Print Solutions
The story of how Jon Bailey, CEO Precision Proco, set in motion an event that spanned the world, connected long lost relatives and culminated in a Service of Remembrance and a documentary film about the RAF in World War II.
During a conversation with Robert McClements, former collaborator with the BPIF’s Visual Media Conference, Jon Bailey, CEO Precision Proco, was shown an image of a stained glass window in Canada dedicated to an RAF pilot. Hearing the story of Robert’s research into his late father’s war time service and the enduring impact of the tragedy of his friend Jack Laffoley’s death, Jon suggested it could be possible to print – and donate – a replica of the window. Thus began the project, ‘Operation Gisela – Echoes of a Sacrifice’.
Armed with this proposal Robert contacted Jack’s family in Canada to explore the possibilities to mark the 80th anniversary of his death. Once he had their support and commitment, he engaged with the Yorkshire Air Museum and Allied Air Forces Memorial who agreed to hold a service – that service was attended by over 70 people with family from Canada, USA, France, Germany and included the dedication of the stained glass window replica light box.
Inspired by Jon’s suggestion and the prospect of such a gathering Robert spent the next four months bringing together a collection of research to create a 24 minute’s documentary about Operation Gisela, properly known as, ‘Unternehmen Gisela’, the Luftwaffe’s last desperate attempt to stem the RAF’s victory. Following the bomber stream back from Germany 117 Junkers88s were circling the East coast of Britain, waiting to shoot them down as they landed.
The story is told in full on the YouTube channel: @operationgiselaecchoes
After a painstaking exercise working from that limited image, studio manager Neil Newsome recreated the image picking out all the fine detail of the lead to give a solid opaque line – allowing the brilliance of the colours to shine through. It is face printed on 3 mm acrylic sheet on a Jetrix LXi7 LED-UV flatbed press. The Sunderland production team did a great job. The lightbox is illuminated by LEDs and was provided by Omega Signs, Leeds. The film was crafted by another VMC collaborator, Ryan Lee, of Ryvacious Films.
Robert McClements said, ‘The printing of the window was just the start. So much of the research was dependent on print – records ranging from RAF archives to family letters. Not to mention the invitations, orders of service, labels for memorabilia displays and more. I brought together different parts of the story from a variety of printed books and even found copies of the Luftwaffe pilots’ original flight logbooks provided by an aero historian in Brazil.’
