When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
These playing card sets were used as a fundraising tool by the RAF to provide needed public funding for new fighter planes. The back of the playing card set reads “The entire profit from the sale of these cards helps Wings for Britain to provide fighter planes for the Royal Air Force”. The production cost of WWII British fighter aircraft in 1940 is estimated at £5,000 or about roughly $100,000 in today’s currency.
The Spitfire (fighter plane) is the most famous plane of World War Two. Its groundbreaking design and superior specifications gave the British a decisive advantage fighting the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain. But early models were often cruelly exposed in head-to-head duels with the enemy. It was only after multiple improvements that the Spitfire’s winning combination of speed, manoeuvrability and firepower turned it into a formidable killing machine and a much loved British icon.
In 1940 Hitler sent 2,600 Luftwaffe fighters and bombers to destroy the Royal Air Force. At the start of the battle the RAF only had 640 fighters – Hurricanes and Spitfires – and German commander Herman Goering confidently predicted victory would only take a few days.
Britain stepped up the production of fighter planes, building them faster than Germany. The Hurricanes, with their sturdy frames, took on the bombers. The Mark I Spitfires, with their superior speed and agility, were sent up to shoot down German fighters. By the end of the battle the better organised RAF had defeated the Luftwaffe and downed 1,887 German planes. The RAF lost 1,023 planes.
Titles of Distinction