During the Second World War, Britain’s skies were transformed by the drone of aircraft, factory workers toiled around the clock to produce new types of fighters and bombers, and newsreels told stirring stories of aircrews’ courage and survival.
The Air War in Paintings by Suzanne Bardgett draws on the IWM’s unrivalled art collection, commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC).
The ten paintings below feature in the book, which offer a fascinating snapshot to reveal how the artists of the Second World War responded to the unfolding air war in Britain.
The book is available to buy from the IWM Shop and at IWM London.
John Armstrong
Building Planes, 1940
Under the piercing glare of industrial lamps, a team of workers assemble aircraft fuselages, which are resting on ‘jigs’ or wooden stands.
John Armstrong, a progressive painter who had also been a theatre and poster designer, produced this unusual depiction of aircraft manufacture at a Vickers-Armstrong factory at Weybridge in Surrey.
Eric Kennington
Sergeant J Hannah, VC
Sergeant John Hannah was a radio operator who was awarded the Victoria Cross. He had been on a raid over Antwerp, Belgium, in September 1940 when his aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and set alight.
Hannah managed to extinguish the flames, allowing the pilot to fly the almost wrecked aircraft back to its base at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire.
Hannah suffered a premature death arising from his injuries in 1947. He left behind a widow and three young daughters.
Explore more of Eric Kennington's work in IWM's collection.
Dorothy Coke
WAAF Instrument Mechanics at Work, 1941
Dorothy Coke gives a sense of these workers’ quiet professionalism as they assemble aircraft instruments, following instructions on the wall.
Dorothy Coke was one of a small number of women war artists, and wrote to the Committee of how much she had enjoyed her assignment to paint WAAFs, sending an extra drawing ‘for sheer love because I saw these girls working with a sort of ferocious intensity’.
Eric Ravilious
De-icing Aircraft
Well known for his 1930s depiction of rural and coastal scenes, Eric Ravilious made several paintings of RAF activity in Scotland, Hertfordshire and York, where this painting was done.
A groundsman on a stepladder is applying de-icing liquid to the wings of a de Havilland Dragon Rapide.
Two other figures stand ready with a spade to scrape away the snow and ice. The ground is dotted with the footprints of the groundsmen, who worked long hours in freezing temperatures to ensure that the planes were safe to fly.
Between May and June 1942, Eric Ravillous produced a series of watercolours that provided an insight into everyday life at Second World War airfield, RAF Sawbridgeworth.
David Bomberg
An Underground Bomb Store
David Bomberg was sent to record a top-secret subject – the bomb store near Burton on Trent where thousands of bombs destined to be dropped over Germany were stored.
Although the site was dark and 90 feet underground, Bomberg was completely absorbed by his surroundings and reported enthusiastically about how inspired he had been by his time there.
Bomberg later taught at Borough Polytechnic, close to the Imperial War Museum, but he died impoverished.
In later years his genius began to be appreciated, and the Imperial War Museum made special efforts to purchase this painting in 1989, applying for funds from the National Art Collections Fund and National Heritage Memorial Fund.
Leslie Cole
Night Scene in a Watch Office
Leslie Cole depicts a scene that was repeated nightly in bomber stations across Britain, as the RAF carried out nightly raids over Germany.
From the upper floor of a standard two-storey watch office, the controllers look out onto the moonlit airfield where a bomber is coming in to land.
The wireless operator in the foreground maintains contact with the wireless operator of the plane, while his colleague guides the pilot’s landing.
Alfred R Thomson
Corporal Lilian Levy, WAAF
With calm pride, Lilian Levy wears the two stripes which denote her corporal status – junior to a sergeant, but senior to an aircraftwoman.
WAAFs were recruited as young as 16, leaving their homes to become part of the huge force that supported the RAF.
They learned skills they could not have predicted, including driving trucks, repairing aircraft and instruments, meteorological forecasting and working on code and ciphers.
Explore more of Alfred R Thomson's work in IWM's collection.
Evan Charlton
A Parachute Factory
Women machinists sew white silk parachutes which will be vital to the survival of airmen on missions in this painting by Evan Charlton.
To the right a parachute is being laid out for checking and folding, while in the background the machinists’ output is being stacked, ready for despatch. Thousands of RAF crew owed their lives to parachutes.
Equipped with a cloth evasion map, a water bottle, foreign currency and a compass, many were able to take refuge in farms and barns, at great risk to those who helped them.
Alan Sorrell
Airmen’s Billet: LAC Jones Suddenly Realises that To-morrow is Not Payday
Highly regarded for his paintings and murals at the time war broke out, Alan Sorrell served in both the RAF and the Air Ministry, seeing a great deal of RAF life which he felt offered ‘an enormous mass of unheroic but exciting stuff’.
Here Sorrell reminds us of the thousands of low-ranking ground crew who worked to support those on operations: fitters, mechanics, riggers and electricians.
Sorrell told the Committee that it was ‘an extremely truthful piece of recording and would strike a chord in many an airman’s heart’.
After the war Sorrell contributed found a new direction as a prolific illustrator, reconstructing scenes of ancient and medieval Britain.
Mervyn Peake
Bomber Crew Members at Interrogation
Mervyn Peake was commissioned by the WAAC to paint the scene at an RAF bomber station when a crew returned across the North Sea and were debriefed on how their mission had gone.
Peake, who was given special access to the airfield, sketched this crew in the early hours of the morning, witnessing the facts they reported to the station’s Intelligence Officer.
Mervyn Peake is best known for his acclaimed literary masterpiece the Gormenghast trilogy, but he was an accomplished artist as well as a writer.
