Dangerous Moonlight by Nicolas Trudgian

The Luftwaffe’s night-fighting campaign began in July 1940 when an RAF Whitley bomber fell to the guns of an Me110 flown by Werner Streib of the new, dedicated night-fighting unit NJG1. Their further successes led to other units being formed, but NJG 1 always remained the most feared night force…Equipped with the latest radar technology enabling a form of night vision, NJG 1 caused terrible losses to the RAF’s bomber aircraft and crews. The four highest-scoring night fighters were Werner Streib whose total was 65 , Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein with 83 , Helmut Lent on 102 , and the greatest of them all , Heinz Wolfgang Schnaufer , who achieved 121…Another ‘ Experte ‘ was Martin Drewes who took command of III NJG 1 in March 1944. It is his aircraft that is depicted in this painting… On the bright , moonlit night of 30th March 1944 more than 800 RAF bombers set off to raid Nurenberg. Martin Drewes , flying his Me110G , scrambled to meet them and was able to spot the first of his targets without using radar as it was silhouetted against the silvery clouds. He attacked the Lancaster, from the Australian 467 Squadron , using his ” Schrage-Musik ” upward firing guns and went on to shoot down a further two bombers before returning to base… By dawn , 96 RAF aircraft had been shot down , which was the greatest loss suffered by Bomber Command on any one night in the entire war. By the end of the hostilities, NJG 1 had achieved a sobering total of 2311 victories , making them by far the most potent night fighter unit…

MARTIN DREWES EDITION

Signed by the Artist Nicolas Trudgian and 2 Nachtjagdgeschwader Knights Cross Holders

 THE NJG1 ACES EDITION

Signed by the Artist Nicolas Trudgian and 8 Nachtjagdgeschwader Aces all Knights Cross Holders.
Some of these signatures are extremely rare and unrepeatable as most were collected between the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Gunther Bahr – Knights Cross, Ludwig Meister – Knights Cross,
Martin Drewes – Knights Cross & Oakleaves, Hubert Rauh – Knights Cross,
Wolfgang Flack – Knights Cross, Johannes Richter – Knights Cross,
Georg-Hermann Greiner – Knights Cross & Oakleaves, Friedrich Rumpelhardt – Knights Cross

£335