Waiting for Bullets
This painting, titled “Waiting for the Bullets”, was commissioned by Valor Studios of Venice, Florida and painted by Spanish artist Gareth Hector.
Silent-auction
A signed print of this painting (31″ x 19″), donated by O.P. Taylor’s Toy Store in Brevard, will be silent-auctioned on April 13. The opening bid is $150. Col. Cottrell will inscribe the print to the winner of the auction.
December 17, 1944, over the Ardennes: Lt. Ed Cottrell is in a situation he never dreamed possible. He and his group were bombing German armor when they were jumped by twenty Me-109s. Cottrell’s engine took hits. Oil sprayed. Eight cylinders were gone, but the motor kept running. He was limping home when two Me-109s caught up to him. “I was waiting for the bullets to come,” he said.
How he survived
On April 13th, Lt. Col. Ed Cottrell, USAF (Ret.) will tell that story, and how he survived, plus the story of his 2023 meeting with German Me 109 pilot Karl-Heinz Bosse (shown below), who fought in that same air battle on December 17, 1944.
German pilor Karl-Heinz Bosse (left) and Cottrell met on Dec. 23, 2023, near Bonn, Germany, where Bosse’s Me 109 was shot down. Bosse ejected, was injured and hospitalized, and re-entered the fight.
Top Photo: Look closely at the painting and that’s Lt. Ed Cottrell in the cockpit in the foreground above, with engine oil covering his windshield after eight cylinders of his P-47’s engine were shot out. Those hovering planes are German Me 109s.
