TOUCHED BY LIGHTNING
Print By Robert Bailey 

24 " X 34"

AUTHENTIC

In the weeks leading to the invasion of Normandy, American fighter pilots of the U.S. Eighth and Ninth Air Forces found themselves participating more and more in the ground attack role, as communications links throughout the Continent needed to be severed. Typical targets included railroad bridges, stations and trains, supply dumps and motor vehicles. Not wanting to concentrate their attacks on one area and reveal their invasion plans, the Allies flew missions across the breadth of France, Germany and the Low Countries. Destroying these targets didn't provide Allied pilots the prestige that came with downing another pilot in aerial combat, but ground attacks were just as important, and equally as dangerous.
     
Captain Cy Coenen of the 402nd Fighter Squadron, found out just how hazardous ground attacks could be, on May 23, 1944. While attacking a German train near Koblenz, Germany, his P-38 Lightning was hit by ground fire. While he was able to pilot his ship home to England, he was forced to crash-land with hydraulic damage at Southend.
     
This dramatic portrayal of the event, 'Touched by Lightning,' depicts Captain Coenen and his wingman immediately after their attack on the train. While boxcars full of ammunition provide a satisfactory explosion behind them, the low altitude at which the P-38's are flying has seriously exposed them to German anti-aircraft fire.

Print Information:
Overall Size: 34" x 24"
Main numbers: 1 to 500, with ONE co-signature, $145
50 Artist Proofs, with ONE co-signature, $175
50 Special Edition, with ONE co-signature (remarqued), $265
80 selected random numbers from the Limited Edition with 13 signatures, $195
(all P-38 fighter pilots of the 402nd. Fighter Squadron)

The Signatures:

Cy Coenen first became interested in aviation while growing up in Rio Vista, California, where he would watch the mail planes flying overhead. Coenen was commissioned as a reserve Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Coast Artillery. After graduation from the University of San Francisco in 1940, and after the attack on Pearl Harbour, he was accepted for pilot training in the Army Air Corps.
    
Following basic flight training in the deep South, Coenen took instruction on P-47's at Westover Field in Springfield Massachusetts, before being assigned to the 71st Fighter Wing, 370th Fighter Group, IXth Tactical Air Command, Ninth Air Force.
     
When Coenen arrived in England in January, 1944, no P-47s were available for the group, so they began flying P-38 Lockheed Lightnings from Andover Field, Hants, on Salisbury Plain. Captain Coenen eventually flew 73 missions with 122 sorties. The months leading up to D-Day saw him flying in a variety of roles: bomber escort, dive bombing, strafing, armed reconnaissance and, after the Invasion, ground support for army units. On D-Day he flew three missions over the beachheads, providing cover.
     
The first Ninth Air Force unit to use napalm in combat was the 370th Fighter Group, during ground support missions in July.
    
In addition to the sortie depicted in 'Touched by Lightning,' Coenen was downed on one other occasion. Flying an armed reconnaissance Lightning over Brest on September 6, 1944, he was hit by ground fire and forced to parachute near St. Brieue. A French family hid Coenen in a cellar wine vat on their farm for two days, after which he set off to find the advancing Allies. Successfully evading capture, he was returned to his unit, by then based on the Continent.
     
Just three weeks later, on September 29, his tour of duty ended with a fighter sweep which took him over Aachen, Cologne, Nijmegen and Arnhem. He left the Ninth Air Force with the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with 11 Oak Leaf Clusters, four battle stars and was Cited in the Order of the Day, Belgian Army. In 1967, Colonel Coenen retired from the United States Air Force Reserve, after 27 years of military service.
     
Today, Cy Coenen resides in the San Francisco Bay area with his wartime bride Peg (after whom he named three P-38s, 'Peg O' My Heart') and has four children and three grandchildren.

-Text written by Mike Dorosh

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