hammering, no fewer than 60 being destroyed or damaged. http://www.militaryartcompany.com/luftwaffe.htm