Every now and then, as you know, I'll feature something here that is somewhat adjacent to the RAF and Commonwealth aircrew experience during the Second World War. Case in point, the latest massive work from David Vincent, the Australian historian responsible for Catalina Chronicle, Mosquito Monograph and, of course, one of the most important Australian aviation works, The RAAF Hudson Story (Volumes 1 and 2). The Fifth Air Force grew out of the ashes of the Far East Air Force, setting up its headquarters in Australia in early 1942. At the end of a long, and sometimes threatened, supply chain, it eventually grew into the powerful air force we are most familiar with, perhaps best known for its jungle fighters and low-level strafers. A number of Australian aircrew did, however, fly with the American units to help fill shortfalls in gunners and copilots, for example (they have been sadly underappreciated and unacknowledged over the decades since the war, but that is a different story currently being addressed).
As the Fifth's units expanded, and the Allies progressively went on the front foot, so too did the American servicemen's ability to decorate their aircraft with more and more extensive artwork, the most famous of which, of course, is featured on the front cover of Nose Art of the Fifth Air Force, a book that is phenomenal, massive, authoritative and peerless.
More than just a collection of photos and captions, the author has explored the origins and evolution of nose art within the Fifth Air Force. He applies this approach to popular designs across multiple airframes/units/periods but also how a piece of art changed on an airframe, sometimes evolving with a change of regular crew or crew chief, modifications necessitated by damage or new equipment, or even being completely replaced. Threads have been pulled and rabbit holes followed since he began collecting Fifth Air Force images in the early 2000s (more than 1,100 feature in the book).
As a book on artwork, the human element has not been forgotten with several of the better-known artists profiled. Here, too, are nice personal details with quotes from the men themselves or family members.
It's the analysis that surprised me the most, though. I should have known, given the author's work on the benchmark-setting and aforementioned RAAF Hudson volumes; he gets beneath the skin (pun intended) of where this art came from, why it was used, what it meant and its impact over the decades. This is an art gallery and historical document you can hold in your hands (briefly, as it's bloody heavy!).
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