Commemorating World War II Combat Aircrews :

During the aerial combat missions of World War II, thousands of aircraft had to be flown to the targets, millions of miles had to be navigated and millions of tons of bombs had to be delivered to these targets with the highest degree of accuracy. Trained to accomplish these tasks were the:

Pilot, Navigator and Bombardier

Speculation on the History of the Artist Inspiration* :

"Combat Crews: Their Devotion and Pride
Nowhere in the world are the lives of men as interdependent as in a bomber on a mission. The pilot must be quick, daring and cautious. The gunners must draw a bead on shadows flashing past them at six hundred miles an hour. The navigator has the plane in the palm of his hand from start to finish; every minute he strays off course makes it 60 seconds less likely he and his comrades will return. If the bombardier misses, the sortie has been pointless. He takes over at the moment of greatest danger when the airplane must be in level flight and not engaging in evasive action. During the bomb run, the plane must be traveling a straight course, with speed and altitude constant, No dead engine, or groaning companion with a leg shot off, must interfere with the operation of an intricate bombsight."

*This report was prepared by the Army Air Forces and is dated 4 January 1944

The Artist :

1st Lt. Floyd H. Greene Jr., (Serial No. 0-812577). He was a B-24 pilot and a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III, Bks/Rm 160/1, in the West Compound. Lt. Greene designed and made a rough draft of his characterization of the Pilot, Bombardier and Navigator during his internment and took orders from his fellow prison mates prior to being liberated. He promised to mail these from his home town of Kansas City when he returned stateside and had an opportunity to have them printed professionally. By 1946 he had accomplished this task and many veterans received their orders as promised and have had them in their studies for almost 60 years. This is all we know about Lt. Greene. He was obviously a very accomplished artist but these are the only known works we have been able to discover by him. If anyone knows more about Lt. Greene, please let us know. We checked with the Library of Congress and learned the copyright has expired and are public domain.

The "new" Greene Collection are reproductions of antique lithographs published in the 1940's. Printed on archival photographic paper using high resolution scanning has been employed to bring them into the 21st Century for your collecting pleasure.

Graphic Concept :

While we'll never know exactly what Lt. Greene was thinking about when he conceived the idea for this work, we do know it is quite abstract and ahead of it's time by graphically capturing the essence of what being a Pilot, Bombardier or Navigator in WWII was all about.

Conceived almost 60 years ago, Lt Greene's ideas were certainly visionary in concept. They provide us with historic representations of the bravery and technology known to these air warriors. The abstraction of Greene's work seems to revolve around the idea of the automaton, a pre-robotic concept, while offering an HISTORIC view highlighted by the instrumentation, ordinance and aircraft utilized by each of these crewmen.
 
To frame his creation, Lt. Green utilized the standard United States Insignia, (white star with red and blue outline), as a backdrop and a combination of "World War II colors", to highlight the uniform, facial features and instrumentation of the era… these characteristics generate a wide range of framing possibilities for your home, office or aviation library...