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1938 British Aircraft
(S128-1)
Strathmore Tobacco Co. Ltd., London, England
Overview
Series Title: British Aircraft
Cartophilic Reference Number: S128-1
Issued by: Strathmore Tobacco Co. Ltd., London, England
Issued with: Strathmore Cigarettes
Country: England
Number of Cards: 25
Card Numbering: 1 - 25 on card backs
Type of Card: Tobacco insert
Card Dimensions: 76 × 50 mm
Circa: 1938
Checklist: Download
This British Aircraft
25-tobacco card set was issued in 1938 by the Strathmore Tobacco Co. Ltd., London, England. The cards served as inserts into their Strathmore Cigarettes packs. The 25-airplane photo cards are mainly military aircraft, except for a few civil aircraft. The semi-gloss photos are presented in a brown tone, without any border line frame. The tops of the card fronts identify the manufacturer … Strathmore Cigarettes, while the bottom of the card fronts identify the subject aircraft. Both captions are presented within an ample margin surrounding the photo. The card fronts are a mix of both landscape and portrait formats, with 22 of the cards being presented in a landscape format. The backs of the cards are all presented in a portrait format.
The card backs are presented in a lined border format, with the set title, card number, card title, descriptive text, and the Strathmore Tobacco Co. Ltd. logo all presented in a vertical stack.
This 1938 set of airplane cards shows how ill-prepared the British were before the “Phony War” started in 1939. The only two fighter aircraft shown in this set that could compete with the Luftwaffe were the Harker Hurricane
and the Supermarine Spitfire
of which both aircraft were in their infancy. The Bristol Blenheim
was the only light bomber that was used by the British throughout the entire war. Most of the other fighters, mainly the biplanes, were quickly retired as the Hurricanes
and the Spitfires
came online. As with the fighters, the outdated bombers were quickly replaced with new types such as the Manchester
and Lancaster
medium and heavy bombers.
All in all, the card set is an interesting pre-World War II historical snapshot into the capabilities of the Royal Air Force before the official start of World War II when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939.
The British Aircraft
cards measure 76 × 50 mm, and bear the World Tobacco Issues Index reference number of S128-1.
The following reference card shows the fronts and backs of a typical 1938 British Aircraft
(S128-1) card. Click on the card images to reveal full-size computer enhanced 600-dpi images of the card.
Image-Guide
| ORIGINAL SCANS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 1
1b |
2
2b |
3
3b |
4
4b |
5
5b |
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| 6
6b |
7
7b |
8
8b |
9
9b |
10
10b |
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| 11
11b |
12
12b |
13
13b |
14
14b |
15
15b |
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| 16
16b |
17
17b |
18
18b |
19
19b |
20
20b |
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| 21
21b |
22
22b |
23
23b |
24
24b |
25
25b | ||||||||||||||||||||
Checklist
| SET CHECKLIST | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| № | x | Card Title | |
| 1 | Airspeed Oxford Advanced Trainer | ||
| 2 | Armstrong Whitworth Ensign | ||
| 3 | Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Bomber | ||
| 4 | Avro Anson Coastal Reconnaissance Monoplane | ||
| 5 | Avro 621 Tutor | ||
| 6 | Bristol Blenheim High Performance Bomber | ||
| 7 | Bristol Bombay Bomber-Transport | ||
| 8 | De Havilland Albatross Inter-Continental Air Liner | ||
| 9 | Fairey Battle Two-Seater Day Bomber | ||
| 10 | Fairey Swordfish Torpedo-Spotter Reconnaissance Biplane | ||
| 11 | Gloster Gladiator Single-Seat Multi-Gun Fighter | ||
| 12 | Gloucester F.5/34 Single-Seat Multi-Gun Fighter | ||
| 13 | Handley Page Harrow Twin-engined Bomber | ||
| 14 | Handley Page Hampden Bomber-Fighter | ||
| 15 | Hawker Demon Two-Seater Fighter | ||
| 16 | Hawker Fury Interceptor | ||
| 17 | Hawker Hector Two-Seat Army Co-Operation Bi-Plane | ||
| 18 | Hawker Hurricane Single-Seat Fighter | ||
| 19 | Mayo Composite Aircraft | ||
| 20 | Percival Q.6 Passenger Machine | ||
| 21 | Short Singapore III Open-Sea Reconnaissance Flying-Boat | ||
| 22 | Supermarine Spitfire Single-Seat Fighter | ||
| 23 | Vickers Wellesley Long-Range Bomber | ||
| 24 | Vickers Wellington Long-Range Twin-engined Bomber | ||
| 25 | Westland Lysander Army Co-Operation Two-Seater | ||
References
