Study: Fighter Affiliation by Walter Thomas Monnington, watercolour on paper

This watercolour is a compositional study for the painting 'Fighter Affiliation', commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee in 1943 (see L001-1755; LD 3770). Monnington depicts a scene from the rear perspective of a Halifax bomber aircraft amid clouds, looking towards the gun turret and at an approaching Hurricane fighter aircraft in the distance.

A Fighter Affiliation exercise involved training bomber crews (in aircraft such as Halifaxes) to out-manoeuvre faster and more agile fighter aircraft, to prepare them for real-life pursuits from enemy fighters. It enabled crews to practice positioning their turrets and gunsights, and make evasive manoeuvres, in response to attacks from challenging angles. Before he became an Official War Artist, Monnington had worked for the Camouflage Directorate, Leamington Spa, where from 1939 to 1943 he developed designs to protect factories and airfields from aerial attack. He spent over 600 hours involved with aerial observation, analysing the appearances of ground-level objects from the air. Noticing an absence of airborne perspectives in commissioned war paintings, he wrote to the War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC) in August 1943, requesting to paint aerial subjects as an Official War Artist: 'It does not appear that the war in the air as seen from the air has been recorded in a way comparable with the significance this aspect of the war deserves', he explained, while requesting 'flying facilities in operational or training machines' that could accommodate him as a passenger. The Air Ministry's Deputy Director of Public Relations, Group Captain Lord Willoughby de Broke (John Verney), arranged facilities for Monnington to fly, deeming the artist's experience of flying and his familiarity with RAF stations to be a 'great asset' and describing him as 'the type of person who will get on well with RAF personnel wherever he goes.' After a brief probationary period 'on loan' from the Camouflage Directorate, Monnington was confirmed as an Official War Artist in November 1943, with commissions continuing until the end of the war. At a time when the - still relatively recent - phenomenon of flying was the preserve of few civilians, Monnington's works were among a minority that represented authentic aerial perspectives. Officially commissioned war artists, including Paul Nash, mostly consulted photographs and aviation periodicals to conceive of imaginative reconstructions, and experienced aircraft on the ground at RAF stations and in factories. Monnington's project, however, emphasised the importance of authentic aerial perspectives, which WAAC Secretary E.C. Gregory explained as a necessary, novel approach: 'it is a special idea of painting the stratosphere as a background to particular makes of aeroplanes so as to give the idea of the aeroplanes actually in their surroundings among the clouds ... which naturally cannot be done without a good many flights as the effects would be the outcome of personal recording.’ Yet Monnington's experiences of flying were, at that time, limited to training activities. War artist commissions largely precluded the first-hand recording of dramatic and dangerous operational action, while themes such as training exercises were favoured to mitigate risk. Although his paintings may be regarded as authentically representing exciting, vertiginous perspectives, Monnington regarded his first submissions to the WAAC, in January 1944, including 'Fighter Affiliation', to fall short of emulating his flying experiences or evoking operational action. 'I have got little of what I wanted of the feeling of being in the air. There is also I fear a complete lack of war interest', he explained. Indeed, when later reflecting on the the war artists' scheme, Kenneth Clark, Chair of the WAAC, expressed the contradictory problem of, on the one hand, attempting to protect British culture in wartime by keeping artists employed rather than fighting, while, on the other, commissioning them to develop artistic records of the war. Despite criticisms of the lack of 'war' in Official War Art, practising as a war artist was not without risk, as was evidenced by three artists - Eric Ravilious, Albert Richards and Thomas Hennell - losing their lives abroad. A few months later, Monnington eventually flew in operations over Europe with RAF No. 2 Group, 2nd Tactical Air Force, in North American B-25 Mitchell bombers. Purchased in 1993. Artist copyright: the artist's estate. Image copyright: RAF Museum.