The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
Depicts two RAAF personnel of the Tactical Air Force relaxing in their tent, which the artist notes was home to Basil Rumble, Col. Fitzgerald, Bill Stephenson and Bunny Linwood.
145552 FO Eric Prentice Thake enlisted in 1943 and worked as a draughtsman until his appointment to the RAAF Historical Section as a war artist in 1944. During the next two years, he travelled to central and northern Australia, Timor and Dutch New Guinea. This sketch was made while Thake was stationed on Noemfoor Island, which had been the site of conflict between Japanese and Allied forces (2 July - 31 August 1944), and was a major airbase for both sides. The island of Noemfoor also played an important role in the battles of Sansapor and Morotai.
While a RAAF artist, Thake embraced the opportunity to experience foreign lands and devoted all his time to making art. Thake is now recognised as one of Australia's foremst modernist artists. According to his diary, Thake arrived on Noemfoor Island on 9 January 1945 and stayed for about six weeks. In his detailed account of Thake's war work, Peter Pinson observes: "The wet and heat of Noemfoor ... captured his imagination. Perspiration was insidius ... The mud was pervasive." (PINSON Peter, 'Eric Thake, War Artist,' The Institute of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 1991, p51). Pinson cites Thake as saying, "I am often soaked with [perspiration], dripping from my brow onto my work and running down my sunglasses." (Pinson, p51)
Depicts an unidentified Japanese prisoner of war working on reconstruction of Penfoei Airfield near Kupang, Timor. This drawing series by Thake depicts Japanese military and naval POWs who were employ
Thake's view of a Consolidated B24 Liberator aircraft in Darwin, seeing the machine as some sort of crouching giant insect. Eric Thake was one of three artists appointed by the RAAF Historical Section
Eric Thake wrote to Captain John Treloar on 9 November 1947: 'The searchlight, I think belonged to the 16th American Anti-Aircraft Battery as they were camped on the other side and at the opposite end
Portrait of Eric Thake, painting in his studio. Eric Prentice Anchor Thake was born in Auburn, Vic in 1904. Before the Second World War he was apprenticed to a process engraving company and worked as
NOEMFOOR ISLAND, DUTCH NEW GUINEA. C. 1944-08. PORTRAIT OF 424311 FLIGHT SERGEANT D. A. SMYTH OF DOVER HEIGHTS, NSW, AND NO. 78 (KITTYHAWK) SQUADRON RAAF WITH NOSE ART "WATCH MY FORM!", AND NICKNAME L
NOEMFOOR ISLAND, DUTCH NEW GUINEA. C. 1944-08. NOSE ART "WATCH MY FORM!" AND NICKNAME "LUCKY 13" ON AIRCRAFT OF NO. 78 (KITTYHAWK) SQUADRON RAAF, SERIAL NO. A29-572.
