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HORACE BRISTOL (American, 1909-1997) PBY BLISTER GUNNER, SOUTH PACIFIC signed "Horace Bristol" in pe

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:4,000.00 - 6,000.00 USD
HORACE BRISTOL (American, 1909-1997) PBY BLISTER GUNNER, SOUTH PACIFIC signed  Horace Bristol  in pe
HORACE BRISTOL (American, 1909-1997) PBY BLISTER GUNNER, SOUTH PACIFIC signed "Horace Bristol" in pencil on label on verso stamped Certificate of Authenticity adhered on verso gelatin silver print 1515/16 x 151/4 in. (40.5 x 38.7 cm) photographed in 1944 printed in 1955 this print is number 18 from an edition of 50 ESTIMATE: $4,000-6,000 PROVENANCE Stephen Cohen Gallery, LOS ANGELES Private Collection, NEW YORK LITERATURE Ken Conner and Debra Heimerdinger, HORACE BRISTOL: AN AMERICAN VIEW, San Francisco, 1996, p. 93 (illustrated) In 1944, Allied forces executed an aerial bombardment of the heavily fortified Japanese Island of New Britain in the South Pacific. Many planes were shot down. Waiting for messages that a pilot had ditched his aircraft, amphibious PBY planes were ready to skim over the water, locate the pilot, land on the surface, and send out a rubber raft to bring the pilot back to safety. On one such occasion, a blister gunner on one of the PBY planes spotted a severely burned pilot, hanging onto life only by a tattered life preserver. The gunner, knowing that there was not enough time to send out the rubber raft, stripped off his clothing and dove into the water to rescue the pilot himself. After he had returned to the PBY plane with no time to dress, he immediately returned to his post. Bristol considered this man's actions among the bravest deeds that he witnessed during the war.