Test of Courage, by Keith Ferris

This powerful and detailed limited edition fine art print was inspired, in part, by renowned aviation artist Keith Ferris' work on A Test of Courage, his previous limited edition print, and Fortresses Under Fire, his seventy-five-foot mural at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. All three images depict Lt. Klaus Bretschneider's deadly Focke-Wulf 190A-8/R8 on the attack.

"I was fascinated by the German Luftwaffe's heavily armed and armored 'Sturmgruppen,' which were hurled at unfortunate American bomb groups," explains Ferris, a major contributor to the Air Force Art Program. "The German formations often passed one bomber unit - just beyond the lethal 3,500-foot range of their .50 caliber machine guns - while positioning themselves to attack the lead group."

That is just what they are doing in Real Trouble - one of the most aptly named aviation prints The Greenwich Workshop has ever published. "Both sides recognized real trouble when they saw it!" Ferris echoes. "Lt. Bretschneider, flying the Focke-Wulf 190 named 'Rauhbautz [Tough Guy] VII,' leads his wingman and the right side of his formation toward a lethal attack with bomber-destroying 20 and 30mm cannon . . . while showing well-earned respect for the B-17s' defenses."

Ferris includes a formation of Bf 109G-6 light fighters flying cover for the Fw190s, as B-17Gs of the 384th Bomb Group must wait in suspense as Real Trouble passes them by. The result is aviation art at its finest and most precise.

Accompanied by reproductions of photos and combat profiles of Sturmgruppen pilots Unteroffizier Matches Erhardt, Oberleutnant Klaus Bretschneider, and Unteroffizier Ernst Schroeder.