Puttalam Elephants by Robert Taylor

Commissioned by one of the Corsair pilots stationed at HMS Rajaliya in 1942, Robert Taylor’s superb painting Puttalam Elephants is one of many originals by Robert hanging in the wonderful art collection of the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton.

Much admired by tens of thousands of visitors each year, this painting depicts the unusual tactics as employed at Puttalam in order to keep the land based naval fighters flying.

Operating happily in conditions where towing tractors became quickly bogged down, the Puttalam Elephants provided an invaluable service, and became much loved by the pilots and ground crews.