No. 19 Air Flight over Wytschaete by Paul Nash, watercolour, gouache and chalk on paper

From February 1917, Nash served with the Hampshire Regiment in the trenches of Flanders, on the Western Front. This is one of 50 drawings he made of the Ypres Salient battlefields that November, when he returned to the Front after injury, now serving as an Official War Artist.

In his depiction of colourful blossoms amid the devastation of shattered trees, Nash used nature as an emblem of wasteful suffering. Months earlier Wytschaete saw heavy fighting in the Battle of Messines, resulting in British victory. Royal Flying Corps fighter aircraft tactically assisted the infantry by strafing German ground targets at low altitude. Purchased in 1974. Copyright: Crown (expired) / RAF Museum.