Reign of Fire by Mark Churms at Ozark Airfield Artworks Aviation Art

Here at Ozark Airfield Artworks we offer a large selection aviation art prints. These prints
mainly depict modern and historic aviation along with military, civil and space flight. We
also deal with naval subjects and military armor and infantry works. These prints are from
all the top national and international aviation artists along with some local artists. Many of
our prints are signed by the artist and by famous pilots and veterans. If you are looking for
a specific plane, pilot, artist or subject please contact us.

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"Reign of Fire"

Churms - Signed Ltd. Edition
Paper Print /750: REIGN OF
FIRE *USS Pennsylvania BB-38
Leyte Gulf 1944

Image size: 11 inches high x 17
inches wide. Signed and
numbered by artist.

U.S.S. PENNSYLVANIA BB38, 1944 - REIGN OF FIRE!
Under warm, overcast, tropical skies, the old Navy Battlewagon, U.S.S.
Pennsylvania steams "all ahead two-thirds" through light seas of the land
locked Leyte Gulf. Only hours after the decisive nighttime surface action at
Surigao Strait, the ship is again at General Quarters. This time the threat is
from the air. At 8:12 am, ten Japanese Vals, intent on revenge, drop from
cloud cover and press home suicidal attacks on U.S. warships assembled in
the Gulf. There is but one defense against these young determined pilots: the
absolute destruction of their warplanes by concentrated anti-aircraft fire.
Shots burst out in every direction, tracer and flak fill the air. In an impressive
display of firepower, the gunners of the "Mighty Penn" blast four attacking
planes from the sky in less than five minutes! With secondary and anti-aircraft
batteries in action, the noise and vibrations are so violent that the crew gives
the warship a new nickname, "Old Falling Apart!"

The Japanese air attacks continue until November 1 and begin to slacken off.
"The Pennsy" can count ten kills and yet still more badly damaged enemy
aircraft. From October 18 until November 25 she remains in these waters;
completing thirty-seven days of fire support missions and enduring over one
hundred air-raid alerts, including numerous Kamikaze attacks. Old Pennsy, a
survivor of Pearl Harbor and Naval Unit Citation recipient, is the first of the
American battleships to enter Leyte Gulf and the last to leave, after fulfilling
her important role in the Philippines Campaign. She later survives a torpedo
attack at the end of W.W.II and post-war Atomic Bomb tests in the Pacific.
Finally, because of radioactivity, she is scuttled just one month short of her
33rd anniversary in February, 1947.