"Final Assault"
Sheet Size: 17" x 24.5" • Image Size: 11.5" x 20.5"
Print Editions
Limited Edition
Numbers 101-200
With SIX co-signatures.
$175
100 Confederate Air Force (Golden Gate Wing) Edition
Not for sale by publisher.
November 12, 1944. The German battleship Tirpitz is sunk by Lancasters of RAF Squadrons 9 and 617 in a Norwegian fiord, finally capsizing and sinking. She had previously been damaged by a mine placed by an X-craft midget submarine of the Royal Navy, besides being attacked on previous occasions by Halifaxes of 10 and 35 Squadrons RAF. On this day, incoming Luftwaffe fighters of JG5 had been scrambled too late to help.
Every limited edition print is issued with the Bailey Art and Publishing Certificate of Authenticity, displaying your unique collector's number.
Signatures
Sub Lieutenant Richard H. Kendall was a Royal Navy diver and member of a four-man crew on one of the midget submarines (called X-craft). These vessels were towed to Norway by a mother submarine and launched to sink the Tirpitz. After his boat's gyrocompass failed, his crew armed the sub's explosives. After scuttling the X-craft near the Tirpitz, he and his crew were taken prisoner aboard the battleship. They were all on board when the explosives detonated underneath the Tirpitz, crippling her for the duration of the war. He remained a prisoner until 1945. Richard Kendall received the DSO for this heroic attack.
Terje Jacobsen was a courageous young civilian in the Norwegian underground during the war. He was a messenger and was also responsible for reporting on the condition of the Tirpitz after one of the X-craft attacks. He and his mother were later discovered by German counter-intelligence and had to flee to neutral Sweden. He continued in Intelligence afterwards in England, returning to Norway at war's end.
Harry Haxby was trained as an aero engine fitter, but volunteered to be a Flight Engineer in the RAF. He joined 35 Squadron for his first tour of operations, and was awarded the DFM in 1942. By 1943, Harry was commissioned and completed his second tour with the Pathfinders. Two of his 48 missions were against the Tirpitz. He also flew Lord Tedder (Marshall of the RAF) to Yalta, prior to the conference of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin.
Alfred Zuba was a Midshipman aboard the Tirpitz for one month before its sinking, at the foremost firing control station. Although he survived, he was trapped for ten hours within the wreckage until rescued. The Tirpitz had capsized and he was pulled from a hole cut into the hull. Alfred was one of fewer than 90 of the rescued survivors, from a total of 1000 men on board when she was attacked by Lancasters.
Kurt Schulze flew night missions over England before being posted to JG5, flying Me109's from Northern Finland and Norway. In early 1945 he commanded 1/JG51 in Gdansk, where he flew the last of 103 missions and ended the war commanding 13/JG5 in Norway. Kurt was credited with 3 victories. He flew from Bardufoss, Norway, on November 12, 1944 when the Tirpitz was attacked by Lancasters off Tromsoe. He was scrambled too late to intercept the bombers.
Squadron Leader Tony Iveson was an RAF Spitfire pilot during the Battle of Britain and was shot down in the English Channel. He instructed pilots in Rhodesia and South Africa and afterwards joined 617 (Dambuster) Squadron, with which he flew on all three missions against the Tirpitz. The final mission sank the battleship with a 12,500 lb 'tallboy' bomb, designed to exceed the speed of sound at terminal velocity before penetrating the ship's deck.
