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Nash supported the use of art as propaganda. He wanted his images of the defeated enemy 'to strike a blow on behalf of the RAF, apart from any triumph of art for its own sake'. This is evident here, in what is perhaps the most celebrated British painting of the war. Nash thought it 'would make a good reproduction for depressing the Nazis'.

Nash worked from photos and sketches of crashed German aeroplanes in a dump at Cowley, outside Oxford. Although based on an actual scene, the landscape is eerie. He said it was formed by 'creatures which invaded these shores'.