Plane Graveyard by John Armstrong, tempera on canvas

In the Second World War, painter John Armstrong was commissioned to represent scenes of ‘Debris and Demolition’. Besides painting bombed houses, from 1941–1942 he turned to depicting crashed German aircraft.

Like his friend Paul Nash, Armstrong made use of photographic records and visited the Cowley aircraft dump in Oxfordshire to witness the extraordinary sight of piles of broken and scorched Luftwaffe planes. He began his composition months after Nash completed his disturbing painting of the subject, ‘Totes Meer (Dead Sea)’ in 1941. By contrast, Armstrong’s mountain of aircraft, represented like toy models, evokes a surreal sense of emotional detachment. Purchased in 1978. Copyright: the artist's estate and Bridgeman Images / RAF Museum.