Fighter Affiliation: Halifax and Hurricane by Walter Thomas Monnington, oil on canvas

This painting represents a Fighter Affiliation exercise in which the crew of a Halifax bomber were trained to out-manoeuvre a naturally faster and more agile Hurricane fighter. The exercise was designed to emulate the real-life situations faced by bomber crew pursued by enemy fighters.

Monnington, who spent much of the Second World War working on camouflage designs, came late to the Official War Artists’ scheme. With over 600 hours of flying experience gained before the war, he put himself forward for an Air Ministry commission as the only artist who represented authentic aerial perspectives. From the Air Ministry allocation of works from the War Artists' Advisory Committee, 1947. Original accession number: LD3770. On loan from the RAF Air Historical Branch (MOD). Copyright: Crown (expired) / RAF Museum.