by Joel R. Simpson

Artwork Description

SHORT LIVED GLORY

0.0 x 0.0

Sunday, 7 December 1941; having just released his load of bombs, Pilot Lt. Saburo Makino with his Radioman/Rear Gunner, Petty Officer 2 Sueo Sukida, pulls his Aichi D3A1-Type 99, Model 11 “Val” Dive Bomber up away through the smoke and anti-aircraft fire over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. PO2 Sukida can be seen loading a fresh drum magazine of 7.7 mm ammunition into his Type 92 machinegun. The two vertical red bands on the plane’s fuselage along with the two horizontal red bands on the vertical stabilizer indicates that this aircraft belongs to the Kokutai (air wing) of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s (IJN) Aircraft Carrier Kaga. The larger horizontal red band above the letters and numbers on the vertical stabilizer indicates that Pilot Lt. Makino is the flight leader of what became the second wave to attack Pearl Harbor. Bearing down on Makino is a P- 40 Warhawk “160”, piloted by 2nd Lt. George Welch supported by his wingman 2nd Lt. Kenneth Taylor. Maneuvering his P-40, Welch eventually shoots down the Japanese dive bomber over Wahiawa, Hawaii killing both Makino and Sukida. Though virtually all the P-40s, America’s top fighter aircraft at the time, were damaged or destroyed during the first wave, George Welch and 13 other pilots managed to get into the air in a collection of P-40s and P-36s and collectively shot down up to 11 Japanese aircraft. After the attack, Lt. Welch will be credited with four Japanese aircraft shot down and Lt. Taylor will be credited with two. Though US Army Air Corps General Hap Arnold recommended the two men be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, higher ups in the War Department declared that “…since Lieutenants Welch and Taylor had acted without having any written orders…” Gen. Arnold’s recommendation was withdrawn and the two pilots in stead received the US Army’s highest accommodation the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC). This painting is an example of trying to capture the chaos and drama of a particular point in time during a historical event. In doing so you wind up creating smaller vignettes which hopefully adds to the overall storytelling of the painting. The same challenge encountered in painting a robust cloudscape is the same when trying to capture billowing pillars of smoke and flames. Also need to work on my water splashes.

Artwork Details

Medium: Painting Acrylic

Genre: Figurative