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Nothing was safe from WW2, even cigarette cards. Supply ships were attacked and blocked by the German navy, leading to severe paper rationing, which continued well into the 1950s in the United Kingdom. Although cigarette card production came to a virtual stand-still in the war years, many military card sets were issued before the war. The problem with these pre-war sets is that rapid technological advancements meant that many of the weapons featured were either upgraded or completely obsolete by the time of the war.
However, we know from WW1, that even when cards continued to be produced well into the war they were heavily censored and infused with propaganda. Although this has a nostalgic charm in itself, it does tend to distort our view of the frontline. I recently reviewed a set of WD and HO Wills’ Military Motors, 1916. Anyone seeing these cards could be forgiven for thinking that the allies’ land transportation was quite advanced. This is a bit puzzling since the lack of effective land mobility is often cited as one of the major problems with the war.
WW1 cigarette cards give us numerous examples of early propaganda, such as the patriotic Wills’ miniature Recruitment Posters and the very dark war cartoons of Louis Raemaeker, which I reviewed recently. Raemaeker was a very imaginative and passionate cartoonist, but I do think he went a little bit too far in suggesting that the German people and soldiers were demonic and preyed solely on the weak and vulnerable. I’m sure there would have been cases of atrocities committed on both sides. It makes you wonder whether the Allies’ very dark WW1 propaganda became a self fulfilling prophecy in WW2, feeding the cycle of violence by creating insane war leaders like Hitler. Hitler stated in his book Mein Kampf that “...it became evident what immense results could be obtained by a correct application of propaganda”
Although hardly any card sets were issued during WW2 and the pre-war sets give us a rather incomplete picture of weapons during that time, a number of retrospective sets were issued decades later, like the series we are about to review in this blog. We often get a clearer picture of conflict as the mists of war lift.
The magazine “Battle Picture Weekly” issued five card sets on “Weapons of World War II” in the mid 1970’s, each focusing on a different country. These sets are quite rare and not even listed in the main cigarette card and trading card price guide.
This particular card set is perhaps the most controversial since it is devoted to German armaments. It includes the infamous Panzerkampfwagen Mk4 tank that played an important role in Germany’s Blitzreig strategy, helping them to quickly overrun Europe in 1940. The Germans revealed the true potential of the machine gun in WW1 and, according to one of the cards in this set, “carried on the deadly tradition in the Second World War” with guns like the MG36 dual purpose machine gun. This card series also reveals that the 88 MM A.A. gun was “... feared and admired by the British in North Africa”. At 25 feet long, this gun “could fire to a maximum effective height of 14,680 meters and to 10,600 metres horizontally”. If that wasn’t far enough then the V2 rocket, a weapon developed towards the end of the war and aptly featured on the last card of this set, might be the answer, with a range of up to 210 miles.
I will be reviewing the other WW2 weapon card sets issued by Battle Picture Weekly soon.
Trading Cards,Battle Picture Weekly,Weapons of World War II, Germany (16 cards), 1970s
Includes:88MM Anti-Aircraft Gun, Junkers JU 87 Stuka Dive Bomber, mp38 Submachine Gun, Panther Tank, Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck Anti-Tank Weapons, Grizzly Bear Self Propelled Gun SP Gun, mg36 Machine Gun Dual Purpose, Nebelwerfer Rocket Launcher, Scharnhorst Battle Cruiser, Panzerkampfwagen Mk iv Blitzkrieg Attack,Type VIIC U-Boat, Hanomag Halftrack 37mm AA Gun Anti-Aircraft Gun, ME 109E 1 Fighter, Junkers JU 88 G 6 Night Fighter Version, Bohler 75mm Recoilless Gun, vergeltungswaffe v2 V1 or Revenge Weapon V 1 and 2 Rockets (Doodlebug)
If you would like to find out more about the classic cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!
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