Player’s Cigarette Card Album “Modern Naval Craft” 1938 8 of 20
This is a cigarette card album dating from 1938, showing “modern” naval vessels of the major powers.
Once hugely popular, cigarette cards had vanished by my childhood in the 1950s; I collected tea cards from packets of Brooke Bond or Horniman's tea.
All of the vessels saw war service, many failed to survive it; those that did, generally, ended up at the breaker’s yard.
HMS Ark Royal, Pennant Number 91, was launched in 1937. She was actively involved in operations in Norway, the hunt for the Graf Spee, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Bismarck and participated in the Malta convoys. After a series of near misses she was considered a lucky ship, but in November 1941, whilst en route to Gibraltar, she was sunk by U-81 with the loss of one sailor.
The French battleship Dunkerque was launched in 1935. At the start of the war she took part in searches for surface raiders, and convoy escort duties. After the French Armistice, she was badly damaged by the British at Mers-el-Kebir to prevent her falling into German hands. She was refloated and moved to Toulon, where she was scuttled by her crew in November 1942 after the Germans attempted to seize French ships there. Italians and Germans partially stripped her, the wreck remaining at Toulon until 1958 when she was finally broken up.
HM Motor Torpedo Boat No 102 is one of the few remaining MTBs which served with the Coastal Forces of the Royal Navy in WW2. She was launched in 1937. During the Dunkirk evacuation she crossed the channel eight times and became the flagship of Rear Admiral Wake-Walker when his ship HMS Keith was disabled, giving her the distinction of being the smallest ever RN flagship. In 1943 she was transferred to the Army's 615 Water Transport Company, RASC and renamed Vimy. In 1944 she carried Winston Churchill and General Eisenhower when they reviewed the fleet for Operation Overlord, the invasion of France. She is maintained today as a charitable trust. In the 2017 film ‘Dunkirk’, she played herself.
Player’s Cigarette Card Album “Modern Naval Craft” 1938 8 of 20
This is a cigarette card album dating from 1938, showing “modern” naval vessels of the major powers.
Once hugely popular, cigarette cards had vanished by my childhood in the 1950s; I collected tea cards from packets of Brooke Bond or Horniman's tea.
All of the vessels saw war service, many failed to survive it; those that did, generally, ended up at the breaker’s yard.
HMS Ark Royal, Pennant Number 91, was launched in 1937. She was actively involved in operations in Norway, the hunt for the Graf Spee, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Bismarck and participated in the Malta convoys. After a series of near misses she was considered a lucky ship, but in November 1941, whilst en route to Gibraltar, she was sunk by U-81 with the loss of one sailor.
The French battleship Dunkerque was launched in 1935. At the start of the war she took part in searches for surface raiders, and convoy escort duties. After the French Armistice, she was badly damaged by the British at Mers-el-Kebir to prevent her falling into German hands. She was refloated and moved to Toulon, where she was scuttled by her crew in November 1942 after the Germans attempted to seize French ships there. Italians and Germans partially stripped her, the wreck remaining at Toulon until 1958 when she was finally broken up.
HM Motor Torpedo Boat No 102 is one of the few remaining MTBs which served with the Coastal Forces of the Royal Navy in WW2. She was launched in 1937. During the Dunkirk evacuation she crossed the channel eight times and became the flagship of Rear Admiral Wake-Walker when his ship HMS Keith was disabled, giving her the distinction of being the smallest ever RN flagship. In 1943 she was transferred to the Army's 615 Water Transport Company, RASC and renamed Vimy. In 1944 she carried Winston Churchill and General Eisenhower when they reviewed the fleet for Operation Overlord, the invasion of France. She is maintained today as a charitable trust. In the 2017 film ‘Dunkirk’, she played herself.