---
title: RN - RAF - Catafighters
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-rn-raf-catafighters-1939/
description: A 24-panel comic-strip poster with captions follows the Merchant Service Fighter Unit, a catapult-launched Hurricane flown from convoy freighters.
section: Collection
---

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3. RN - RAF - Catafighters

[![RN - RAF - Catafighters, 1939 UK poster: A 24-panel comic-strip poster with captions follows the Merchant Service Fighter](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-rn-raf-catafighters-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-rn-raf-catafighters-1939.jpg)

# RN - RAF - Catafighters

A 24-panel comic-strip poster with captions follows the Merchant Service Fighter Unit, a catapult-launched Hurricane flown from convoy freighters, from convoy to a kill and the pilot's rescue. It states that 'no ship has so far been sunk by air attack in any convoy defended by' the unit. The tell for card-stacking is the one-sided success narrative with a single sweeping claim and no losses or costs shown beyond the pilot's lost plane.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
R N   CATAFIGHTERS   RAF

[Panel lead-in captions only; the body text under each of the 24 panels is not transcribed here:]
THE SHIPS MUST GO THRU
FREIGHTERS TAKE ABOARD
ORGANIZED IN CONVOYS
THE ENEMY HAS ORDERED
MENACED FROM THE AIR,
MANY EYES WATCH
AN INTERMITTENT ALARM
ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS OPEN UP
THREE LONGRANGE NAZI BOMBERS
WHILE THE WARSHIPS
HEAVY CALIBER BOMBS
A BOMB HIT
A STRENGTHENED HURRICANE
WHEN THE PILOT SIGNALS,
THE SHIP'S CHIEF OFFICER
SHOT OUT WITH A ROAR
THE HURRICANE CLIMBS
THE PILOT KEEPS RADIO CONTACT
THE CATAFIGHTER CLOSES
RIDDLED WITH BULLETS
SIGNALLING THE NEAREST ESCORT VESSEL,
HE FIGURES TO FALL
LITTLE THE WORSE,
TODAY, RESERVES OF CATAFIGHTERS

[imprint:] BRITISH INFORMATION SERVICES
An Agency of the British Government
50 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA
NEW YORK CITY
```

[← The Right Way to Cook Greens](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-right-way-to-cook-greens-1939/) [Rubber is Precious - Travel Only When You Must →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-rubber-is-precious-travel-only-when-you-must-1939/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.