Your 'Spitfires' in Action (Thank You, Gibraltar!)
Four painted panels show Spitfires bought with Gibraltar subscriptions shooting down German bombers and strafing a harbour with a swastika flag, closing with 'Thank you, Gibraltar!' and a list of other war gifts. The tell for card-stacking is that only successful actions are shown and no losses or numbers are given, and for transfer the Gibraltar crest and the swastika flag set against the RAF roundels.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Gibraltar war-gifts appeal (Gibraltar arms crest on the sheet; no issuing department named); printed in England, 51-9442
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Fundraise
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front
- Event
- World War II
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- 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; wartime British-period print, hosted by owner decision
Issuer not named on the poster; printed in England. National Archives and Records Administration, 44-PF-556.
Text on the object
YOUR 'SPITFIRES' IN ACTION Subscriptions from Gibraltar have bought three 'Spitfire' fighter aircraft for Britain. These planes protect British homes and industries from aerial attack and harass enemy shipping and transport. When enemy bombers approach Britain, the fighters go up to drive them away. Here is a Gibraltar fighter plane shooting down an enemy bomber over one of Britain's industrial towns. Gibraltar fighter planes also take part in offensive sweeps over enemy-occupied territory and cause much damage to shipping and transport and communications with their machine-gun fire. Gibraltar fighters protect Allied merchant ships from hostile aircraft. Many vital cargoes have reached port only because of the watchful presence of fighter planes. Thank you, Gibraltar! Other war gifts from Gibraltar include contributions to His Majesty's Government for the prosecution of the war, mobile canteens, a W.V.S. mobile library, subscriptions for British Red Cross and St. John Fund, Air Raid Relief, King George's Fund for Sailors, Aid to Russia Fund, Prisoners of War Fund, St. Dunstan's, Merchant Navy Comforts Fund, Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Fund and other war funds. [imprint:] PRINTED IN ENGLAND 51-9442 [crest motto:] MONTIS INSIGNIA CALPE
