TWILIGHT CONQUEST
By Nicolas Trudgian
600 Signed and Numbered Printa

The Black Widow is a formidable creature.  It lurks in the dark, carefully chooses its moment of attack and strikes unseen, cutting down its prey with deadly certainty.  Northrop could not have chosen a more apt name with which to christen their new night fighter when the P-61 Black Widow entered service in the spring of 1944.  The first aircraft designed from the start as a night fighter, the P-61 had the distinction of pioneering airborne radar interception during WWII, and this remarkable twin-engined fighter saw service in the ETO, in China, the Marianas and the South West Pacific.  Under the command of Lt. Col. O. B, Johnson, one of the P-61s greatest exponents, the 422nd Night Fighter Squadron was the leading P-61 outfit in the ETO, destroying 43 enemy aircraft in the air, 5 buzz bombs and hundreds of ground based vehicles, becoming the most successful night fighter Squadron of WWII.  Nick's dramatic study of the predatory Black Widow recreates one of the 422nds typical air victories: Flying a twilight mission on October 23,1944, Colonel Johnson and his radar operator have picked up a formation of three Fw190s; stealthily closing on their quarry in the gathering dusk.  "O.B." makes one quick and decisive strike, bringing down the enemy leader with two short bursts of fire.  Banking hard, as the Fw190 pilot prepares to bale out, he brings his blazing guns to bear on a second Fw190, the tracer lighting up the fuselage of his P-61.  Each print is signed by the 422nd's famous C.O., Colonel Oris B. Johnson, together with three other P-61 night fighter pilots who flew the Black  Widow in combat in the European Theater.  A fine collectors piece to commemorate one of WWII's most characterful combat airplanes.

Size:  33 1/4"  x  23 1/2"

$150.00