The Art of War
The paintings of Tom Lea, Life magazine's artist-correspondent during World War II.
- By Rebecca Maksel
- AirSpaceMag.com, February 06, 2009
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Tom Lea
In 1943, Lea’s assignment was to “hitchhike” his way through the “back roads of war.” He flew to Greenland and Iceland, then on to England. On September 14, 1943 he watched a P-47 fighter group climb out over Steeple Morden: “It was beautiful to see them go out today, and they all came home…. I climbed on top of the operations tower to watch them all take off. They taxied down to one end of the strip, like bugs marching in single file, then took off roaring in pairs, circling, climbing to rendezvous over the field until the whole sky seemed filled with planes and thunder. Quickly they took their formation positions. Then roaring like some abstract geometrical theorem of war in perfect formation they circled the field once and head out northeast.”
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Comments (3)
What an excellent well written account of the life and works of Tom Lea who is an underappreciated artist and writer of the World War II era.
Posted by Margaret Kurtin on February 15,2009 | 01:53 PM
The pictures and the captions tell us a lot about the man himself. A worthy representative I think, of a very worthy generation.
Posted by Mike Houlding on August 26,2009 | 11:05 PM