"Russian Roulette"
by Robert Taylor
The enormity of the Russian battlefield was staggering to conceive, stretching as it did
nearly two thousand miles from the Arctic in the North, to the Black Sea in the South.
Across this immense Front fighter aircraft of the major combatants coursed the skies,
scavenging for prey.
The Soviet & French Yaks and German Me109s hurled themselves at each other with an intensity hard to believe, and both sides were engaged in continuous action for months on end. Relaxation was a commodity unknown to the pilots of either side. With the fall of Stalingrad, the tide of war began to turn against the Germans, and the Soviets took their chance by going on the offensive. The Yak 3 fighter made its debut in the spring skies over Kursk in 1943, where below the titans of Hitler's Panzer tank divisions were locked in mortal combat with the Russians in the greatest tank battle in history.
Often compared to the British Spitfire, the Yak 3 quickly proved itself as the leading fighter in the East. Powered by an enormous 1650 h.p. engine, at low altitude it could easily out-maneuver anything at the Luftwaffe's disposal. Armed with tow 12.7 mm machine guns and a 20 mm cannon firing through the nose, the Yak caused devastating losses to the Bf109s in some of the highest attritional fighting ever encountered in aerial combat.
Dominating Robert Taylor's new and thrilling painting- we see a Soviet Yak 3 hurtling towards us in a typically daring head-on attack on a Bf109. Other Yaks wheel and turn frantically in search of the enemy. Casualties on both sides are evident. Away into the distant horizon stretches a vast Russian sky, painted in Robert's inimitable style; soon all will be quiet again until the next ferocious encounter.
Each print is individually signed by six fighters Aces of the Russian Front have flown between them over 3316 missions, achieving 547 air victories.
Russian Aces:
Luftwaffe Aces:
Free French Normandie-Niemen Squadron: