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History on a Shirt

Aviation fine art print - "Doolittle's Raiders Heading for Tokyo"

$35.00

The story: 
Japan seemed invincible in late 1941 and early 1942, attacking and conquering territories all around the Pacific. Though America was still recovering from Pearl Harbor, Lt Col Jimmy Doolittle, already an aviation hero from WWI and between the wars, thought he could attack Tokyo by launching from the USS Hornet. On the stormy morning of April 18th, 1942, Doolittle led 16 B-25 Mitchell aircraft off the Hornet, earlier than planned since a Japanese boat noticed them. They succeeded in bombing Tokyo, but with the early launch, none of the aircraft reached Chiang Kai-Shek as planned. Some crews were captured by the Japanese. Doolittle thought the raid a failure, but in fact, seeing enemy aircraft over the homeland was such a blow to Japan that the best Japanese units were brought back to Japan to protect the Emperor. Much of the rest of the war was thus fought against Japanese reserve units and recruits.

The print:
Limited edition (50) print of original artwork by Ewan Tallentire. The style of art could be said to be a true caricature (not a cartoon) since the B-25 is drawn with slight exaggeration to bring out its character. Ewan started with simple caricatures for t-shirts, but found himself putting more and more detail and background into them. Eventually he did a series of art prints turning the caricatures into serious aviation art.  

Print details:

The printing is high quality on acid-free stock. Size is 8" x 10" with approximately 1/8" white border. Shipped flat with cardboard backing. The print does not come framed but is suitable for framing.


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