Night Prang

Three figures run for cover as flames erupt from a crashing aircraft. The artist refers to making this painting in direct response to his experience of being in a plane crash in correspondence to the Australian War Memorial: "Figures scrambling out of the burning wreck of Stirling bomber. (This would be painted from memories still very vivid in my mind!)." In July 1944, Adams travelled to Methwold, Norfolk, where his brother was stationed with No. 464 Squadron, RAAF, as a flight sergeant. On the night of 16/17th July, he accompanied one of the bomber crews on a night-training flight when it crashed on landing and killed two crew members. Adams suffered wounds to his head and left leg, and noted: “I was lucky to be alive, we all knew that, those of us who survived.”