ww2 cigarette packets help please?

[tinaj]

Hello..........hope one of you knowledgeable people on this site can help me................Would anyone happen to be able to answer this question which refers to cigarettes in the cardboard cartons that would have been used by American Airmen in Italy in 1943/44. These cigarettes I understand from your site would have been without foil inserts but then wrapped in an internal paper, then the label & then the outer cellophane wrapper. Would the cardboard cartons that hold the 20 packets of cigarettes then also be wrapped in cellophane?

[craig_pickrall]

I do not recall ever seeing a carton wrapped in cellophane. There is a thread here that shows military marked cartons. If you do a search for cigarettes you should find several threads including that one.

[Bob Hudson]

I do not recall ever seeing a carton wrapped in cellophane. There is a thread here that shows military marked cartons. If you do a search for cigarettes you should find several threads including that one.

 

Right - each individual pack was sealed in cellophane so there was no need to wrap the whole box.

[General Apathy]

 

Hello..........hope one of you knowledgeable people on this site can help me................Would anyone happen to be able to answer this question which refers to cigarettes in the cardboard cartons that would have been used by American Airmen in Italy in 1943/44. These cigarettes I understand from your site would have been without foil inserts but then wrapped in an internal paper, then the label & then the outer cellophane wrapper. Would the cardboard cartons that hold the 20 packets of cigarettes then also be wrapped in cellophane?

 

Hi Tinaj, I would not like to comment positively one way or the other, with so many manufacturers and it now being 65 years or even 70 for the beginning of the war I would think that there could have been supply issues at various time or for various manufacturers.

 

I can show you these wartime Philip Morris that did in fact have a wax wrapper which you can see top right of the photograph, I gently opened it at one end and slipped it off complete to photograph the cigarettes and the carton.

note at the top of the carton it states ' War Emergency Wrapping' this refers to the replacement of silver paper by ordinary paper. So cigarettes, plain wrapper, printed Philip Morris wrapper, Government tax exempt tag on top of packet, cellophane wrapper, carton, wax sleeve.

 

I also had white Lucky Strike with wax sleeve over the carton, I have had Lucky Strike with silver paper or plain wrap, I have had them with civilian tax stamp and with government exempt stamp.

 

I just checked my 200 carton of early war green Lucky strike, no silver paper only plain, green over wrap, cellophane, civilian tax stamp, no wrapper on the carton.

 

Regards Kenneth Lewis

 

Good luck with Red Tails

[Bob Hudson]

Ahhh, the wax sleeve makes sense since the not only had to worry about "freshness" but moisture during shipment and storage: the wax sleeve would protect the cardboard as much as the cigarettes.

[Fixbayonets!]

I can confirm that Chesterfield used a waxed paper wrapper over their wartime cartons.

[tinaj]

WOW !!!! Thanks guys..................all that was such a great help!

We are trying to get this all as accurate as possible in such a short amount of time - so that information was fantastic!!

Best wishes to you all from Prague!