The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
In the capacity of official war artist in Korea, Ivor Hele was 'requested to paint the men and machines of 77 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force at Kimpo. These are Meteor jets of 77 Squadron after completing a sortie and returning to Kimpo, the main airstrip outside Seoul. An Australian pilot is in the centre foreground with a group of crewmen working behind him, the Meteor jets lined up in the background. Meteors were the first jets to fly operationally with the RAAF. 77 Squadron was based at Kimpo in early 1951 and flew from there until the end of the Korean War. The new silver Gloster Meteor jets were not easy to depict and at times Hele struggled to convincingly portray their form and surfaces.The figures in the work have a sense of disparate and unconnected activity. The crewmen are working together, but remain somehow apart. Hele was striving, but not quite succeeding, to build a formal set piece action painting, something he had so successfully created in the past. The difficulty he had in creating these works parallels the dogged efforts of the soldiers and airmen he depicts. Hele's Korean works have a nervous edgy quality and are powerful yet disturbing images of the Korean War.
Two Australian ground crew loading rockets onto a Meteor jet on a runway in Korea. The work is a study for the painting, 'Adjusting rockets on jets, 77 Squadron, Kimpo, Korea'. The 77 Squadron was for
Depicts an Australian ground crew from the 77 Squadron loading rockets onto a Meteor jet on a runway in Korea, during the Korean War . The work has a pen and ink study, 'Loading rockets, 77 Squadron,
KIMPO, SOUTH KOREA. 1952-07. METEOR JETS OF NO. 77 SQUADRON RAAF SCREAM OVER A KOREAN VILLAGE ENROUTE TO THE ENEMY LINES IN THE NORTH KOREAN AREA.
KIMPO, SOUTH KOREA. 1952-07. METEOR JETS OF NO. 77 SQUADRON RAAF SCREAM OVER A KOREAN VILLAGE ENROUTE TO THE ENEMY LINES IN THE NORTH KOREAN AREA.
KIMPO, SOUTH KOREA. 1952-07. METEOR JETS OF NO. 77 SQUADRON RAAF AS THEY SCREAM OVER A KOREAN VILLAGE ENROUTE TO THE ENEMIES LINES IN THE NORTH KOREAN AREA.
KIMPO, SOUTH KOREA. 1952. TWO METEOR JETS OF NO. 77 SQUADRON RAAF TAXY OUT FOR A TAKE OFF FOR A PATROL NORTH OF THE BOMBLINE. TAXING THE COMMUNISTS STRENGTH, METEOR JETS OF NO. 77 SQUADRON ARE WELL KN
