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
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- British Information Services, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York (an agency of the British Government)
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Theme
- War and the military
- Event
- World War II
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Held by NARA, Unrestricted; UK Crown-copyright-era wartime print, hosted by owner decision
British Information Services, New York (British Government agency). National Archives and Records Administration, 44-PF-134.
Text on the object
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
