I photographed this Spitfire, pilots, ground crew and vehicles at this last West Coaster. Gordon had built a beautiful aircraft revetment and Andy had setup the scene around that. After photographing everything individually my original idea for this image was the movement of Johnnie Johnson and 144 Wing to the cliff tops over looking Normandy in late June 1944. They were the first fighter group in Normandy and the flew tactical support missions from that airfield. Johnson's ground crew went crossed the channel first to help prepare the landing strip for the arrival of Johnson and his Spitfires. As a reward for the ground crew's hard work Johnson had barrels of beer strapped to the Spitfire"s bomb racks. It must have been quite a party that night on top of those cliffs... I look everywhere for some type of color photograph that show what that airfield or any forward operating base looked like. I want to use it as my backdrop. I found plenty of B&W photos but nothing in color. Then I thought about Gordon's perfectly built and original looking aircraft revetment. That would make a perfect central image for the Spitfire and personal. Andy also had Churchill, Harris and Downing in his scene. I thought what if Churchill just showed up at an airfield with the "Big Brass" in tow just for a "meet and greet" with his boys. Half the airfield is at attention while the other half goes about their business, I'm sure until somebody said, "Your never going to believe who's behind you..."
Enjoy,
Steve
Enjoy,
Steve
